The Common Guild

The Common Guild is a visual arts organisation based in Glasgow, with a varied public programme of exhibitions, projects and events that take place in different locations. We are committed to presenting artists’ work in interesting and engaging ways and aim to create world-class contemporary art experiences and discussions.

We work closely with artists to realise ambitious new works in different formats and for diverse places, supported by talks and commissioned writing.

Our programme has included the commissioning of major projects by leading artists, often taking place in distinctive, specially selected locations. These have included Sharon Hayes’ ‘Ricerche’ project, with 3 works shown together for the first time, in a Victorian school building (2021); ‘In the open’ as series of 12 audio works produced during 2020-21; Janice Kerbel’s ‘SINK’ – a synchronised swimming routine for 24 women, at the Western Baths Club, Glasgow in 2018; a play by Simon Starling in collaboration with theatre director Graham Eatough, ‘At Twilight’, performed in the grounds of Holmwood House, Glasgow (2016) and Phil Collins’s feature-length film work ‘Tomorrow is Always Too Long’ presented in a one-off, outdoor art event in Queen’s Park in July 2014. In 2013 The Common Guild curated Scotland + Venice, the exhibition for the 55th International Art Exhibition, the Venice Biennale, with artists Corin Sworn, Duncan Campbell and Hayley Tompkins.

Alongside our programme of projects and events, between 2008 and 2018 our exhibition programme at 21 Woodlands Terrace, a grand Victorian townhouse overlooking Kelvingrove Park, included solo shows by some of the leading artists of our time, including Roni Horn, Tacita Dean, Wolfgang Tillmans, Carol Bove, Roman Ondák and Akram Zaatari.