Scotland Can Make It!

Opening on the 7 September, Scotland Can Make It! is a new exhibition of works from leading Scottish artists and manufacturers, which will be held in The People's Palace, Glasgow.

In 2011, curatorial team Panel began working with Creative Scotland to put out a call to artists and designers, all based in this fine land, to create a new type of Scottish souvenir. These fresh and unique artefacts would then be sold to locals and tourists alike at the coming 2014 Commonwealth Games. They'd be a stylish and chic alternative to the mass produced (and more often than not, cringe-worthy) pieces that we're used to seeing at large scale, corporate events. Crucially, every souvenir produced would also have to be made by a local manufacturing company.

The winning applications were judged by a group of experts, including the 2011 Turner Prize winner Martin Boyce and were submitted by a broad range of creatives from a huge range of disciplines. Pieces include Tunnock's Teacake medals, sports scarves, an iPhone app and (my personal favourite) a piece of jewellery made in the shape of the East End tenement demolished to make way for the Commonwealth Games development. There certainly weren't any see-you-jimmy hats or shortbread tins.

Scotland Can Make It! will not only showcase prototypes of the souvenirs but will additionally tell the story behind each piece, in a film by Reset Films capturing the making process and by also celebrating the long history of Scottish manufacturing and its place in the city and the country as a whole.

Artists involved in the project include fashion designer Beca Lipscombe, textile designer Claire Duffy, weave designer Angharad McLaren and jeweller Marianne Anderson.