Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Art

Scotland’s biennial festival of contemporary art

Thursday 4th – Sunday 21st June (check opening times)

Free and open to all, Glasgow International presents an array of artists’ projects across Glasgow, by international artists and those based locally. The festival amplifies the city’s identity as a vibrant centre for artistic production, presentation and cultural organising; and as a place with deep connections to international cultural and social concerns.

Glasgow International is a collective endeavour. The festival programme includes projects conceived and organised by Glasgow-based arts organisations, artist-led initiatives, artists, and curators, alongside the Glasgow International team. These projects span exhibitions, performances, research initiatives, community organising, and forms of publishing. The festival also includes a series of Gatherings, a programme of workshops, talks and discussions that will provide opportunities to engage more deeply with points of exchange and recurring themes across the festival.

A digital version of the programme is available here.

Maryhill Integration Network, Helen McCrorie, Annabel Wright
This Home, This Voice

Left pic: Annabel Wright, untitled, 2026 Right pic: Helen McCrorie,untitled ,2026 16mm film still

For This Home, This Voice, Maryhill Integration Network (MIN) and artists Helen McCrorie and Annabel Wright have collaborated on a behind-the-scenes portrait of MIN’s vital work, developing artistic responses to the experience of community-building in Glasgow.

MIN works alongside refugees, migrants, and people seeking asylum, with a focus on campaigning, wellbeing, and creativity. Helen McCrorie and Annabel Wright share a passion for documenting community groups and social activities and celebrating grassroots activism. The project has evolved through mutual learning and exchange.

In the year of MIN’s 25th anniversary, the resulting exhibition celebrates and reflects on daily acts of care and solidarity, through an evocative collage of drawings, sound recordings, 16mm film, and animation.

For opening times, other than the regular Mackintosh Queen’s Cross opening times, check the link below:

https://glasgowinternational.org/programme/projects/this-home-this-voice

COMMON STRINGS/WSPÓLNE STRUNY Maciej Granat/Aleksandra Hałat/PolSco Choir

20 Saturday June 7:00pm

Join us for an extraordinary evening where Polish and Scottish cultures meet through the universal language of music. Pianists Maciej Granat and Aleksandra Hałat join forces with the PolSco Choir (directed by Maciej Granat) for a journey across genres and borders.

From the delightful elegance of classical rarities and the unfiltered emotions of traditional folk, to iconic film scores and contemporary pop, experience a specially chosen program in the stunning acoustics of Mackintosh Queen’s Cross.  

Dvořák, MacMillan, Nyman, Eurythmics, Sośnicka and more!

 Date: 20th June 2026 7pm | Doors open: 6:30pm 

Tickets available here: https://www.universe.com/events/common-strings-wspolne-struny-maciej-granat-aleksandra-halat-polsco-choir-tickets-7BD0PN?ref=share-widget-buffer

Cove Park – Bagri Music Awards – Solo Performance: Ayman Hlal

Saturday 1st August 2026

Tickets available here

Leading violinist, composer, and educator, Ayman Hlal was born in As-Suwayda, a city in Syria that is particularly famous for producing artists. Now based in Berlin, Ayman specialises in both Middle Eastern and Western classical music. Since leaving Syria as a result of war, he has participated in several national and international events and projects, and performed with multiple orchestras and bands, including the Syrian Expat Philharmonic Orchestra (SEPO), and Nai’ Oriental Orchestra in Austria. In 2024, Ayman took part in the Making Tracks Residency at Cove Park.

Recipient of the 2026 Bagri Music Award presented by Cove Park and the Bagri Foundation, this live performance at The Mackintosh Church on Saturday 1 August takes place during Ayman’s two-week residency at Cove Park.

In 2025, international residency Cove Park announced a new two-year partnership with the Bagri Foundation, to launch Sound Series, a new programme of residencies bringing acclaimed international musicians to the UK. The Bagri Foundation works within a network of leading cultural organisations that champion artistic excellence and provide extraordinary artists from across Asia, wider visibility on the global stage. Working collaboratively with Cove Park to nominate and select the artists, the Bagri Music Award is aimed at artistic development and is a unique opportunity for acclaimed emerging or mid-career musicians from West Asia to spend quality time in Scotland.

This performance marks the culmination of Ayman’s Cove Park residency, developed in close collaboration with SEPO, the first Symphony Orchestra for professional and academic Syrian musicians who live in the European Union. SEPO was founded in September 2015 in Germany by the Syrian musician Raed Jazbeh.

Tickets available here

In 2025 Cove Park announced a two-year partnership with the Bagri Foundation to launch Sound Series, a new programme of residencies bringing international musicians to the UK.  Working collaboratively with Cove Park to nominate and select the artists, the Bagri Music Award is aimed at artistic development and is a unique opportunity for acclaimed emerging or mid-career musicians from West Asia to spend quality time in Scotland.

The Bagri Foundation works within a network of leading cultural organisations that champion artistic excellence and provide extraordinary artists from across Asia, wider visibility on the global stage.

The Bagri Music Awards makes possible two Sound Series residencies at Cove Park, the first in 2025 and the second in 2026, alongside live performances.

Tenille Townes

Friday 2nd October

Tickets available here

Mackintosh Queen’s Cross welcomes Tenille Townes back to Glasgow after her previous sold out show here in 2023.

For Tenille Townes, writing songs has always been a way of reaching out to anyone trying to make sense of a confusing world. In the last five years alone, the Canada-born, Nashville-based artist’s full-hearted and soul-searching songwriting has led to touring with legends like Stevie Nicks, Miranda Lambert, Shania Twain, Keith Urban, Reba, Zac Brown Band, George Strait, and Dierks Bentley, while earning two JUNO Awards, two Academy of Country Music Awards, and 17 Canadian Country Music Association Awards. Along the way, Townes has built a globe-spanning fanbase drawn to her ability to tell deeply human stories with empathy, clarity, and hope.

“What I love about making music is the potential for my songs to meet people right where they are, but then leave them feeling a little more seen and lifted up than they were before,” says Townes. “Even if it’s just the comfort of knowing someone else feels the same way.” That mission continues into a bold new chapter with The Acrobat, Townes’ new album released on 10th April 2026.

Tickets available here

Brian Bilston – How to Lay an Egg with a Horse Inside

Thursday 22nd October – Doors 7:30pm

Buy tickets here

Brian Bilston returns to Mackintosh Queen’s Cross to promote his new book How to Lay an Egg with a Horse Inside

The blurb goes: This is a book to help people overcome their suspicion (or loathing) of poetry, and maybe even encourage a few to write it. Well, maybe that’s a bit ambitious. You might just want to read the poems instead, of which there are 140, on subjects as diverse as pedantry, climate change, boogie management, beekeeping, procrastination, Mondays, Elon Musk and death.

Buy tickets here

Irvine Welsh – Waterstones Event

Wednesday 4th November 2026 7:00pm

Irvine Welsh, bestselling author of Trainspotting, returns to Glasgow to celebrate his legendary career and his newest novel Can Nothing Save Us?

Take a riotous tour of the bright lights and back rooms of Las Vegas in the company of one very dysfunctional family. Luke, the dropout son of wealthy Sin City grandparents, lives a hedonistic life of drugs and dance music, until he’s pulled into the orbit of a violent cult leader and triggers a horrifying sequence of events. Throw in suspicious neighbours, frustrated housewives, and the pressure cooker of Nevada heat, and it’s a thrill ride like no other.

Irvine will be joining us to discuss his fascination with troubled characters, the appeal of sub-cultures, the differences between writing Americans and Scots, and much more, as well as answering your questions and signing books.

Book tickets here

Past Events ……..

Glasgow Phoenix Choir

Mackintosh: A Birthday Celebration

7 Sunday June 14:30pm

The Glasgow Phoenix Choir is delighted to be performing a concert in Mackintosh Queen’s Cross, to celebrate the birthday of Charles Rennie Mackintosh (7 Jun 1868) and we welcome a return to this beautiful venue after many years. The Glasgow Phoenix Choir is now performing its 75th season of choral excellence.  Our conductor, Cameron Murdoch joined us in 1987 as Accompanist and Depute Conductor, taking over as conductor in 2019.  Cameron is also Organist and Choir Master of St. John’s Renfield Church in Glasgow’s West End and is accompanist to the excellent Glasgow CREATE Choirs.  Many of the pieces in the current Phoenix repertoire were arranged by Cameron.

The Glasgow Phoenix Choir performs many concerts every year, the majority of which raise money for charity and each involves a range of music from choral standards to new music and, in addition, features many delightful solo performances from choir members.

Matthew McIlree, our regular accompanist, will perform with us at this concert.  He has been a multiple prize winner at both the Glasgow and Inverclyde music festivals, including twice winning the Glasgow Society of Organists’ Trophy at the Glasgow open organ class; and three times winning the top piano award, as well the 2016 overall prize, in Inverclyde. He is now undertaking PhD studies and in his ‘spare time’ works as a freelance wedding musician and accompanist. Matthew can also be heard playing the organ as part of the daily recital programme at Kelvingrove Art Gallery.

£10.00 available from MRC Shop or from WeGotTickets via the choir’s website at www.phoenixchoir.org

Glasgow Jazz Festival 2026

11 June Thursday

19:30

Mackintosh Queen’s Cross

Doors: 19:00

Seonaid Aitken & Ben Shankland ‘Rhapsody in Blue – An Evening of Gershwin’

BBC Radio Scotland Young Jazz Musician winner Jazz/Classical crossover pianist Ben Shankland joins forces with Scottish Jazz Award-winning violinist/vocalist/arranger/broadcaster Seonaid Aitken to present a celebration of George and Ira Gershwin’s music.

Featuring the 100+ year-old symphonic masterpiece ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ – performed alongside their 9-piece string orchestra – these cross-genre musicians explore the meeting of Jazz and Classical styles in Gershwin’s music with selections from the iconic opera ‘Porgy & Bess’ and favourites such as ‘The Man I Love’, ‘Embraceable You’, ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’ and ‘Lady Be Good’.

As well as showcasing Aitken’s cinematic string arrangements, the concert will also include a performance by Jazz piano trio with bassist David Bowden (Fergus McCreadie Trio) highlighting Shankland’s piano mastery in both a Jazz and Classical setting.

https://www.seetickets.com/event/seonaid-aitken-ben-shankland/mackintosh-church/3630462

12 June Friday

Fergus McCreadie ‘Flight Pass’

two sets

Flight Pass, a bold new piano-trio commission from Fergus McCreadie, commissioned by Chamber Music Scotland and Kings Place, London. Known for his electrifying mix of jazz and Scottish folk, McCreadie now brings that sound into a fresh chamber setting for a performance bursting with colour and storytelling

Mercury-shortlisted and widely acclaimed artist, Fergus McCreadie introduces a new work for classical piano trio, Flight Pass, co-commissioned by Chamber Music Scotland where he is Artist in Residence, and Kings Place. Inspired by the landscapes and narratives at the heart of his musical world, it marks an exciting evolution in his writing, extending his musical language into a new chamber setting while retaining the melodic clarity, rhythmic lift and storytelling that define his music.

Fergus writes:

The title of this work comes from one of my favourite photographs, which features a black winged kite and two of his offspring fighting over some recently caught prey in the middle of the sky. I’ve always loved to watch birds in the sky, and I loved the contrast of conflict and kinship in this photograph. That pull gave me the right feeling for giving a title to this work, which pulls and pushes in different directions over its 4 movements. Each movement flows at a different pace, and I leave it to the listener to imagine how the birds and sky might match the music as it grows over the duration.

–About Chamber Music Scotland

Chamber Music Scotland: Celebrating chamber music’s tradition and exploring its future. CMS works with chamber music performers and creators; promoters and audiences; and communities to share and experience music that represents Scotland, its people, places, and culture. Our organisation has a truly national reach and offers space for artist expression and development alongside substantial opportunities for members of the public to engage with our work.

Our work encompasses artist residency programmes, community partnerships, creation of new works, EDI sector development, concert series and touring funding, developmental support, as well as UK and international collaborations. We aim to cultivate an identity for chamber music in Scotland which draws on our places, peoples, and culture and is unique on the world stage.  https://www.seetickets.com/event/fergus-mccreadie/mackintosh-church/3630464

Celtic Connections 2026

Glasgow’s Celtic Connections festival has revealed its line-up for 2026.  

The 33rd edition of the festival will run from 15 January until 1 February and kicks off with a special World Connections show at the Royal Concert Hall.   Organisers say the opening night will see “unique creative collaborations” with homegrown and international acts, and tie-in to Glasgow hosting the Commonwealth Games later in 2026.   We are delighted to host 15 concerts at Mackintosh Queen’s Cross.

Tickets for Celtic Connections 2026 are available now at www.celticconnections.com.

If you would like to volunteer at any of the Celtic Connections concerts, please get in touch with sven@crmsociety.com