excellent visual arts not for profit company which offers courses in stained & fused glass,…read moresculpture, mosaic and drawing & painting, extremely affordable and user friendly

Although it is a private member's club, the Art Club is worth seeking out. Not so much for the art…read moreitself- these tend to be quite old fashioned paintings- but the surrounding which have the grandeur of a nineteenth century gentleman's club: wood panels, a fireplace, a quality restaurant and a cheap (but very small!) bar. Look out for the cabaret nights that happen here about once a month: they showcase the best of local talent and offer civilised surroundings and a sophisticated atmosphere. The Art Club is unique and more than worth a visit. It is surprising to find such an oasis in busy Bath Street.

I've been a member of the Art Club for a couple of years now and it is one of my favourite places…read morein Glasgow. The building itself is magnificent, although the front and main gallery are currently undergoing a lot of maintenance, the gallery is due to reopen in Nov 2014. There are several rooms available. Downstairs there is the reception office, a lovely meeting room with a huge old wooden desk. There is also the dining room, which has been doubling as the main performance area while the main gallery is being renovated. The gallery itself is on the ground floor, it is a lovely bright and airy space with an enormous high ceiling and panelled walls. I spent many an afternoon on one of the sofas in front of the fireplace catching up on emails and having a cheeky Gin and Tonic. The gallery also features some of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's earliest work in the feature fireplaces, brass finger plates and decorative panels. The ground floor also contains the main bar. The selection is a little basic, with no draft only bottles of beer and cider, but they have all the staples as well as a decent selection of wine, brandy, and whisky. On the first floor there is the library, again a lovely big meeting room with walls lined with books and a huge wooden table which can comfortably sit a dozen. We have hired the library on a few occasions to have a private dining area with friends. Also on the first floor is the billiard room, this is another bar area and has been serving as the main exhibition space until the gallery returns. It also has a large television where the club screens films such as Casablanca (or the Muppets if it is Christmas!) on their film and super nights. The top floor is artist studios which host a range of classes and are available to members and non-members. As well as holding several art exhibitions each year the club has a lively social calendar some of the highlights of the last year for me have been; the Champagne & Croquet evening, the referendum film and super night (where they showed Braveheart!), the Glengoyne whisky tasting, the Gin tasting (which of course would be my favourite as I was the one who actually took it!) and the Christmas viewing of a Muppets Christmas Carol complete with lyric sheets should you wish to sing along! There is also a regular Jazz club which has had some phenomenal performances over the last few years. Events are normally open to all members and their guests. Some events are free, where-as others will normally have a charge of between £15-£25. The paid events tend to be those which include food. Some events such as the Jazz night are open to non-members as well. The staff at the club could not be any more friendly. They have made me feel incredibly welcome right from the start and I quite often spending quiet afternoons just sitting at the bar and chatting. They really are superb, some of the best staff you could possibly ask for. Membership fees differ depending upon the type of member you are and range from £195 for a young artist (under 35) up to £525 for a town artist. You do not need to be an artist to join, you can join as a Lay member and membership fees are roughly the same. Membership does require that you are proposed and seconded by existing members, but even if you do not know someone currently at the club, just ring up and they will be happy to arrange for you to come along and meet some members who may then support your application. The club serves as a quiet and tranquil place, a great escape from the normal Saturday night hustle of bath street.

Located within Old coach road, the arts centre is vital in a community such as East Kilbride. An…read moreold building with a new annexe added on. They do lots of courses suitable for all ages from Guitar to photography. Sign up to their newsletter to be kept aware of what is going on there.

This is located in the village part of East Kilbride and hosts various classes such as guitar. They…read morealso hold shows and concerts. The young farmers have a concert in here which is usually very popular. It is an okay size and an asset to the town.

I've lived in Glasgow for 14 years now and I'm ashamed to admit I've never paid much attention to…read morethe Mackintosh connections that exist in Glasgow. I didn't even know where the GSA was situated until recently. Yesterday I decided to remedy this with a little day of Mackintosh culture. I opted for the Mackintosh at the GSA walking tour, costing £10 and lasting for an hour. The tour starts at the gift shop in the Reid building with a little bit of background regarding he GSA and its how it became located where it is. We learned about Mackintosh's involvement and the different inspiration that lead to the design of the building. We then went outside to view some of the finer details of his artwork. Obviously the building is undergoing renovation due to the fire, so there were fences and scaffolding up but that didn't take away from the beauty of the building at all. The guide took us to the east facade, and with references from Mackintosh's work could point out the different architectural inspiration that was used in this building. We also stood at the north facade and observed the fantastic ironwork that adored the windows and doors. After this, we went inside the Reid building properly and made our way to the first floor, to the Mackintosh furniture exhibit. This was furniture that has been donated from private collectors or found in old buildings or collected from Mackintosh's own home. It was an informative and interesting 60 minutes and I'd be tempted to do one of the other tours on offer to learn more.

Rennie Mackintosh's art has undergone a resurgence in popularity the last decade or two, and this…read morebuilding -- designed in multiple stages by him for the GSA -- is a practical extension of his art and design work. The building tour gives a top-to-bottom (with a lot of stairs) review of the building and its history. Our guide was a recent student who had her own engaging perspective on things and clear love for the place. It was a lot of fun, and an enjoyable hour; knowing the fee goes straight to the maintenance of the art school is helpful, as is the quite good gift shop the tour starts and ends at. The one down side I'll note is that photography inside the building is forbidden. Which is a darned shame, and a bit difficult to understand. I can't speak for the dance/party/clubbing aspect of the site (not what I was there for or when I was there), but it's definitely worth a visit when in Glasgow if you've any interest in Mackintosh. Not spectacular, but solid.

Ooo-eeee! This is a cute little place! I knew it had opened as I've been following it on social…read moremedia, but I'm never normally in this part of town. However, on a foray up to the top of the town today I was delighted to stumble upon this place, and went in to have a look around. I really want to go back! It's such a simple and charming concept. You choose a piece of blank pottery, they show you how to go about painting it, then you paint it. They have a great many pieces of pottery to choose from, ranging from mugs, plates and bowls, to piggy banks, picture frames, and other fun items like robots and even skulls! You pay for the piece of pottery (and prices are very reasonable), and their paint fee is only £3. You can go on your own, or you can go as part of a group, and they have different sized rooms to accomodate different sizes of groups. They have a BYOB policy, with no corkage fee, and I can imagine having lovely social nights here. I've never painted pottery but I would dearly love to give this a go. I can imagine it would appeal to all ages - older people might love the opportunity to do something creative like this that doesn't require much physical exertion, and it's bound to appeal to kids, particularly with some of the more fun pieces of pottery, so I can see it being a lovely activity for a whole family to participate in. I also think it would be great for groups of craft minded pals, or even groups of workmates looking for something a bit different to do. I can see this really taking off at Christmas - they already have penguins, and I'm sure I spotted a snowman, and the person there told me they are likely to start doing workshops too. It would be lovely to make items as gifts, or for yourself to keep. I have my eye on a shark dish-sponge holder. I already have a frog, and there's just something funny about it. I'd love a shark so it has a wee pal.

This was the Friday night of my dreams. Chilled out, creative and there were chocolates! I had set…read moremy heart on painting a toadstool, yeah I'd been on the yelp page checking out what I wanted to paint. I am horribly indecisive and need time to make decisions. Unfortunately, there were no toadstools for me to paint - I may have let my disappointment show with fake sobbing and petted lips. In the absence of toadstools I wasn't short of alternatives, so picked a mug and a bowl. There were loads of amazing stencils to help you create a beautiful piece of art and the staff were full of hints and tips on how to achieve the best finish. I was surprised by how long it took to do the fiddly bits and layer the paint. I didn't want to rush and spoil my lovely crockery. One of the best bits of this event was seeing what the other people were painting. How creative are yelpers!!! I loved getting to see other people's ideas and now have grand plans of returning and stealing all their creativity! We were told that the pieces would be ready for collection within the week and I got a friendly phone call on the Wednesday to say my bits were ready for collection - unfortunately I've not made it in yet but I will do soon, I'm desperate to see how they've turned out. I'm also planning on taking smudge for a wee painting session. I think this is something she would really enjoy and if all goes well it means I'll get to paint a toadstool!

Not being particularly arty Cass Art probably isn't a shop I would have gone into. But I'd booked…read morea place on the Tatty Devine Bunting necklace workshop and so off to Cass Art I trotted. Being a little excited I arrived mega early so had plenty of time to wander round the shop and kick myself for not having been in before. This place is amazing, and whilst I have no need for a sketch book, water colours or charcoals. They do amazing notebooks, a great selection of pens, all the glitter, a huge selection of colouring books and lovely craft kits that are now on my radar for smudge's Christmas. It's spacious, light and airy. Things are tidy and organised methodically so even without the friendly staff it isn't hard to find what you are looking for or what you didn't know you were looking for but now need. The workshop was held in a great space at the back of the store, decorated in a really fabulous graffiti style and making me feel uber cool and artistic - which is quite an accomplishment really! I adored making my own piece of Tatty Devine and getting to chat to the amazing Harriet Vine and Rosie Wolfenden and their equally awesome staff. It was also lovely getting all fangirl with the other workshop participants, it also made me feel like my addiction is much less of a problem than my husband claims and that it could be so so much worse - challenge accepted. I won't wait for the next Tatty Devine visit to head back to Cass Art, like I said I can see some serious Christmas shopping happening in here and obviously I'll have to sneak in a few utterly selfish purchases into the basket.

I'm not artist but that doesn't mean I can't pretend, and after visiting this shop I kind of want…read moreto be one. It's slick, it's new and there's lots of shiny things to stare at in disbelief. Like a Posca fridge. YES, it's a fridge and it has Posca pens in it. Oh my days. So, what kinds of things do they stock? Spray paint (behind the counter so they can check you're legit), artist paints and paper, calligraphy pens and ink, gifts, kids ranges, craft supplies, drawing stuff, Posca pens in a fridge (did I mention that already?!) and they're also going to start doing events and workshops soon. This is definitely a shop worth visiting, even if you don't consider yourself the arty type. There's super friendly staff scattered all through the shop to make sure you can find what you're looking for, and even if there is a queue at the checkout it's because the staff are interested in what you're buying and why. I left with new gold calligraphy ink and my name on the mailing list for upcoming events, and was just £3.50 lighter.