RGI President: Sharon Thomas
Trained at Glasgow School of Art and the New York Academy of Art, residencies within institutions such as the British School at Rome provided Thomas opportunities to make strong alliances with galleries and artists across the UK, Europe, and the United States.
A key aspect of Thomas’s practice is promotion of community engagement with artmaking and its presentation. Her campaign leadership to establish a charity funding the installation city monument: Mary Barbour in Govan in 2018, is testament to her commitment to encourage collaboration as well as celebration of the arts for all, regardless of political or social backgrounds.
Secretary: Elizabeth Oritsejolomi Dudley
Based in Glasgow, Elizabeth Dudley has spent much of her career in London focused in marketing, public relations, parliamentary administration, teaching and arts sponsorship.
As freelance contributor to the journal ‘West Africa’ on Education and the Arts from 1983 – 1990 and current Secretary to the British-Nigeria Educational Trust, Dudley is committed to representation and recognition of racial equality within the arts and society.
Treasurer: Paul Holmes
Following a degree in physics, Holmes spent twenty years as a television director before becoming a visual artist. His work is in a variety of audio-visual media, including video, audio, stills photography and light, and is preoccupied with the gestures and actions of the face, voice and body.
Paul Holmes is Associate Professor in the Moving Image at Edinburgh Napier University. He has shown and spoken about his work across Europe, Asia and North America.
City Council Representative: Christy Mearns
Elected as City Councillor for Anderston/City and Yorkhill, in 2017, Mearns’ roles include both representation of her ward members and support of the boards that she sits upon, which include Glasgow City Heritage Trust and Glasgow Building Preservation Trust.
Student Representative: Murray Young
A current Fine Arts student at the Glasgow School of Art within the Drawing and Painting Department, Murray practice surveys his instincts and subconscious, often reclaiming past experiences metaphorically collaging them into images. Using nostalgia an emphasis is set upon exploring the figure, often represented through bold mark-making.
Angie Mwafulirwa
Trained in Humans Rights Law (Strathclyde) and Community Development (University of Glasgow), Angie Mwafulirwa is the founder of Glasgow-based organisation Sharpen Her: the African Women’s Network (SHAWN), a charity established to support women seeking refuge and legal advice in Scotland.
As Council member Mwafulirwa aims to support recognition of arts and culture within an African perspective, inviting collaboration within Glasgow to promote creative collaboration between individuals of all social and racial backgrounds.
Yeonjoo Cho
Yeonjoo Cho is a Korean-born visual artist, researcher, and educator based in Glasgow. Her creative practice has focused on the idea of Oriental painting, traditional tropes of East Asian art, Orientalism, immigration and hybridised forms in art history. Starting with a question on the dichotomic division of Oriental and Western painting, her work contemplates how so-called Oriental images and tropes could embrace cultural others and hybrids. In 2023, she completed her practice-based PhD, ‘Re-presenting Oriental painting as an Intercultural Hybrid’ at the Glasgow School of Art.