At the heart of Glasgow’s vibrant creative scene, situated just a short walk apart in the city’s Culture and Heritage District, two of the world’s leading creative institutions – the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) and The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) – have partnered to release a new collaborative film, Glasgow Creates.

Both small, specialist institutions with a global outlook, the GSA and RCS each hold top ten positions in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, forming part of a remarkable creative ecosystem that has established Glasgow as one of Europe’s premier centres for culture and artistic innovation.

The film, made by Louise Mather, a Glasgow-based photographer and filmmaker, invites four recent graduates – Anupa Joshy and Iris May from the GSA, Miguel Girão and Peter McCormick from RCS – to reflect on their own personal journeys and explore the unique environment that makes Glasgow an exceptional place to study, live, work, and build a creative career.

Peter McCormack, (RCS Acting, 2023), a writer, actor and theatre maker, highlights the invaluable institutional backing RCS provides when young artists attempt to launch independent work and take creative and financial risks at important events like the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Anupa Joshy (MDes Communication Design, 2024) is a freelance designer, 2026 Young Designer of the Year Award finalist, and founder of Colour Theory – a platform that celebrates and spotlights BPOC creatives across Scotland. Anupa praises the strength of the GSA’s study-based, practice-led learning environment that empowers emerging talent, recalling the encouragement for students to ‘forge our own paths’.

RCS graduate and guitarist Miguel Girão (RCS Traditional Music, 2024) found the diversity of the city’s music scene provided incredible opportunities for collaboration and artistic development.

GSA graduate Iris May (Painting and Printmaking, 2025) is co-founder of Stuck?Collective, an artist-run organisation which creates alternative exhibition opportunities outside traditional gallery spaces.

Iris highlighted the city’s culture of mutual support, saying her experience was of a generous community always eager to help, which she sees as essential for graduates to remain in the city.

The graduate voices featured in Glasgow Creates are a testament to the unique context in Glasgow, where grassroots energy connects with broader economic and educational infrastructure to form Glasgow’s ‘creative supercluster’ – where education, artistic infrastructure and grassroots communities reinforce one another.

On the level of the individual artist, and keenly demonstrated by the voices in the film, these circumstances thrive on a distinct culture of mutual support and generosity.

The accessible living costs that Glasgow can supply, alongside a dense proximity of working artists, musicians, designers and performers who can operate in a network of independent spaces, actively fosters continuous cross-disciplinary collaboration, where artists readily support and encourage one another, continually welcoming new talent and creative energy into the city’s creative population.