Words: Sophie Rowe (she/her)
AW4PS posed this question to us: ‘If contemporary art can’t deal with the most pressing issue of our time, what does it mean?’ Now, we’re posing it to you. Has contemporary art abandoned anti-colonialism?
Art Workers for Palestine Scotland (AW4PS) is an organisation focused on breaking down barriers between the cultural and the political. This was made clear from the minute we sat down to interview them. At their core, AW4PS has four main aims: break the silence on Palestine in the arts sector, create a unified cultural front against genocide, re-politicise art spaces to represent their workers and audiences, and instil values of community activism in Scotland. For them, politics begins with the individual, and succeeds when art workers collectivise. The campaign stands firm on the belief that the arts sector cannot ignore calls for a cultural boycott when they’re coming from every angle. AW4PS wants to alter the cultural fabric of Scotland for the better: it’s time we started listening to them.
Since their inception in 2021, AW4PS have fought tirelessly to break the overwhelming silence around Palestine in the arts. They’ve challenged some of Scotland’s biggest cultural institutions over financial associations with Israeli military companies facilitating the genocide in Gaza, representing the beliefs of the art workers at every turn. One of their main campaigns focused on Glasgow’s Contemporary Arts Centre (CCA). AW4PS joined with the CCA’s workers to urge the board to endorse the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). Instead of implementing PACBI, the CCA not only ignored their demands but actively suppressed them by calling the police on its own community, for which they have since publicly apologised. Speaking with AW4PS highlighted the irony of this decision: the CCA is repressing the very culture it claims to represent. Their actions in June 2025 stood in stark contrast to the CCA of the 70s and 80s, which was a ‘hotbed of radicalism’ proudly staging itself as against apartheid in South Africa. AW4PS posed this question to us: ‘If contemporary art can’t deal with the most pressing issue of our time, what does it mean?’ Now, we’re posing it to you. Has contemporary art abandoned anti-colonialism?
The ‘unrelenting pressure’ approach that AW4PS adopts is proving fruitful. Approximately 230 Scottish institutions have signed PACBI, the CCA’s Third Eye Bar had subscribed to BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) before its closure, and numerous institutions, including Collective Gallery in Edinburgh, have dropped Baillie Gifford as a sponsor.
AW4PS is rooted in socialist ideology – they hold firm in their conviction that ‘building demands through the workers and the artists’ to create both internal and external pressure, is highly effective. The group made it clear to GUM that there is still work to do: to force the hand of larger organisations, they must first build a unified cultural front.
The CCA’s final months were defined by turmoil: without the support of its community, the institution was forced to close its doors for good. It has been plagued with numerous resignations and redundancies, including the forced removal of Interim Director Steve Slater in December 2025, and the short-lived tenure of Muse Greenwood as Chair of the Board, who quit after just 35 days after facing pressure for a continued refusal to formally endorse the cultural boycott of Israel. This instability circles back to a failure to adopt PACBI, unsuccessful attempts of appeasement and the consequent loss of the CCA’s moral license to operate as a cultural hub.
AW4PS has faced significant backlash in the last year – the Scottish government labelled the group ‘intimidating’ following their peaceful protests in the summer, a label the group argues is an attempt to discredit the overwhelming support they garner from workers in the sector. In response to this, the group emphasised that those “threatened” by AW4PS are a select few at the top of cultural institutions, who want to cement ‘bourgeois power in the arts forever’. Contrary to their opponents’ claims, AW4PS states that it is not seeking to defund the arts, instead targeting sponsors the industry doesn’t even rely on.
They have consistently refuted claims of violence, pointing instead to the physical harm sustained by their own members during protests. In an Instagram post from 12 August 2025, the CCA expressed ‘sincere regret’ for the outcome of their decisions on 24 June, particularly ‘that an individual was injured’ and admitted that their actions had ‘real human consequences’. The Skinny Magazine has since reported that a 63-year-old woman was hospitalised with a fractured fibula as a result of ‘police manhandling’. Footage of this arrest can be found on AW4PS’s Instagram.
For AW4PS, ‘another art world is possible’, in which we don’t just have what they refer to as ‘empty solidarity’. The organisation campaigns for a liberated arts sector which is centred around, and governed by, its contributors. This vision has stirred the interest of many in the arts community: the Liberated Zone held at the CCA – a protest to show their vision of what anti-colonial institutions could look like – attracted significant media attention in June last year. In showcasing Palestinian culture through a programme of events and workshops, AW4PS demonstrated how arts spaces can be reclaimed. Campaigners told GUM that they were met with an aggressive response from the CCA’s board, but that the programme ‘showed a glimpse of what an arts organisation like CCA could do’. For AW4PS, a transformed art world would involve ‘explicitly […] politicised events’, forefronting ‘political education around anti-colonial themes’ and ‘the intersection of art and anti-colonialism’, while encouraging ‘community activism and organising’. Representatives told us that after the CCA locked its doors on the group, Glasgow’s Listen Gallery welcomed them, and facilitated their vision for a truly liberated art world. An art world that can, and should, exist.
AW4PS want art to stand ‘for liberation above everything else’. Their members believe that this requires reweaving politics into the culture sector – an area it should never have been separated from in the first place. They are an organisation with a vision of a better world, where art can be truly radical. Before finishing the interview, we asked about their next campaign, which focused on the new CCA board endorsing PACBI. The CCA has shut down, but the movement has not. Through these dark times, AW4PS continues to demand an arts sector governed by its contributors, centred on liberation. The closure of one of Glasgow’s most iconic cultural hubs serves as a stark warning to the rest of the sector: you cannot claim to host culture whilst censoring the voices of those who create it.
Following the announcement of the CCA’s closure, AW4PS shared a statement on Instagram stating that the beloved centre owes its downfall to ‘years of mismanagement and ethical rot’. The group has expressed ‘deep concern’ for those who have lost their jobs, and is currently working to apply pressure on Creative Scotland to reverse redundancies, arguing that because the group is funded by taxpayers, its future should be determined by the public it serves.
As the dust settles on the closure of a cultural landmark, the conversation regarding the ethical responsibilities of Scottish art institutions is evolving, driven by a collective demand for greater accountability. AW4PS has stated that it will continue to stand with Palestine and the wider arts community to fight for a total boycott of Israeli cultural institutions and to build spaces that reflect the political and ethical values of their workers and audiences. Ultimately, this pivotal moment demonstrates that the future of Scottish culture will be shaped from the ground up.
