• last year
Banksy Cut & Run Exhibition Final Day at GOMA Glasgow

Gareth James, GoMA Manager, speaks on the final day of the exhibition.

An exhibition by graffiti artist Banksy at Glasgow's Gallery of Modern Art attracted 180,000 visitors during its 10-week run.

Gallery bosses said the artist's first official solo exhibition for 14 years broke box office records.

The exhibition, which closes on Monday, was also open during the night at weekends.

A message on the website for the "Cut and Run" exhibition says, "thanks Glasgow, it's been a blast".

The show was a behind-the-scenes look at the process of Banksy making his work, with original sketches on display as well as the stencils, which have been painted on to give them a new lease of life.

Banksy has not given a face-to-face interview since 2003 and has never revealed his true identity, but he is believed to be around 50 and from the Bristol area.
Transcript
00:00 [Music]
00:14 My name is Gareth James. I'm the Museum Manager for the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow.
00:20 It's Monday the 28th of August, 2023, and it's the last and closing day, the final day, of Banksy's Cut and Run show.
00:29 at the Gallery of Modern Art.
00:31 Well, I suppose, kind of mixed emotions, in some ways, kind of absolutely thrilled that we've managed to stage the show.
00:38 We've done it. It's been a complete blast.
00:41 But, of course, it kind of tinges with a bit of sadness as well.
00:44 As they say, all great things must come to an end, and today is the end of the show here in Glasgow.
00:51 Our highlights have got to be the fact that we've had people queuing, in some cases, well, this morning,
00:58 somebody joined the queue for standby tickets at 2am, so we've had a bit of ticket madness, a bit of craziness.
01:07 But I think the standout moment, in a way, is the whole thing that we've managed to get near enough for 180,000 visitors
01:16 to come to Goma to pay to see a contemporary art show.
01:21 It's absolutely obliterated. It's a record for us, and it's just thrilling that it's happened.
01:28 So it's all been one big highlight.
01:30 Everybody has worked incredibly hard. I think it's a real tribute to the various teams that have worked on this show,
01:38 from security, front of house, box office, merchandise, cleaners, technical.
01:43 You know, it's been a huge team that have operated in the background,
01:48 and as you can imagine, doing those overnight openings, the sorts of shifts that we've done.
01:53 So I think everybody's tired, but happy.
01:56 I'm still left not knowing. I haven't met them, haven't talked to them, and in a way, I really like that.
02:02 That mystery just remains.
02:05 So, kind of chuffed. I think I'm tired, but happy.
02:10 I am looking forward, in some ways, to things going back to a wee bit more normal.
02:16 I think I'll get to see a bit more of my family in the coming weeks, in a way that I maybe haven't over the past couple.
02:21 But it's all been so worth it. What a coup for Glasgow, for Scotland. It's just been amazing.
02:28 And do you think Glasgow Angolmo was a good fit for it?
02:31 I think it was a perfect fit. I'm hoping behind me, you can see the cone on the Duke's head.
02:37 So there's a couple of things there that, you know, that serious statue is kind of underpinned,
02:44 and I think Mickey's taken out of that with the cone. I think Banksy's work is humorous as well.
02:49 But the other key thing is, that cone appears anonymously overnight, and has done so for about the past 40 years,
02:56 in the same way that Banksy's work appears anonymously.
02:59 And I suppose that's why, that's one of the reasons why Banksy says that kind of artwork intervention on the statue is his favourite artwork in the UK.
03:10 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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