Adele Patrick
BA (Hons) MA PhD DLitt FRSE FRSA

Director, Creative Development, Delivery and Engagement, Glasgow Women’s Library.
Independent practice as a Speaker, Coach, Consultant, Trainer and Creative collaborations.


Employment

︎ 2020-current Glasgow Women’s Library, Director, Creative Development, Delivery and Engagement, Glasgow Women’s Library.

︎2019- current independent practice: Coaching, Consultation, Creative Collaborations.

︎ 2006- 2020 Glasgow Women’s Library, Lifelong Learning and Creative Development Manager

︎ 2001- ongoing  Glasgow Women’s Library, Lifelong Learning Co-ordinator

︎ 1987- 1999 Lecturer and tutor, Historical and Critical Studies Department Glasgow School of Art

︎ 1986 Co-founded Graven Images, design company, Glasgow


Professional Achievements and Awards

I have had a leadership role in co-founding (in 1991) and developing Glasgow Women’s Library (GWL) from a grassroots, volunteer-led organisation into a multi-award winning Recognised Collection of National Significance now employing 22 staff and working with over 100 volunteers each year. GWL has become a highly regarded organisation delivering innovative, creative, enterprising and values-led work across the museums, libraries and equalities sectors. It is the sole Accredited Museum dedicated to women’s history in the UK.


︎ 2015 Fellowship of Royal Society of Arts

︎ 2016 Scotswoman of the Year (sponsored by The Evening Times).

︎ 2016 Awarded the Marsh Award for Excellence in Gallery Education.

︎ 2018 Awarded a Clore Leadership Fellowship

︎ 2018 Glasgow Women’s Library was an Art Fund Museum of The Year Finalist.

︎ 2018 Awarded The Herald and People Make Glasgow ‘Inspiring City’ Lifetime Achievement Award

︎ 2018 Awarded Honorary DLitts from Glasgow School of Art/Glasgow University, and University of Strathclyde

︎ 2018 Guest Selector for the Edinburgh International Book Festival

︎ 2022 Fellowship of Royal Society of Edinburgh

︎ 2022 Recipient of Saltire Society of Scotland, Fletcher of Saltoun Award


Selected Academic Research and Teaching

Lecturer, Historical and Critical Studies Department, Glasgow School of Art, specialising in Gender, Art and Culture for 12 years and supervision of final year dissertations until 2002. Now deliver talks for symposia and events at GSA, and have been a PhD supervisor.  Contributor to Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) Cultures and Politics of Display course and speaker at conferences at for example, ECA, University of St Andrews, University of Northumbria, University of Cambridge and elsewhere at Universities across UK. I have worked in a training and consultancy capacity with colleagues at Univerity of Glasgow Hunterian Museum in 2023/2024.


National and International dialogues

I have been a delegate in a wide range of international fora, confrences and symposia including:

Keynote speaker at Plus Tate, Dundee 2022
Trainer contributiong to the Art School Plus programme.
British Council funded conferences in Tirana, Albania, Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro and a Speaker for the international Cultural Leaders programme.
Speaker for the Smithsonian Women’s History Museum internship programme.
Keynote speaker for the CILIPS conference 2023.


Selected Published Work

I am continually writing for academic, sectoral and popular publications across fields including design, co-housing, feminism and museums, and equalities work in the cultural sector.

‘Radical Households: Seeking an alternative to care home culture’, Adele Patrick in RIAS Quarterly, Autumn 2020 Issue 43 ‘Activism in Architecture’ Radical Households


I reflected on aspects of co-founding a groundbreaking project in GWL by the Barbican, London: Making Space: Glasgow Women’s Library, Adele Patrick. British Council Creative Economy, 2020.


I have written widely about Feminism, Museums and Feminist Leadership, for example:

‘Claiming Space and Being Brave: Activism, Agency and Art in the Making of a Women’s Museum’ in J.C. Ashton ed., Feminism and Museums: Intervention, Disruption and Change, first edition, vol. 1. Edinburgh and Boston: MuseumsEtc, 184-215, 2020.

‘March of Women and the Dynamism of Equality at Glasgow Women’s Library’ in Museums and Social Change, Challenging the Unhelpful Museum, 1st Edition, Edited by Chynoweth, A. Lynch, B. Petersen, K. Smed. 2020. 

‘Making it Real: The Agency of Art and Feminism in the Creation of Glasgow Women’s Library.’ In Of Other Spaces, Where does Gesture Become Event? Edited by Sophia Yadong Hao, Sternberg Press, 2019. 


‘All in a Name: Glasgow Women’s Library’, Information Professional, CILIP. 32-34.

Thain-Gray, R. and Patrick, A. eds. (2018) Research from a grassroots museum. Glasgow, Glasgow Women’s Library, 2018.  

‘How Art, Activism and Feminist Agency Shaped a Ground-breaking Museum’. London: Museum ID.

‘Glasgow Women’s Library’, in S. Bultman, ed., The Yearbook of Women’s History. Gender and Archiving: Past, Present, Future, Hilversum and Amsterdam: Verloren. 85-92. 2015. 


I was the editor of 21 Revolutions, a publication (2014) that involved the commissioning of 21 new works by Scottish women writers and 21 new print works from 21 Scottish printmakers. 


Advisory, consultancy and Board roles

︎ V and A Dundee Board member (2022 -)

︎ Board of Museums Galleries Scotland (2016/2017)

︎BBC’s Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Board (2019-2021)

︎Advisory Board, Lux Scotland, (2018-2021)

︎Equal Media and Culture Centre for Scotland (2023- current)



Press and Publicity

BBC Radio 4 Women’s Hour, BBC Front Row, regular features on BBC Radio Scotland and features and profiles in The Herald, Glasgow Times, Museums Association Journal, Library Information Journal, Orlando and LIST magazine, Information Professional (CILIP journal) the journal for the UK Library Sector