Indie McCue – pushing Renfrewshire’s creative boundaries

Indie McCue is a multimedia artist who has big plans for Renfrewshire’s creative community, Indie McCue tells us all about SCOPE, BIDE & more.

Last year saw the inaugural edition of your pop-up gallery, SCOPE. How did this concept come about?

Initially, I rented a space in Bailey’s Antiques and that’s where I met Mark [Swaroop, Paisley-based photographer]. Soon, I realised that the experience of being around other creative people was really invigorating. 

After that, it made me want to create something that wouldn’t just virtue-signal, but really support other artists. 

It took me like a year to find a space before I ended up on Causeyside Street and I spent like a month making it habitable, but I really loved it and everyone who displayed work  got a fee as well. Hopefully, we’ll get a rerun this year.

Recently, you’ve been running a series of free art chat meet ups from your space at Start Up Street. Did these emerge from the foundations laid by Scope?

Absolutely. It changed my life because now, I know so many other creatives in the area and became good pals with them. Afterwards, there’s been so many collaborations that have stemmed from it that I’m not even a part of.

We meet up every month and it’s such a positive thing. A lot of the time, we’re just whinging, but when else do you get to do that? (laughs).

We all come from different backgrounds, so it can be really helpful. For the future, it’d be great to bring people in to lend their experience too. 

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At the moment, you and Mark Swaroop are in the midst of setting up the Bide creative hub. What is the ethos behind this new venture?

The plan is to create a contemporary arts space which is approachable and genuinely supports creatives. We want creatives of all kinds to come in and not only get what they pay for, but also have a sense of co-ownership of the space.

Once we get somewhere, the plan is to have a communal working space, access to a tool library, a digital library and there’s hopefully going to be a café element to it as well.

On top of that, we’d hope to have a place where people can sell their wares. So, if a ceramicist was selling pots, they could be purchased at Bide, no commission taken.

It’ll be a proper community space. Right now, we literally just need funding and premises to get it off the ground. 

Indie McCue Quickfire Q&A

Favourite takeaway? Woody’s 

Favourite Pub? The Ugly Duck 

Favourite Nature Spot? Boden Boo in Erskine

Find out all about Indie’s work via the website.