The Fire Department was a proposed new library for Glasgow, a space for those involved in the visual arts as artists, audiences, commentators and managers to see and engage with new publications in this field. The project was a collaboration with Orla Ryan and Rose Thomas.
The Fire Department aimed to be a holding centre for printed material that will with time flow into the public library system. It was to be a filter not a storehouse. It aimed to establish a staging post in the flux of the contemporary moment and not to be an institution that needed to endlessly grow. The Fire Department created a new collection of books and periodicals into the public library system, where an identifiable collection will be established and available for reference. The centre planned to be a space of discussion, debate and research, a place to open oneself to new ideas and influences.
After the exhibition If I Ruled the World curated by Ross Sinclair and Bryndís Snæbjörnsdóttir at the CCA Glagow in 2000 the Fire Department morphed into the Pearl Union Library Project under the leadership of Rose Thomas and was funded by the Scottish Arts Council to work in collaboration with The Mitchell Library, Glasgow. See link