GSA Graduation
21 November 2023

Graduates

Muriel Gray

Chair of the Board of Governors

Muriel Gray is a graduate of The Glasgow School of Art and worked as a professional illustrator before joining the National Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh as assistant head of design. A career spanning over two decades in the media followed, from presenting many diverse network radio and television programmes, to producing and directing, and then founding her own award-winning production company which grew into the largest in Scotland. She is a journalist, the author of five books, and serves annually on both BAFTA and the Royal Television Society Awards juries. Muriel is a former rector of Edinburgh University, the first woman to have held this post, and has been awarded honorary degrees from the University of Abertay and The Glasgow School of Art and Glasgow University.

Penny Macbeth

Director

Penny Macbeth joined The Glasgow School of Art as Director in May 2020. Throughout her career, Penny has been committed to developing a professionally relevant learning environment for students. She was previously Dean of Manchester School of Art and Deputy Faculty Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Arts and Humanities focusing on external engagement and partnerships, and is a board trustee of Castlefield Gallery and CHEAD. On behalf of CHEAD she represents the sector on the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Crafts. Penny is also an active researcher, and her work explores cloth’s potential as a carrier of narrative and catalyst for community empathy and cohesion.

Amy Corbett

Senior Design Manager at The LEGO Group

Amy Corbett graduated from Product Design Engineering in 2012 and has been working at The LEGO Group since 2013, where she started as a Junior Designer creating designs for The LEGO Friends product line. Since then, she has worked across multiple projects including The LEGO Movie 2, later taking on the role of Creative Lead at LEGO Disney. Currently, she runs a team of 10 designers who worked to develop and launch the new LEGO DOTS line – a brand new creative experience that encourages design and experimentation with LEGO bricks. She is also known as Brickmaster Amy for her role as a judge on LEGO Masters USA, which has just launched its second season in the USA.

Travis Alabanza

Writer, performer and theatre maker

Travis Alabanza is an award winning writer, performer and theatre maker whose work surrounding gender, trans identity and race has been noted internationally. Their writing has appeared in numerous anthologies and in the BBC, Guardian, Vice,and Gal-Dem. After being the youngest recipient of the Artist in Residence program at Tate Galleries, Alabanza’s debut show Burgerz toured internationally and won the Edinburgh Fringe Total Theatre award in 2019. In 2020 their theatre show Overflow debuted at the Bush Theatre to widespread acclaim and later streamed online in over 22 countries. They have given talks at universities including Oxford, Harvard and Bristol, and co-headlined the GSA’s 2021 Graduate Showcase Closing Event.

Alessandro Marini

Student President

Alessandro Marini is an artist, community activist and facilitator working in Glasgow. His main focuses are the empowerment of people by supporting the creation of platforms in which participants can share skills and knowledge in a critical way. He has previously done this for: Political workshops, Artistic workshops in Glasgow and abroad, critical inquiry workshops to support students articulate their thoughts for The Glasgow School of Art and more. His studies in Architecture have helped him in thinking strategically, in articulating technical information in a clear way and in designing accessible methods of critical inquiry and engagement with different groups of people.

His current work as Student President of The Glasgow School of Art Students’ Association has overarching themes of social and environmental sustainability based on principles of discussion, inclusion, equality and the celebration of diversity. Before coming to GSA he never saw himself in a leadership role but viewed the role of Student President as an opportunity to affect positive change above and beyond his previous voluntary roles in local Glasgow based charities.

Sam De Santis

Creative Network Manager

Sam De Santis studied Fine Art Photography at The Glasgow School of Art, and served two terms as Student President after graduating in 2012. Following this, Sam was the lead coordinator of the Phoenix Bursary project, which supported GSA’s fine art graduates and culminated in a major exhibition in 2015. Sam has undertaken various other roles within the GSA including research into mapping creative facilities across Glasgow, and work as part of the Exhibitions team. In 2019 Sam was appointed Creative Network Manager and is responsible for overseeing the development and enhancement of how the GSA supports, connects and communicates with its global community of graduates.