Watersongs was originally an exhibition staged by Alec Galloway in 2005 at the McLean Museum, Greenock. At that time he was working closely with Inverclyde Council and was concerned to learn that the redevelopment of the Clyde corridor did not incorporate an arts strategy.

Despite the fact that millions of pounds were being spent on the regeneration programme surprisingly no consideration had been given to the inclusion of the Arts.

Alec therefore decided to address this deficiency himself and thus the idea for the Watersongs Initiative was born. He then undertook study visits to regeneration projects that had already taken place in cities like Belfast, Dublin, and Liverpool where he saw the incorporation of many examples of new public art.

Determined to encourage the inclusion of arts in the Clydeside programme Alec established Watersongs from a diverse group of artists to promote the variety of art available to the developers