ARTISTS TALKING

# 9 [8 April 2010]

8th April 2010

Its not two months since the fire and it seems we may have found a long term replacement building -  a mill just outside Kendal.

Its been so busy these last couple of weeks - meetings and viewing premises, liaising with South Lakes District Council, meetings with landlords, more meetings of our steering group. Nothing much else has had a look in.

But now its both exciting and anxiety provoking as we have found the almost perfect space. Its bigger and more expensive. It allows us to develop Green Door in ways we have always dreamt of but the challenge is to make the figures work.

We were about to sign up to another old mill space one morning last week but then in the afternoon a call came in about a mill on an industrial estate and when we saw it we knew it was right.

Space for studios, community workshops, exhibitions, residencies, resource areas - printing and digital - it will be amazing to have such a resource for the South Lakes, the  Green Door studio holders and our associate artist members (approx 90).

When the news came through about the fire, no one could have foreseen that inside of two months later we would have found this jewel.

Now we have to organise ourselves, seek more funding, equip the building, review our constitution and organisational status, speak with existing and potential partners, develop plans and strategies and at some point, maintain an art practice. Should keep us quiet for a while.

Watch this space. More info as soon as its signed and sealed.

# 8 [20 March 2010]

19th March 2010

Finally, we are allowed into the building. The police still don't know whether they will find out who set the fire and seem resigned to never knowing.

The building has been handed over to the builders to see what's salvagable and we have been told we can get in today to see for ourselves the extent of the damage and whether any materials and work are still intact.

Over the last few weeks we have been looking at new buildings and getting access in to a donated temporary space out of town in Staveley Mill Yard. Some of us will us that space and others are waiting for the temporary space in Kendal College to come free next month.

Today at 8am we start to go into the Highgate building.

It smells like an old bonfire but surprisingly a lot of the structure is undamaged by fire. The fire ran into the stone building from the rear, ran up tot he top floor and hit the roof.

The first floor looks good, just saturated with water. The top floor is partly burnt out. Half of it is so badly damaged it isn't safe to venture inside but the other half is better.

We start sifting through the chaos of collapsed charred roof timbers, bringing sad and sorry looking paintings and work of paper out into the street to load into a van and head for Stavely.

I am able to get into my space on the top floor as is Jill and the contractors work hard at helping carry everything down the spiral stone staircase, a listed feature of this Georgian building.

The radio and TV crews arrive and record interviews and film background shots for news pieces.

By 4pm we have moved everything we could but the rest of the top floor needs making safe to see if more can be recovered on Monday.

Importantly, we recover sections of charred timber and agree that we will use this charcoal for some drawings.

Nature sometimes needs a fire to regenerate energy and growth. Some of us are feeling that energy while others are still feeling the impact of the loss of materials and work. 

For most of us it's the last time we will go into the Highgate building.

# 7 [10 March 2010]

Just back in UK after a short trip and quickly into the business of looking for premises. Jill and Rosie have been busy and we see two premises today that have potential but each with different challenges.

One is fairly central in Kendal but is much higher cost and would need a lot of work to get it ready. The other is out of town but needing much less work.

The pressure is on to find a permanent replacement building but so much research needs to be done to ensure it would be sustainable - rent, rates, fire regs, building insurance, heating and lighting etc etc apart from the set up costs of fitting out.

It's a full time job at a time when there are so many other demands on our time.

We are still looking for more options at present.

In Reims last week I saw an installation in an open square of wooden spheres and slabs that were treated with bitumen and I immediately saw them as burnt timber. Ideas formed.

# 6 [2 March 2010]

1st March 2010

First full meeting of just the studio group since the fire. We had news to tell them:

We accepted the offer of free temporary space found for us by the council within the Kendal College site. We can use it from the end of March until mid August.

We also accepted an amazing offer of an empty space in Stavely Mill Yard - free for three months with immediate access. Just need to get keys and get going.

Its amazing how the fire has generated so much energy both for people who want to support the studio group and within the group itself.

I suppose that because the group is self-selecting - we have a first come first served policy - this is an experience that definitely unites us as our practices can be so varied.

We discussed having some time together where we deal with the experience of the fire aesthetically. Someone commented that because my work has recently become focused upon open water swimming, it was not inappropriate that my studio space got flooded in water from the fire hoses. I could see their point!

# 5 [27 February 2010]

27th February

Its over a week since the fire. Life has been so busy as this emergency demanded space in what was already a busy time.

We have held a Green Door network meeting to update people, seek their support and ideas for future decisions, visited premises, and finally last night met as the steering group so that we could make the final decisions about what offers to accept and how we will manage the uncertain future.

Before the meeting I spent an hour with Richard focusing on our joint proposal of work for the Green Door show for Farfield Mill in a fortnight. It felt like grabbed time for me but so welcome to be thinking about our work rather than the fire.

This week I haven't had a swim, played my saxophone or much else so need to change that to restore energy levels. I know that others are stressed out too but if feels like we are so much better placed now than a week ago.

I keep thinking of that charred wood and ash as pigment.

# 4 [27 February 2010]

Monday 22nd February

Its been a manic weekend. Phone calls, emails have kept coming in. A press release has been written and put out to the media. We wanted people to know how the studio group has been affected because initial reports weren't mentioning us or the impact of the fire on us.

It's so strange how one minute you can be so down and anxious and then something changes and spirits and energy levels soar again. A local councillor and Imelda, the Arts and Events Officer, have worked magic somehow and following promises of trying to help with practical support have already found a temporary building free of charge within Kendal College for the studio group plus a start up fund for materials to get people working again and even some furniture to put in the empty building. By the end of the day it's as good as signed off that these offers are secure.

The speed of the decision making just blows us away. Its also the best feedback for us as a group as to how we are so positively perceived.

My jaw becomes even slacker as later that day another offer of temporary free premises for a short period just outside Kendal in Stavely Old Mill Yard comes in.

Farfield Mill also say they have studio spaces available free of charge in Sedbergh for six months and offer fund raising support.

Other calls identify other possible sources of temporary space. Its just amazing. From having apparently lost everything we now have real offers on the table.

For the short term we know we are more secure and from there we can see what the longer term will bring.

# 3 [27 February 2010]

20th February

I drive into Kendal and park up away from the blocked off area. Walking towards the studios along Highgate - it's deserted - the high crane brought in from Barrow in Furness dominates the sky line. By now we know the police suspect arson.

I meet up with Jill, Elizabeth and Donna (studio artists) behind the building. The extent of the damage at the rear where the fire started is immense. The front of building on the main street appears relatively normal apart from the fact that the roof over my and Jill's space had to be pulled away to dowse the fire that got into the roof and was spreading along the terraced buildings. At the front I can still see my space intact through the window but know that debris and water and now weather will be destroying the contents.

The back of the building is so damaged the whole building is unstable. The rear wall looks ready to collapse. The floors must be unstable. What was onece a grand Georgian building with a floating cantilevered spiral staircase with cupola window overhead now looks like it could collapse at any minute.

My thoughts are so mixed. Loss of work from the last decade, work being prepared for my show with Richard in April at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal - and yet also the thought that I want some of the charred wood and ashes to do something with - a drawing or something, I don't know yet. Although Jill says I'm ahead of her thinking so positively, I know how poignant it would be to use pigment from the fire in some way.

We can't do anything so go for coffee. As we return to the scene the crane is in use with a new fire tender on the scene. The fire has restarted and more water is being dropped into the building. We learn later that the fire restarted from a drawer in a filing cabinet in what was left of our studio office. Having got in it was kept secure until released  presumably by a rush of oxygen when the drawer was opened, its still unclear exactly how.

As the day progresses we realise that we may never be allowed in to see what we can salvage. Even the police can't get in to complete their inquiries into the cause of the fire.

# 2 [27 February 2010]

19th Feb

Jill rings me throughout the day. She is outside the building and talking to fire fighters and police and gleaning information. It's thought to be arson. This emerges during the day as a window is found removed from the landlord's offices at the rear. Our thoughts are about whether something will be retrievable from the damaged building and whether it's the end of the studio group.

Green Door is both a studio group and a large network of artists that collaborates together. The studios have always been the physical and psychological hub. The future feels so uncertain.

So many phone calls offering sympathy and support come in. It's times like this when you find out how you're seen by the community.

I know there's nothing I can do that day so decide to keep away from the mayhem until tomorrow. Getting into Kendal will be more complicated as the central road system where the studios are is completely blocked off.

# 1 [27 February 2010]

19th February 2010 - 4am

A fire starts in offices connected to the rear of the Green Door Studios. It spreads into the studio building and the upper floor is mostly burnt out. The remaining areas are affected by smoke, water, and falling debris from the roof that needs to be hacked open to dowse the flames.

The main road through Kendal is closed off and the Highgate becomes like a pedestrian zone instead of its usual one-way traffic.

The studios were set up in 1995 by a group of artists to provide affordable studio space. Today it looks like everybody's work, equipment and materials or water damage, or because we will never get into the studios again because the building's structure has become so unstable. It's a real mess.