ARTISTS TALKING
Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
Subscriber resource
Work(space) in progress
Studio-based artists have been made vulnerable by the recent property boom as run-down former industrial buildings attract developers with an eye for a lucrative conversion. Some studio providers though, have managed to stay put and in some cases have moved on to better premises. Paul Glinkowski offers this progress report on artist-led studios projects in Leeds and in Stroud.
The first wave of Arts Council England (ACE) lottery funding – ‘Capital Programme One’ (CP1), 1995-99 – helped a few larger-scale organisations with track-records stretching back to the 1970s to secure and provide better quality, affordable studios. In East London, ACME acquired buildings in Copperfield Road and Gillender Street. In West London, ACAVA developed the UK’s first purpose-built studios block at Blechynden Street. In Bristol, Spike Island, a former tea-packing factory, was converted into spaces for in excess of seventy artists. In Sheffield, Yorkshire ArtSpace Society left its dilapidated premises in Matilda Street, to move a stone’s throw up the road to a new, architect-designed building, Persistence Works, which houses seventy artists and makers. In Scotland too, lottery funding helped WASPS make the crucial shift from property leasing to property ownership. Though these were undoubtedly major gains for the studios sector, when measured against lottery investment in other types of arts buildings the picture is less clear cut. An estimated £10 million of the first £1 billion of ACE lottery funding – one per cent –...
. . . to read the rest of this resource
and access all Knowledge Bank and Publication articles subscribe online - from only £6.
If you are a subscriber please login here.