AirSpace Gallery is a studio provider and gallery space in Stoke-on-Trent. This profile includes two videos, recorded at Assembly Birmingham, featuring AirSpace Gallery’s co-director Anna Francis introducing the organisation and explaining its deep commitment to being part of Stoke-on-Trent’s evolving post-industrial identity.
Founded in 2010, Grand Union is a studio provider and project space that supports artistic and curatorial development in Digbeth, Birmingham. This profile includes a video, recorded at Assembly Birmingham, in which director Cheryl Jones introduces the organisation and shares its current strategy for securing a permanent home.
Stryx is a studio, project and exhibition space which forms part of the flourishing artist-led ecology in Digbeth, Birmingham. This profile includes two videos, recorded at Assembly Birmingham, of founder and co-director Karolina Korupczynska introducing the organisation and discussing the challenges of delivering a sustainable project on limited resources.
The Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art is an artist-led platform that aims to bring critically engaged, high quality contemporary visual art to the city and surrounding area. This profile includes two videos, recorded at Assembly Birmingham, in which founder and artistic director Ryan Hughes introduces the organisation and describes its ambitious journey.
Studio provider and project space Paradise Works was founded in April 2017. Straddling the Salford-Manchester border, the organisation hosts 30 artists and presents an artist-focused programme of exhibitions, residencies and events. This profile includes a video, recorded at a-n’s Assembly Salford, of founder Lucy Harvey introducing the organisation and discussing its aspirations to be a sustainable presence within the artist-led ecology.
Islington Mill in Salford is an evolving creative space, arts hub and community that provides studios, hosts residencies, and includes a peer-led art school and artist-run B&B. This profile includes two videos, recorded at Assembly Salford, of Islington Mill founder Bill Campbell introducing the organisation and discussing future plans.
Based in a former school in Nottingham, Primary supports artistic production through its studio provision, residencies and a public programme. This profile includes two videos, recorded at Assembly Salford, where director Niki Russell introduces the organisation and shares its lengthy journey to securing a space.
S1 Artspace in Sheffield is a member-led studio provider and exhibition space, running since 1995. This profile includes a video, recorded at Assembly Salford, of S1’s Stephen Escritt outlining the organisation’s plans for a major expansion at the Grade II* listed brutalist Park Hill estate.
Initiated in 2010 by two fine art graduates, The NewBridge Project in Newcastle upon Tyne provides studios, a gallery, project spaces and a member-led professional development programme. This profile includes two videos, recorded at Assembly Salford, of former director Charlotte Gregory introducing the organisation and discussing how during a period of expansion the project has stayed loyal to its member-led ethos
Founded in 1972, Acme Studios has grown to provide around 600 studios for London-based artists. This profile includes two videos, recorded at Assembly Salford, featuring Acme’s Head of Projects & Communications Jack Fortescue introducing the organisation and outlining its unwavering commitment to securing long-term, affordable artist studios.
Interested in being a trustee or board member? Nicola Naismith explores what artists contribute and gain, and speaks to artists with experience to find out about their roles and their advice for joining a board.
Joining a board can provide artists with a voice in the decision making room and a way to steer the arts agenda. Nicola Naismith explores what’s involved, and hears from artists and their fellow board members about the important contribution artists can make and why being a trustee matters.
Since the early 1970s, Bobby Baker has been producing art that documents and subverts her experiences of everyday life, drawing on motherhood, domestic labour, and mental illness and recovery. Speaking to Lydia Ashman, Baker reflects on the challenges she faced as a woman and an artist, her successes and why she’s ‘proudest of keeping going’.
ecologies of care was initiated by artist Ria Hartley in 2018. The project comprises a growing toolkit of resources designed to support artists who have access requirements to express their needs. Hartley speaks to Lydia Ashman about the toolkit and why artists’ health and wellbeing should be a sector-wide priority. This resource is available in text format and also as a video format sound recording.
Alternative art education programmes come in a range of formats, from entirely self-organised to more structured offerings. Lydia Ashman hears from seven artists who discuss how they chose a programme which would develop their practice and fit with their lifestyles, and offer advice on selecting the right one for your needs.
Turps Art School was founded in 2012 as a medium-specific art school providing year-long studio and distance learning programmes for painters. Co-founder Marcus Harvey talks to Michaela Nettell about the ideas and values behind the school.
School of the Damned is a free year-long alternative, and unaccredited, art school. Each year a new student group comes on board and collectively devises and develops their programme of learning. Laura Davidson finds out more from members of the founding cohort, Class of 2014, and the Class of 2018 graduating students.
In 2017, New Contemporaries, an annual exhibition of emerging artists from UK art schools, opened up its application to include artists from alternative learning programmes. Director Kirsty Ogg discusses this decision, the changing climate for emerging artists in the UK, and what artists really need to develop and challenge their practice. Interview by Michaela Nettell.
Bristol-based live artist Liz Clarke has created a performance with her nine-month-old daughter and collaborated with her nine-year-old son to produce a work based on an idea he proposed. She speaks to Julie McCalden about being part of an art making family.
Artists and parents Katy Connor and Stephen Cornford discuss their experiences of raising a child whilst maintaining their art practices, offering advice on how to manage time, travel and childcare.
Stroud-based artist and mother Sharon Bennett discusses her work with the Women’s Art Activation System support network which she developed in collaboration with two other Stroud-based artists, taking part in Lenka Clayton’s Artist Residency in Motherhood, and opening the temporary ‘Mother House’ studio.
Writing a manifesto was one of Dan Thompson’s first acts as an artist and he has since written several more including one about using empty shops, and The Paying Artists Manifesto for Artist-Led Work that showed how artists working with their own ecology, economy and excitement ‘make the world around them better’. He explores the history of artists’ manifestos and shares advice and tips on how to write your own.
Illustrator Josie Brookes and animator Tom Madge collaborated over three years to produce a stop-motion animation for the NHS about managing persistent pain. The Newcastle-based artists talk to Lydia Ashman about how they worked with staff and patients to develop the film and why they came to represent pain as a cloud.
a-n Blogs is a great place to share the process of your practice or the progress of a residency or project you’re working on. We’ve pulled together a few tips on blogging on www.a-n.co.uk to help you get started.
a-n’s External Programmes and Partnerships Manager Hannah Pierce offers advice on the benefits to artists of mentoring and coaching, and highlights some of the differences between these two approaches to interaction and personal, professional development.
Read guides and profiles that offer valuable information, insights and strategies on art practice from a range of expert voices. Plus extensive archive of past publications.
Use 'Explore', filters and tags to browse and find content.
Popular searches include:
Fees and payments,
Studios
,
Self-employment,
Residencies,
Prizes and awards, Artist-led,
Commissions, Good practice, Curatorial practice.
Members can sign up to e-alerts and choose how often they want to receive them.
