studio notes

Reproducing some of my notes from the recent studio conversation in an attempt to keep some momentum going over the Christmas slump and because it feeds into other stuff elsewhere…

Draw your own conclusions and do as you see fit!

Things in [square brackets] are notes I’ve added as I’ve typed these now.

• Defensible space vs. shared spaces
• £4 per square foot, including bills (national average £7 [national average for what? What were we comparing?])
• Studios as something to exploit and then move on from
• Nobody [at the studios] was talking about their work!
• Programming vs studio space. Where is the activity?
• Push people out into the city [to further their careers, make way for new artists and prevent a plug forming in the studios]
• The functions of a café includes that of an ad hoc public space [cf actually making a direct financial profit, many projects are born here]
• Associate programme:
  • collaborations
  • sharing knowledge
  • Friends model
  • Travel bursaries
  • How do you make it sweet enough for people to be dedicated?
  • computer access 24 hours
  • library
  • Access to space and to each other (primary function)
  • Draw on it for information and opportunities
  • £12 per month
  • not through a selection process, but available to anyone who feels they are following a path within the visual arts
  • Consists of an active core
  • Peer-to-peer networking
• Studios as part of the ecology of the area and the region (how does it do this and how is it charged with energy?)
• Using the institution to create networks
• Who is the gallery for?
• Spike Design as a way of getting the funders through the door
• DCMS toolkit
• What is our relationship with bricks and mortar that can fit our new economies?
  • related to profile
  • dependent on career stage of the artists involved
  • are studios actually the model of the future?
  • Where is the urgency?
• 24-hour access
• Studios providing new ways for graduates to participate in the city
• Cube in Bristol as a potential model based not on studio space, but on social activities that become the starting point for many initiatives, thereby leaving a legacy.
• Do people need an ongoing space?
• Do people need a temporary space?
• A space that the city provides will never be your space – it is for generations
• Nuclei around centres of common need
• How to manage something that is fractured?
• Artists do not want to be building managers
• Lack of social confidence in Birmingham’s practitioners (by contrast Spike Island grew from activism and lobbying)

Merry Christmas everyone – what can you make happen in 2008?

Birmingham studios

Just a little light reading as a quick follow-up to the studio conversation to tide you over until Self Service releases the official summary…

The Birmingham Post has followed up on the debate at the event with an article about studio spaces in Birmingham.

Here are a few extracts that stood out for me and an indication as to possible routes for discussion/action to take as a response (sorry it’s quite cryptic but I’m away from home at the moment and not really in the right frame of mind to write anything more substantial):

Birmingham accepts the principle in its published creative strategies and ought, on the face of it, to be well placed to work with artists in helping to lift vast, run-down areas like Eastside. But for some reason it seems to have more difficulty in translating theory into practice than its rivals.

Terry Grimley on regeneration and competition between cities to attract investment and footloose young professionals

Jumping off points:

• Working with artists.
• Following up on pledges put into print.
• Attracting new people into the city in contrast to that of keeping hold of the people who are here already. (The issue of graduate retention is briefly mentioned later on in the article.)
• Rivalries between cities?

The studio situation is really difficult. The council says it wants all this stuff but you have to create structures to support people. It’s completely out of kilter with every other major city for the council not to be making empty buildings available.

quoting Ruth Claxton, artist

–verb (used with object)
1. to bear or hold up (a load, mass, structure, part, etc.); serve as a foundation for.
dictionary definition for ‘support’, my emphasis

Artists are key cultural assets for any city. Whenever a trade delegation visits Bristol nowadays, they are always taken to Spike Island. Artists need places to make work, and we have to address the whole question of artists’ workspaces. I feel it’s a joint responsibility between the city and the Arts Council.
quoting David Drake, Head of Visual Arts at ACE West Midlands

Jumping off points:

• Using a bottom-up approach (with suitable top-down support at times).
• Artists need places to make work – it’s not all about galleries and exhibitions and showcase events.
• “Birmingham will get a reputation as a vibrant, creative, international city when it becomes a vibrant, creative, international city”. (Attempt at paraphrasing a commenter somewhere on CiB, I think).
• Fundamental changes vs glossy patches.
• Creating flexible frameworks around which people can build their own activities and value as appropriate to the work that they do and the way that they do it.

pub(lic) conversation

Update 25th Nov: we’ve had to relocate to VIVID, more details here…

Returning from a hiatus of a few months, Pub Conversations is back with a slight variation in the format in order to address the urgent issue of studio provision within the city.

I’m assuming Tindal St. and Lee Bank will have their share of representation, but there has to be more to Brum’s studios than that so it would be good to see some new faces to share their views. Likewise we’d love to hear from recent graduates who are maybe looking for somewhere to operate from – what do you want and what would be workable for you?

I’m not sure if this one will be podcast, so make sure to book a place via selfservice@hotmail.co.uk

Here’s the information from the mailout:

PUB(LIC) CONVERSATION ABOUT STUDIOS AND ARTISTS’ WORKSPACE IN BIRMINGHAM

Tuesday 4th December, 7.30pm
The Lamp Tavern,
257 Barford Street,
Birmingham.
B5 6AH

VIVID,
140 Heath Mill Lane,
Birmingham.
B9 4AR

Guest speaker and host: Lucy Byatt, Director of Spike Island, Bristol.

In December, after a six month stay of execution, Birmingham Artists will lose the subsidy for their studios at Lee Bank. This space was the only Birmingham City Council subsidised artists’ workspace in the city. Meanwhile other studios (including those the majority of Self Service members inhabit) are in privately owned buildings that are often cold, damp, insecure and uninsurable.

Self Service feel this most recent withdrawal of support for artists’ practice, should act as a catalyst for a wider discussion about the lack of affordable, fit for purpose studio provision and production facilities in the city

• How should artists in Birmingham respond to the council’s action?
• Could artists be doing more to demonstrate the intrinsic value of arts practice to the city?
• Are successful models for studio provision just about providing artists with space to work?
• Is the Creative Industries agenda at odds with the realities of most artists’ practice?

With these, and many more, questions in mind we have have invited Lucy Byatt to host a pub(lic) conversation around this issue.

Everyone is welcome, though as we are limited by space, booking is essential. Please email selfservice@hotmail.co.uk to book a place.

Lucy Byatt was educated at Brighton University, Glasgow School of Art and Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. In 1995, after working as an artist over a number of years, she joined Visual Art Projects in Glasgow as Co-Director and in 2000 she established The Centre, an independent commissioning organization where she worked with artists including Graham Fagan, Toby Paterson, Simon Starling, Siobhan Hapanska and Vong Phaophanit

Spike Island is a national centre for the production and exhibition of contemporary art. Located in Bristol, Spike offers excellent studios as well as project and exhibition space for the making and showing of ambitious new work. Spike Island emerged from an artist run initiative developed in the late 70’s, Bristol Art Space. Whilst it is no longer ‘artist run’ the values of support to artists and those developing their career within the contemporary visual arts remains a high priority.

For more information about the Pub Conversations series see www.pubconversations.co.uk

Currently, Self Service is Tom Bloor, Jo Capper, Mona Casey, Faye Claridge, Ruth Claxton, Greg Cox, John Hall, Cheryl Jones, Nikki Pugh, Liz Rowe, Charlotte Smith and Matt Westbrook

Pub Conversations

Self Service invites a series of speakers to converse with a guest of their choice in front of an audience in the Lillie Langtry room at the Old Lamp Tavern, Birmingham.

In our quest to counter-balance the flood of talks about development/infrastructure of the arts/creative industries in the city of Birmingham, we’re talking about art practice over a pint.

More information from the Pub Conversations website.

Subscribe to the podcast by entering this address into your feed-reader (eg i-tunes):
http://pubconversations.jellycast.com/podcast/feed/2