Who is allowed space to create in Bristol?
Our Development Manager, Jess Bunyan, reflects on how young people are excluded from artist spaces and how to start talking about what needs to change.
The meaning of space has changed so much in lockdown. It's something we've been thinking a lot about at Rising as our team grows, but also something I'm also personally really interested in having worked in communities and just trying to live/work/rent in Bristol.
This is the start of a conversation we want to continue as part of Centre of Gravity's takeover of the old Gardiner Haskins building. If you want to be part of that see the end for details.
Who is allowed to take up space in Bristol? It’s "the most artistic city in the UK", but how many artists are able to have and keep studios? For young creatives who are leaving university, or who never went, finding somewhere to create and develop their practice has never been more of a challenge or felt like such a luxury.
Programmes like Spike Island’s Fellowships do something; free desk space in places like Pervasive Media Studio can help - but not all young people feel comfortable in these spaces and not everyone is a graduate or working in pervasive media.
Young people are often invited into spaces temporarily, to bring their mates, to make it seem cool, but they’re never truly given ownership. There’s always an unspoken feeling they’re squatting. In the same way they’re made to feel like trespassers in the creative industries; they’re a nice addition to an existing artist space but they’re rarely the ones making it.
AVERAGE MONTHLY STUDIO RENT IN THE SOUTH WEST is £41.98
it's the 5TH MOST EXPENSIVE REGION IN THE UK
studio rent ACCOUNTS FOR 38% OF ARTIST EXPENSES
SOURCE: TBR's Livelihoods of Visual Artists: 2016 Data Report
In our work with the Bristol Libraries Service we found that the things young people want from those public spaces most was “A space to hang out where you don’t have to pay”. Many of them mentioned using, or wanting to use, libraries to do their creative work, but this is limited to practices that can be done tidily in a corner, on a desk, on a laptop. And even then many found libraries to be unwelcoming, obsessed with silence and banning pre-purchased snacks, or lacking basics like comfort and enough plug sockets.
Working in cafes means stretching one drink over several hours, maybe running into friends and creating networks but feeling like you have to spend more to stay. And now, in lockdown, young creatives find themselves isolated, many living in crowded housing or at home with their parents with little space for exploring creativity (or no emotional energy to do so because of the trauma encroaching on their lives).
The freedom of a studio to create, with necessary space and equipment at your disposal, is often a distant dream for young creatives. The hoarding mentality that exists in the leadership of cultural organisations extends to the artist studio community. Leaders and artists who ‘got there first’ hold onto what they have with little thought of a generation of artists facing frozen wages, high youth unemployment rates, student debt and excruciating rents.
So, how to move forward? At Rising, we want to create our own spaces on our terms with no institutional baggage. To stake a claim on OUR city—green spaces, car parks, empty office buildings, old police stations—and put them into the hands of young people so they can build better, more inclusive essential artistic spaces.
It doesn’t need to be grand. It just needs to be ours.
ARE YOU A YOUNG PERSON WITH SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT CREATIVE SPACE IN BRISTOL?
We’re hosting a live conversation/performance as part of Centre of Gravity’s festival and asking Keynote Listeners to hear what YOU have to say about all of this.
Email me, Jess to find out more about being PAID to be part of it.