In Spring this year (2016) AirSpace Gallery reaches a
milestone in its history; a full decade of artist run activity. Reflecting on
this is perhaps a useful starting point to approach our recent series of
research visits. Through the A-N Go and See programme Anna Francis, Glen Stoker
and myself visited spaces across the UK, to capture a snapshot of what stage in
they are at in their development.
For my part I thought about returning to somewhere first
visited in 2006 when we were at the very start of developing AirSpace. Now as
then Sheffield provides a good comparison for Stoke-on-Trent. Both have gone
through serious upheaval as their major industries have declined and both are
similar in terms of geography within the country, Stoke is midway between two
major centres, Birmingham and Manchester, and Sheffield between Leeds and
Nottingham. In 2006 we found that Sheffield was at a point perhaps ten years
ahead of Stoke-on-Trent in relation to the end of industry and regeneration
schemes taking place, so I was interested to see how the passing of ten years
had progressed, and how the changes to arts funding and the overall economic
shift during that time had affected cultural activity.
Bloc Projects:
Bloc Projects is an artist led organisation based in
Sheffield city centre, they are one of the groups visited in 2006:
“Established in 2002, the organisation provides a platform
for early-mid career artists, encouraging experimentation, collaboration across
disciplines and critical dialogue among artists, audiences and partners in the
city and further afield.”
The main operation is housed within Bloc Studios; a studio
complex from which it rents a large street level space. Originally founded by
studio holders the project space operates as an independent entity with a board
of directors.
Sheffield and Stoke-on-Trent are geographically close with the
Pennine hills separating them. To get there you either go north to Manchester ,
east to Derby or across the hills through the stunning scenery of the peak
district national park. It has been several years since I last visited
Sheffield, so I was quite interested in seeing what changes had taken place. I
arrived about an hour before I was due to go to Bloc Projects and had a quick
walk around the city centre. The last time I visited there were major
developments happening around the university and the winter gardens had only
shortly been opened. The first thing I noticed on arriving was that there were
more people around than I had previously seen, students and suited workers
populated the streets, which had obviously been pedestrianised since my last
visit, the general impression of the city centre was of an active and thriving
scene of education and commerce. The number of small independent retailers, coffee
shops and eateries around the hub of Hallam University added a cosmopolitan air. Yet still there is
the evidence of past industrial history, Victorian warehouses and factories rub
shoulders with new retail premises and office blocks, and where the old is in
limbo the Brownfield sites have evolved into interim car parking spaces.
Bloc Projects premises occupies one of these spaces
utilising the industrial architecture both on the periphery but also central to
the makeup of the city fabric. The building itself is un-assuming , yet closer
inspection from the street reveals that there is a strong creative community at
work. Bloc Studios is active and plays host to a variety of artists and
creative businesses. I arrived a little earlier than my meeting and was greeted
warmly by one of the long-term studio occupants who coincidently was a former
native of Nantwich a short distance from Stoke, and furnished me with a cup of
tea in his studio- whilst having a brief chat about development and the arts
activity in Stoke-on-Trent.
My meeting at Bloc Projects was with Charlotte Morgan who is
the Creative Director of Bloc Projects. After a quick tour of the space I began
by asking Charlotte for a potted history of the organisation and how she became
involved.
Bloc Projects itself is housed within a Victorian factory
building which was converted to studio space for artists in the late 1990’s.
The organisation grew out of the efforts of a group of artists who were studio
holders. The gallery/project space moved to the current premises in 2002 having
gone through several iterations. The group became more formalised and a board
was created. Charlotte was made Creative Director of the company 3 years ago
and her roles are to programme and oversee the day-to-day running of the space
along side a small number of other members and volunteers.
The formalisation of the organisation was made to allow for
funding to be applied for and to make the roles which people involved play
clearer, as there had previously been little governance, the project also split
from the studios and became an entity in its own right.
The organisation ran for several years with the majority of
the programme and activity supported through Arts Council GFA funding until an
application was turned down. The organisation realised that they needed to
shift their focus slightly away from a reliance on funding and become more
sustainable through self generated income and broadening the base of support
through collaborative working. The diversification of income has been key in
shaping the way the organisation operates and provides security for itself.
Although it is still the case that they are working more than funds will cover.
Bloc Projects currently operates a membership scheme,
hireable space for projects and events, alongside a funded programme of
activity.
I was interested in who hires the space and what sort of
activity takes place, as this is something that AirSpace Gallery has recently
started doing on a more formal level.
Bloc Projects hires the space or a diverse range of projects
which ranges from individual artists, groups and also non-arts related
activity. On the day I visited there was the evidence of a student Christmas
party which had taken place the day before. Charlotte said that these short-term
high return events are key to generating income for the organisation without
having to expend a lot of resources. In terms of marketing the space these
activities are also seen to be bring in a different mix of people- a percentage
of who return for the other activities that take place.
I wanted to know a little bit about how Bloc Projects , fits
within the wider city, its local authority and other institutions; On the whole
the project has developed independently of the support of the local authority, perhaps
because of its roots in a commercial studio operation, it has had closer ties
to property developers and business, rather than civic entities. Within the
‘Cultural Industries Quarter’ Charlotte said that the are working more towards
the periphery, alongside a lot of other small individuals and small groups.
Although the organisation is well established within the cultural framework,
they lack the marketing resources available to some of the larger institutions.
They are however heavily involved with the many festival projects- eight in
total- with Art Sheffield being one of the key events on which Bloc Projects is
a consortium member and part of the delivery team, this involvement provides
them with a foothold and relationship to many of the other institutions, spaces
and projects; and in a wider context working collaboratively to make Sheffield
a cultural destination. Collaborative working has evolved to be a key way for
the group to operate. Alongside this Bloc Projects also works with the creative
community to develop projects on site and has provision for educational
development and events within its programme.
Bloc Project’s board has representatives from both Sheffield
Hallam and University of Sheffield . I asked what their experience was of the engagement
with the student body of the City- especially given their proximity to the City
centre campus. Interestingly it seems that Bloc Project’s experience is similar
to AirSpace Gallery’s with a difficulty in engaging with or attracting the
student population to events. Anecdotally this also seems to be the case with
other project in the city. Charlotte said that the use of the space as a party
venue for students between projects has helped recently with approximately 25%
return visitors from these events.
My next question to Charlotte was about what resources had
been and are available for them. Very Slim was the answer. During the initial
stages of developing the organisation their experience of business support came
mainly through peer-to-peer sharing. In the context of the wider city there had
been very little on offer outside of the existing arts institutions. One
resource was to draw on the experience of board members who are from a variety
of backgrounds and use them to garner support. The supporters of the project
are the key resource, people who offer goodwill and are able to feel a sense of
ownership of a project. This was made clear when the an Arts Council bid
failed, and kick started the group to become more organised and sustainable.
Away from the idea of support for the business I was also
interested in what the city of Sheffield had to offer in terms of physical
resources. During our first research trip there we found a huge number of
former industrial spaces either empty or being used for small start-up creative
groups. Now it seems that the affordable space favoured if not required by
creative enterprise is fast disappearing.
The area in which Bloc Projects is located is fast being swallowed up by
a mixture of retail and housing development, many of the medium sized
properties which were there previously have been levelled and blocks of student
accommodation and apartments built in place. Many of the former industrial
spaces still available are either too big to take on or are a distance away
from the centre and so remain unoccupied. It also appears that many of the
privately owned space is available only on a short-term basis making it
difficult to obtain funding given the lack of security available. For Bloc
Projects who have entertained ideas of moving to other premises, this lack of
long term security has been a key factor in deciding to stay put for now.
Charlotte mentioned another organisation CADS (Creative Arts Development Space)
who act as a broker of short to medium term spaces in the city for creative
uses. To some extent enabling spaces to be used for creative activity but
perhaps also acting as a gatekeeper to these spaces as well. A prime example of
the change in fortunes for the former industrial spaces to desirable to others beyond
the creative community S1 Art Space one of the mainstays of the cultural offer
in Sheffield have recently temporarily moved their gallery operation away from
the City Centre premises in order to make way for commercial property
development.
I asked Charlotte what she felt was key to being sustainable;
Apart from money and being able to support yourself and those you work
with, being adaptable is key for
Bloc Projects. In relation to funding they have shifted from resorting to the
standard 10% minimum of match funding for an ACE bid to one closer to 40-50%.
They have scaled back the number of projects within their programme- reducing
the amount of resources needed whilst increasing the duration allows the
organisation to have additional time to focus on income generation. This has provided
the opportunity to have more income generating events to take place throughout
the programme.; these events are short-term but generate high income, and have in
turn developed a more diverse audience to all events. Applying for smaller
grants and being involved in some of the large-scale events that happen in the
city is another major factor in moving towards the organisations sustainability
We concluded our meeting by having a quick look at what was
being developed, I noticed immediately when I first got there that the space
had been grown since first coming in 2006. The recent remodelling of the space
has seen the gallery extended and provision soon to be made available for
office storage and potential residency accommodation.
I enjoyed my visit to Sheffield and talking to Charlotte
about Bloc Projects; although there are many differences between our
organisations, it is encouraging to find that many of the concerns and areas of
focus that AirSpace Gallery is working with are being addressed there too. I
was interested particularly in their approach to becoming sustainable and
shifting away from a reliance on funding, reducing overheads by doing less self
initiated events and ensuring that other events, such as private hire of their
space paid the organisation. In the case of Bloc Projects the size of the
organisation also seems to be key to its success in the future, apart from the
lack of affordable large space in the city they seem to find that working
across different venues and partnering with other groups to work on large
projects allows a greater amount of freedom and flexibility.
As two independent organisations I think we are always keen
to adapt our ways of working and react to outside pressures in a positive way.
I look forward to a return visit to Sheffield in the future and to a chance to
re-acquaint myself with the wider artistic community there, alongside this I
hope that there is also an opportunity to open up links through collaboration
across the Pennines.
The experience that Bloc Projects is currently going
through, of an uncertain future in terms of its venue is one which possibly we
may face in the future if development begins to take hold. The approach which
Bloc Projects has had of remaining positive and being ready and willing to
adapt, is perhaps equally important to the sustainability of a project, not to
let itself be tied to a particular place or space, but to be willing to drop
everything and start again from scratch.
