Empty Shops Network

I like the idea of shops you find in a back street, hidden round a corner, that you can never find after your first visit; that element of magic in the humdrum of retail.

And this week, in Worthing's Guildbourne Centre, we're adding to that with a Pop-Up Gallery. We got the keys to an empty shop on Wednesday; opened Thursday; we'll close the doors on Sunday and vanish. We're showing installation and painting, bubblewrap and core samples, drawing and photography, archaeology and concrete.

It's had a great response, with nearly 100 visitors on the first day. And while some were passing shoppers and teenagers who hang out in the shopping centre, many had the made the journey into Worthing town centre to see the Pop-Up Gallery after a short, sharp marketing blitz on Facebook, Twitter, the Artists and Makers website and local radio.

It's also created a buzz amongst artists and creatives in the town, and become the place to hang out. There was ample takeaway coffee, great conversation and the smell of collaboration in the air.

About eight or nine years ago, not long after the Revolutionary Arts Group had started up in Worthing, one of our artists came to us with an idea. Debbie Zoutewelle, an excellent painter, had a past life as an estate agent and reckoned she could talk us into an empty shop for a couple of weeks. We set up our first temporary gallery.

A few years later, we worked with Caroline Brown and her Contemporary Gallery project, using empty shops in Brighton to curate edgy exhibitions.

And back in Worthing, we used a space in a shopping centre for a month to promote the Artists and Makers Festival, holding exhibitions, workshops, strange interventions and odd little happenings.

And then we noticed other people starting to do the same thing around the country. And the idea for the Empty Shops Network was born. We're just starting the network, but with more empty shops than ever it's getting easier (although it's never that easy).

Keep watching that empty space…