Space
I don’t know if this is late or early or whatever but I turned 30 this week so leave me alone.
I’ve been thinking about space a lot this month. Like physical space, buildings, homes, where we stay, play and create. In part this has been in preparation for re-opening the arts centre after a short Winter break in January to clean, PAT test and gently remove the spiders who have been nesting here over Christmas. It’s also been an opportunity for us to reimagine the physical space a little, investing in some new furniture and lighting for the foyer to hopefully refresh, brighten and make it more welcoming. We’re on the lookout for a shipping container to store some equipment, we’ve cleared some cupboards, donated furniture to the youth club and residential homes, all in the hope that we can make some space.
This hasn’t been an easy process. LAC is a historical building, a cultural museum with over 40 years of artistic archive making up its interior collection. That must be respected, acknowledged and augmented as necessary to make sure it’s meaning is relevant and accessible. After two years of listening to all types of visitors, there’s been countless discussions and configurations, budgets and spreadsheets. Tom even made floor plans with little paper chairs cut to scale to work out just what could go where. Now we’re a couple of weeks away from opening for 2020 and we’re still moving, shifting, wriggling trying to find something that fits.
My birthday tattoo turned out to be a surprising opportunity to discuss spaces where art happens with artists and participants. My artist (the amazing Wolfgang Paradisio) told me about the new studio they were moving into; how it was light and bright, open plan, full of plants, with great artwork on the walls, opened and led by an amazing woman artist who has an ambition to move away from the enclosed, macho spaces commonly associated with tattoo studios. My artist explained how refreshing this was, not only for them but also their clients. It sounds like an energising space where creativity can flourish and participants are welcomed in (stay tuned for a future post on tattooist as socially engaged artist and client as participant/audience…).
I think across the UK building based arts and cultural organisations are reimagining their physical space, how it acts as a conduit between themselves and the people who use that building. I’ve been super inspired by Action Transport Theatre’s ongoing redevelopment of Whitby Hall. I used to work in this creaky, sometimes leaky but always charming historic building and saw first-hand how young people made it a space of their own. To see this relationship deepened with ongoing conversation and consultation with young people in Ellesmere Port rather than tossed aside in the name of development is hugely encouraging and should provide a template for others. Here in Wick we have several derelict, empty and historic at-risk buildings. Recent studies in the area have revealed that spaces for young people in the town are limited. I’m working out what role we as an arts organisation have to play in addressing that.
Because we want to be useful. We must create a space for artists and audiences to connect (don’t worry you won’t have to get a tattoo….yet) that is warm, comfortable, practical and useful, relating constantly to the context of where we are . The organisation is lucky enough to have this — sometimes troublesome — resource, that should offer something invaluable to our artistic community and our immediate community. I’m pretty sure this goes way beyond tables and chairs and extends outwards through our values into our local context; ‘a central station in a constellation of activity’ (Paul O’Neill on Grizedale Arts). Maybe I don’t need to be so hung up on interiors, and think more about exterior? I guarantee 50% of people who visit the arts centre in the next month will hate the new furniture. It is important but I think, well I hope, they will come back again though because they see beyond the furniture too.
So I’m going round in circles a bit here. Help me out, what are your favourite creative spaces? What do you like about them? What makes them stand out? Do they have ornate ceilings or gorgeous armchairs or is it just their coffee that you love so much? Are the seats uncomfortable but the theatre onstage incredible? What’s important? What makes a space?
In the meantime, you’re all invited to experience the new furniture at LAC as well as the new 2020 season which wasn’t half as complicated to put together as those chairs.
PS — Stuff I’m reading this week contributing to rambling thoughts
Locating the producers : durational approaches to public art by Claire Doherty and Paul O’Neill
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo — particularly that first chapter in theatre land.
The House Without Windows by Barbara Newhall Follett (intro by Jackie Morris)— looking for a wild of one’s own instead of a room
