SPACE, Old Market hosts three artist residencies

SPACE, the artspace on West Street, Old Market run as a satellite project of The Island in partnership with Arts West Side / Trinity Community Arts, is hosting three artist residencies during winter / spring 2020 before it closes its doors as an exhibiting space.

A widely supported petition secured the continuation of SPACE when proposals to let the building commercially threatened its future. In April 2020 the building’s lease expires, and Old Market will say a final farewell to SPACE. The artist studios, however, will remain unaffected until the future of the building is determined and, while the gallery is not available to hire, you’ll still find curated window displays by the SPACE team.

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“We are incredibly grateful to Bristol City Council Community Asset team for entrusting us with the meanwhile
use of 6 West Street, and for Big Lottery Awards for All Funding which enabled us to provide free drop-in art
classes for the local community over the past two years,” says Kathryn Chiswell-Jones, Artspace Lifespace company manager.

“Whilst we are sad to be leaving Old Market, we look forward to taking some time to evaluate how community needs have changed in the past four years, and what our creative services might look like in the next decade.
In acknowledgement of the creativity that flows through Bristol and makes projects like SPACE possible, we
have awarded three small grants to practitioners working in the areas of visual arts, performance and
community. Each artist/artist group will be spending two weeks at SPACE, enjoying the time to further reflect upon their work, or to begin new work.”

The residencies have been awarded to:

Amy Peck
Jan 27-Feb 9

Amy Peck is a local artist and founding member of The Lamplighters, a community arts organisation who coordinate the annual Church Road Lantern Parade. Amy is using her residency at SPACE as an exhibition space for a body of recent cyanotype prints, a studio space to develop a light installation based on the prints and a
workshop space for the community to make lanterns for the Parade on February 29.

Process Theatre
Feb 17-March 1

With the support of this residency, Process Theatre will continue the research, development and performance of Things We Do Not Know, a devised theatre and performance art piece made with and for Bristol-based charity One25, who support women vulnerable to or trapped in street sex work.

Kerry Lewis
March 2-15

‘Sisters’, Kerry Lewis, 2019 – polyester, merino wool tops, synthetic hair

Her SPACE residency will allow artist Kerry Lewis to experiment with growing bioplastic and to create large-scale soft sculpture, with an aim to open up conversations about the phenomenon of visceral viewer response.

To find out more about the activities taking place at SPACE over the next few months, visit theislandbristol.com/uncategorized/71134

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