Welcome to the AccessArt Studio Project

The AccessArt Studio Project will centre around the creation of communities of shared interest, both virtual and physical, which come together to promote, inspire and enable making and creativity.

See the Studio Project Map, and see who has registered in your area & register your interest here.

The Studio Project will achieve this through the creation and networking of a series of “studios”. A studio might be many things, and an essential part of the project is to help widen the concept of where and how creativity can be enabled. A studio might be:

an impressive, dedicated creative space, built for purpose and permanent,

or it may be a spare room in a school which is used as a creative space at certain times,

or it might be a shared community space in a public building,

or it might be a spare room in a house or even the kitchen table.*

What do these “studios” have in common? They exist to inspire and enable creativity – whether in a family, a school, a prison, a social group, or the wider community.** Find out more here.

Why do we want to connect these “studios” to enable creativity? Because these studios and the audiences they serve all share similar needs:

learning & teaching resources,

ideas and practice;

access to materials and equipment;

access to buy in outside expertise in the form of creative practitioners when that is appropriate;

and a motivated audience.

We think these needs can be best and most effectively met through building a dynamic community which serves both local and non-geographical communities: where local resources (materials, creative practitioners, venues) can be shared effectively on a local scale, but where more intellectual resources (ideas, practice, experience) can be shared virtually and raise the ambition and inspiration of the project.

The AccessArt Studio Project therefore proposes the creation of a community which exists both virtually (via a dedicated website) and physically (by an evolving studio network across the UK). AccessArt would enable and support the studios, and in turn the studios would enable the creativity of their particular audience. Crucially, whilst AccessArt brings all its experience of running physical workshops together with creating virtual communities and sharing resources online, each studio would be free to develop in its own direction, whilst being supported both by AccessArt and the wider Studio Project community.

* “Studios” might be developed as a result of the AccessArt Studio Project, or they may already exist and the project will highlight, promote and develop their practice.

** Members will sign up to the AccessArt Studio pledge to ensure we share common aims, though these aims will be created through open discussion.

Find out all you need to know about how the project will work via these pages. Funding applications for the project will be submitted over the next few weeks, so there’s still time to register your interest in the project.

AccessArt Studio Project – Summary

Benefits to schools, museums, galleries, community groups and cultural organisations

Special note to Schools

Benefits to individual makers/artists/workshop facilitators

Benefits to individual and group learners – all ages

Register your interest