What might an AccessArt Studio be?

Put simply, an AccessArt Studio is a place where AccessArt-inspired activity (and other creative activity) can be supported and enabled. We know lots of people use the resources on our website, and we want to help and enable even more people to use the resources, in a more supported, locally-based environment.

Central to the AccessArt Studio Project is the idea that the “studio” carries with it a sense of community. We are inviting schools, organisations and individuals to consider hosting a studio, to benefit their particular community. This might be realized in a number of ways. For example:

A school might have a spare room which it can use as a studio space. The room might serve school children during the day, and the wider community in the evening/at the weekend. The space might be dedicated to the project for a given period of time.

A community centre might have a space which is used for a variety of other purposes, but will become an AccessArt Studio at specified times.

A group of home educators or learners with common interest might wish to establish a studio in their own home. This kind of studio might not open their doors to the general public but still serve the needs of a smaller community.

Schools, community groups, colleges, museums, galleries and individuals can register their interest in establishing an AccessArt Studio.

Why a studio? What’s the background?

We’ve been thinking about how to enable and inspire making activity for some time. When we talk to teachers, pupils, parents and community groups about what would help them enable making activity, the same things come up: Time, Space, Materials and Expertise.

When these 4 things are in place, inspiration has somewhere to land, but although inspiration alone can be a terrific force, without facility, many teachers, parents and groups are finding it hard to make the time and space for the activities they really want to experience.

Whilst AccessArt is an evolving collection of internet-based resources designed to inspire and enable teaching and learning in the visual arts, it is very important to us that the practice we promote is based on tried and tested grassroots experience. For us, Shaping Makers as a campaign to highlight and promote making across all sectors, needs to be a tangible, physical project which is about real relationships with real people. We also understand from previous and ongoing projects, the importance of network or community.

For these reasons, we’ve decide to centre our promotion of making around the creation of a number of studios. The studios will be supported by a range of activities, and the whole ethos behind the AccessArt Studio Project will be to maximise a sense of community and to use the power of this community to create a momentum and engagement in the project. Find out more about how we plan to build upon the AccessArt Studio Community here.

The Potential of an AccessArt studio

The old notion of a studio was a place in which an artist/maker would make work. Communities or groups of artists/makers equally call their place of work a studio. And it’s common practice now for artists to open up their studios, on occasion, to share their activities to a wider audience. But studios such as these are not generally open places where individuals or community groups can access making on an ongoing basis.

AccessArt wants to expand these notions and bring the concept of “studio” into 2010, by ensuring that studios embrace a sense of community, technology, sustainability and that they are embedded rather than removed from society and the economy. AccessArt studios will be places of learning and sharing – spaces for exploration of making for all.

We want to explore the idea that a “studio” with a small “s” can be a collection of like-minded people meeting physically or virtually (or both), which can empower, enable and inspire individuals and groups to feel part of a larger project, whilst pursuing their individual aims.

So what might a studio be?

An AccessArt studio might be:

An existing education room, or room which shares its use with other activities. This room could be in a school, museum, community centre – any public space.

A spare room in a school, college, museum, gallery, community centre, prison or other public venue etc given over for the purpose and set up as a dedicated studio workspace for a given period of time (e.g. a term, year etc);

A gathering of individuals, sharing a common interest, who agree to meet to explore their particular aspect of making further. These groups might not have their own space to meet, meeting instead in homes or community places.

Studio hosts might make a big commitment to the project (for example a school may dedicate a room for a defined period of time), or be more transient and loosely formed (for example a group of home educators exploring the idea in a small way).

What will happen in a Studio?

The AccessArt Studios will provide either open or closed access to learning triggered by the AccessArt Studio Project. This might mean a series of regular workshops, or one off events, to either an invited (e.g. schools groups), or open audience (e.g. public access).

What makes this project different?

AccessArt studios are NOT artist residencies – they are places for everyone, sometimes facilitated by artists, rather than artist studios, where the public can experience creative learning opportunities. The Studios showed be owned by their community, whether that is the wider community or a defined community.

AccessArt studios are about creating momentum and finding sustainable ways to continue. We want to avoid learning activities ending when traditional funding ends. The AccessArt Studio Project is about momentum.

AccessArt studios harness AccessArt’s experience and position, in partnership with grass roots communities, to create strong and inspired new communities.

How might a studio link to the wider community?

Each studio would help build and benefit from community in the following ways:

- communities (made up of individuals and groups) local to a particular host might be able to use the studio as a base for making activities (see below), and local and regional makers, businesses and cultural providers would feed into the studio to create and share opportunities for the local community.

- studios and the communities built around them would join with other studios to form a wider AccessArt Studio Community, which shares resources (both physical and internet-based).

What might the responsibilities of studio host/AccessArt be?

Dependent upon AccessArt securing funding for the project, AccessArt would provide hosts with the support they need to set up their studio’s, or if the studio space (or education room) is already established, then support in terms of workshop ideas, teaching, resources and audience. Some of this support might be financial (for instance in the form of materials), but mostly this support would be in the form of advice, shared resources, and help establishing making activities (via workshop leaders or CPD). AccessArt would then continue to support the studio by helping to build a programme of activities, further sharing of resources and ideas, and access to the AccessArt Studio Community (via the AccessArt website).

The responsibilities of the host will be dependent upon the level of commitment the host feels able to offer. Larger studios hosted by schools etc might be asked to open up their studios to the wider community, building a range of activities which can serve families and beyond. Smaller more transient studios will not be required to do this, but all studio hosts will be encouraged to give something back to the AccessArt studio community, for example by sharing their experiences and making their ideas accessible to others, via the AccessArt site.

Studio hosts will be expected to meet basic studio costs: heat, light, rent, insurance. Studios will be encouraged and supported in trying to ensure that where possible they begin to generate some revenue to contribute towards costs, for example in charging for some workshop activity. Whilst AccessArt will support activities taking place within each studio, by sharing resources, skills, audiences etc, each studio will be independently run, by the host. This means that each studio has the potential to grow independently to serve the needs of that particular community.

See Also:

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

AccessArt Studio Project Map