Um, so yeah, A space has been going for just over 20 years. So it was set up by Dan Crowe, who's still the director. And it was kind of in in response to you. I mean, he graduated from Solent uni. And he just noticed as he graduated, how kind of few opportunities there were in the city for artists. So it was really born out of that, that, you know, he couldnt see any opportunities for him here. So he kind of made them and tried to kind of, over the last 20 years create a city where artists might want to stay. So like a main part of that is the studios that we run the arches, which is the kind of oldest running projects that we've got. That's sort of 20 of studios, and a kind of testing space or an exhibition space down there as well. That's the kind of most obvious way that we support artists by providing space basically, for them to make work. And then we also have a kind of number of other projects. So God's house tower being one of them, which is a sort of, kind of headline venue which is an arts and heritage venue. And it's got a museum, it's got gallery spaces a cafe library. So it's a real kind of like multi use space.
And the idea is that the contemporary art exhibitions that we commission offer a kind of alternative way into the sort of historic stories and the kind of, yeah, the Old Town, rather than just got as I was building it, the history and the art conditions kind of respond to the Yeah, kind of wider history of the old town and mediaeval Southampton. And ght, we have, yeah, we have that kind of contemporary art commissioning programme. And then alongside that, we have sort of X series of activities, which are workshopping things, or talks or, yeah, other kinds of activities, which are kind of involved in the community in different ways. So they're sort of more each of the activities is kind of focused on a certain audience that we want to attract, and bring into the building and offer a kind of route into the work the other work that we do. And then we've got write, which is a graduate programme, and that's based on old northern road. And yeah, we have some spaces there, which are used by graduate artists and programme which kind of is an annual programme, where we invite graduates from certainly USC and Winchester School of Art to exhibit with us over the summer. So we're coming up to June now. So when the degree shows happen, we'll go to the degree shows, select a group of artists, invite them in to do exhibitions with us. And then they have six months over the winter, where they can use the spaces and studios. So it's really about providing that kind of support. At the graduate level, when students, you know, being at university, you feel so supported. And there's this whole kind of community of people around you. And then when you leave, I'm sure
you're so lost you that.
Yeah, there's like, all of a sudden, you have no resources and no support. And so ripe is really about providing Yeah, a year of support straight out of uni, and that those artists feel that they can, yeah, maintain their practice. So that's right. And then out of right, was born kind of new collected into homes and called desks. And they are graduates from each of the previous ripe years. So right started in 2018. So it's been going for five years now. So at the end of the year of support, artists are then offered to either remain as like a kind of, like an alumni of Right. Or the other option is to join, zest and zest are a kind of collective that are based in Oldham road and one of the buildings, and they have recently finished their first sort of Art Council funded project. And now Yeah, and and now applying for the next project grant from the Arts Council. So they're an independent collective, but you know, we support them through studio provision, and we kind of, yeah, give them feedback about their applications and like, support them in all of that kind of professional development way as well. That was pretty cool. Yeah, so that's something that really has only kind of come about in the last sort of four or five years. And is Yeah, I think the kind of like, key aim for right was that graduate retention so you know, people finish Jeannie and they go back home or they move up to London. And righ is really about, you know, communicating that there are there are opportunities in Southampton and that that artists can live and work here and sustain and practice.
So I think that was one of the main things with my project was that I wanted to like show people that there is actually aside because not a lot of people stay because obviously we're so close to London. Yeah, a lot of people just decide that London's like the easiest thing for people to do. And I think a lot like I was just discussing with, I have a mentor as well. And I was just chatting with him. He works and lives in Basingstoke. And a lot of the obviously like graphic design design studios kind of based in Winchester, because obviously that's where the winter starts. Yeah. But I don't think a lot of them base themselves in science. And for the obvious reason, that doesn't really seem to be a lot like obviously, a lot more going on creatively than there is in Winchester. So yeah, I think that need so yeah, that's great. That's those are really good. I didn't know about. I have done a bit of research. I didn't know about this. have messaged a lot of the graduate artists or interviews.
Yeah. Have you heard that from any of them?
One. But a lot of them said that they've moved on but like move
back home? Yeah.
So they're not anymore. So they can't really help. But that's okay.
Yeah, well, it's definitely worth speaking to. I don't know who you've been in touch with from that. But Ellen does quite a lot of the sort of she's kind of leads on there, like fundraising and stuff. Okay. So after this, I can send you her email if you want. Yeah, that'd be great. Probably a good person to speak to and she also volunteers with me at K six gallery. across K six gallery. No, I haven't. No. So we're we run exhibitions in a pair of old telephone boxes. Yeah, they're just like, by West key. They're on Castle away. And, yeah, we just programme like four exhibitions a year. And we've got boards up so you just like walk into the phone box. And you can kind of like see the work. Yeah. But yeah, she's probably good first and speak to you because she works on Kasich stuff, as well as she's kind of been assisting was silent showcase as well. So yeah. And she actually went to Birmingham, uni to English, and then moved back home where her parents live in Winchester, and then kind of moved to Southampton to kind of take Yeah, to kind of take all this opportunity, please. So she'd be a good person to speak to change.
Yeah, that sounds good. I'd say the workshops that you said you run in God's house how're how do they normally that how would you normally go about planning? And how do you normally get a lot of people participating?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we, I mean, we've done various things over the last couple of years, like got our tower, when we opened, it was like September 2019. And then we were only really open for six months before COVID for like, a year. So we tried out quite a lot in that six month period. And with like, sort of varying degrees of success, like we did some workshops, and nobody turned up. But what what was good about doing all of that, and then that we could work out, you know, we could start to see patterns as to like, what, what was more popular with people and how to kind of go about attracting people to workshops and things. So the kind of current activities programme, is, as I kind of mentioned before, it's more like targeted. So we do a creative writing workshop, which is kind of one thing that springs to mind. And, yeah, we kind of put out an effort for somebody to come in and run that group. So there's like a facilitator, who has written the sort of course it's called, like, like a short course, basically. And that, that works really well. That's not quite a kind of, you know, that that's really popular. It's quite often booked out. Yeah. And then other than that, we are we do kind of a number of different things. It's my colleague, Hannah, who looks after the the activities programme at tht. Yeah, so she probably knows a bit more about Yeah, how
workshops on the running of it. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, go on. I was wanting to put together like a potential workshop with the people that I was interviewing. But yeah, I haven't. Like I feel like I need to go and like meet. It's like cannot go about that. Really?
Yeah. I think um, zest is probably your sort of best route. They they've done quite a lot of workshops through their projects, their arts council project. Okay. So they're, they're a kind of collective with quite a community focus. So do lots of work with the Ropewalk garden in northern and other different kinds of community groups. And yeah, co produce artworks with with communities.
Okay, cool. Okay, so that's definitely,
yeah, well, I think they'd be definitely Yeah. Some Yeah. A good kind of contact. Have you come across Sarah filmer?
Yes. I think she replied to my email.
Yeah, yeah. So it's one of our trustees, and she has a studio in this building, actually, which is where the space offices are. Um, and she's great. She's done loads of sort of community projects in the past. And she runs a project called knit the walls, which is a kind of like, open drop in workshop where people can come and knit and chat and it's quite informal. But yeah, they've together they've knitted, like all of this, like loads of walls like the mediaeval walls around the tower. Okay.
Okay, I'll definitely haven't gone back to anyone that I was interviewing. Yeah, I just thought I'd speak to you first. Because you see, every everywhere I looked, it just was your emails.
Yeah, I think a space is kind of like, yeah, what you'll find probably talking to lots of people is that most visual artists in the city are kind of connected to a space in some way. So my, I mean, as well as so as well as the studios ght and right, we also have an artist development programme, which is run by Mary cook. And she leads on number of like, different kinds of professional development. So like one to ones with artists and like, talk from conversations, peer to peer networks. And so she might also be somebody good to talk to actually, because she she kind of knows quite a lot of artists in the city. And further afield.
Yeah, that'd be good. Yeah.
So I can send you her emails.
What do you think of the city of culture? Bear? Do you think it's going to change our city?
I hope so. Yeah, I mean, I think it'll, it'll bring it if nothing else, like a lot of sort of attention, like National kind of media coverage and interests. And I think that's, you know, huge, isn't it? And, yeah, more opportunities for for artists in the city, which is what, we tried to do a space. So yeah, it's, um, it's an exciting prospect. I just hope that, like, if we get it when we get it, but we can like, work in a way that sort of, yeah, that's best for everyone. Like, there's kind of support for grassroots activity as well as sort of top down stuff. Because it does feel a little bit like, I mean, I think it has to work in this way. It does feel like there's a group of people who were like, deciding what city of culture is, and looks like. It doesn't seem to have been huge amounts of like, conversation between those people and the people who live in the city. Yeah,
no, I completely get that. And I was when I was looking at it seems like the main person I keep seeing as Nathan Evans is the graphic designer that's doing like, every day. Like I've seen him do everything. Yeah. And I kind of like was wondering if there was any other artists that were involved? Because it just seems like it's a lot of focus on him. Yeah.
Yeah. It's probably just like at this phase, where it needs to be focused, smaller and centralised. But hopefully over the year, there'll be that word. Yeah. I mean, we'll definitely try and mass learn and make that happen. Definitely.
I think it's been it's been a weird thing, because I mean, I, I moved so often, like, three years ago, and when I moved here, we were having conversations about sort of culture like this has been going on for so long. That it feels like we had all these like we had sort of culture conferences like, which were organised by Southampton Cultural Development Trust, who were having these conversations with a guy called James Gough, who was the director of that, and he it was like a cow. So supported thing. And he ran all these, these these like conferences and we kept talking about like, how to approach it of culture in a way that was best for all of the communities here. And, and we had all of these, like really important, open conversations about it. And then actually when we came around to applying, because the timeframe was so small, it became really like critical. And rather than actually looking back and thinking about his conversations, it seemed like people just had to, like plough on with, like something just just to get it done. And so I think that left quite a lot of people who had been a part of those conversations feeling a bit put out, because, yeah, because everyone had been thinking about it for so long. And that cultural development trust actually got, like, what's the phrase like, dissolved? Yeah, the council just basically stopped supporting it. And they, they decided that the city of culture needed a different kind of like structure. Yeah. Moving forward.
Have you been a part of it? Or have you been a part of any of the conversations since then? Or not? Really?
Yeah. So there was quite a lot of consultation, like in sort of autumn last year. So I was part of a couple of like conversations and focus groups, which were like, I think they would have been, the first ones were quite open. And then the second ones were like, there were these like, five ideas for like themes. And then we discussed each of the ideas. And it was like with other visual art professionals. But even that process, I think some people will put out because the city of culture team had decided who to invite into those rooms. Yeah, like those calls only happened with people who the city team like deemed, like important and to be there. Which, yeah, and itself was a bit problematic, isn't it? Because there must be other people in the city who, like aren't as visible, but his voices would have probably been good to have in the room.
Yeah. Because I'd been trying to get into contact with someone that was running like the main group of it. And actually, someone on my course happens to be a part of one of the steering groups for the city read. But yeah, I'm still yet to contract. But yeah, apparently, I can mess with the mesh into a message out of guys and find loads of emails on LinkedIn. But the only person I can find is a guy called timekeeping. And I emailed him and he said he wasn't he's just on the board of like, some distant thing and wasn't really real. of it was interview. Yeah, I didn't know about the steering group. And that was like, that kind of thing involved. Yeah, it is really interesting. I'm just so interested by the process and how, like how people get selected to be a part of the like, the initial, like running of it. Yeah. Because that was, there was also a lot of focus. Because obviously, there was the grants wasn't there, there was a 10 grants. And there was a lot of focus on the young people. Yeah. But there wasn't, I feel like there's also people that have been here, like their whole lifetime. Oh, also, we should obviously focus on the young people. But I feel like that we should also focus on the people that have been there forever. Yeah, it was just one of the reasons I wanted to do the project was because I wanted to focus on not only the graduates but also the people that have been here their whole life and yeah, gain inspiration from the city and live and breathe her. Yeah,
I think everyone has a different perspective.
Yeah, I think it's like, I think that's really important. And I think, like one of the things that if if the city of culture, like it's a success, I think it should involve like everyone, like I think there's that statistic about hold that like 98% of the population in Holland engaged with City of Culture in some way. Like, that's amazing. Yeah, we've got to work really hard to make that happen, though. I think there's like lots to do between now and then to make people feel like they. Yeah, they are invited in, you know.
Yeah. And that they want to be a part of it as well. Yeah, I think that's one of the interesting outcomes. I don't know whether you've looked at the Coventry one as well. But one of the really interesting outcomes was that they collaborate did a collaboration project where they did a partnership with a researcher and an artist within the city. Yeah. And that project is really interesting, because obviously, you're pairing an artist that's been here forever with a researcher and then they like come out to make it outcome of whatever medium that they think fits. Yeah, some of the projects are just insane.
Yeah, I'm sure there are people in the team that have like looked at it. But previously of cultures and I mean, I don't envy them having to write that beard. Like I think there was, like, we I mean we put into so like, I think for every for the programme, though, like five different sort of like areas. And then like underneath those areas, there are all these projects. So a space put into ideas for team projects, but like every other organisation in this cultural organisation city would adopt saying, so there must just be like, hundreds of projects that they have to write into this bed. You Yeah, we'll see.
Do you think that there needs to be more like collaboration across the city? So do you think in terms of artists, we think there needs to be like more things that are kind of at the public face?
Yeah, I think what would really benefit the city is like more collaboration between the organisations and I think that will then trickle down into the, into the artists and those communities. Yeah, I feel like, it's actually quite an interesting kind of cities comparison, having two years, Plymouth, which is where I grew up. And I feel like in Plymouth, it's very similar city like, it's the same, almost the same population, both houses are like, really bombed during the war, both have got this like, link to like maritime stuff. But I think in Plymouth, they, the visual arts organisations are all a lot more linked up, what you tend to see as you go to an exhibition, and it will be like, sponsored by one of the other galleries or in collaboration with one of the galleries. And I think, you know, when that happens, like the bigger institutions can really benefit from the grassroots stuff, because that's a kind of authentic way into these kind of like the communities that live in that city. And then, you know, the, those kind of grassroots organisations can really benefit from the funding, and the resources and the structure and all of that that's available in the institutions. And I feel like they do that quite successfully implement, but I feel like in Southampton, we don't do it enough. Like, I feel sometimes a space operates as like an island, like, you know, the City Art Gallery and the John Hancock gallery. We don't do any, like cross collaboration, like we don't do any programming with them. We all just have our own separate programmes. Yeah. And that just feels like, yeah, it should change. But I think maybe since you've culture can be can be helpful for that. And one of the ideas that we put a space put in was the visual arts festival, where there's just like, you know, one month of the 2025 year where every single organisation has like something on and you know, so that all the art spaces in the city, and even those that are hidden, or like empty retail units, can all be kind of like opened up. Yeah, I just think some joined up thinking around a festival or something that could happen every other year or every four years or could really help start those conversations. But yeah, we'll see if that ends up happening or not,
because I think that I think that's a great idea. So that's what we just started doing this summer. They're doing a Design Festival. And that's one of the that was one of my original targets as well. But yeah, I do think I do, I didn't know that they didn't, you didn't cross over because I went to the city Art Gallery the other day, and the only collaboration I saw was with the university. I think that's a great space. And I think that is not utilised. I remember going when I was younger, I went to like art workshops there. Did everything at this city Art Gallery, and now they just don't seem to do any of that anymore. Just seems like it's lacking, but maybe sort of contraband will change.
Yeah. That's, that's an amazing collection. Like, they always say like, oh, you know, sometimes it's not the best collection outside of London in the whole UK. Like the most thorough and like it's just really good, but like you just don't see, I can't it's just not visible. Like I only know that because people have told me that like it's not obvious because it's not really celebrated.
Yeah. So do you think that if if it was more of the creative more public facing and there was a lot of like, installations and there might be more buzz around?
Yeah, I don't know. It's it's I think it's really hard I think sometimes like, because like, I think maybe this is a problem across the board was like quite established institutions. But it's been going for so long that like, it's quite hard to reinvent the wheel like I just think it's so used to doing what it's always done. I mean, recently I went to Manchester and their art gallery was incredible like and they had in every room they had something that was like, critical of an artwork or a perspective, and there were quite a lot of conversations around marginalised histories and how there are gaps in the collection because of like structural racism and, and that was so like there and visible and none of that happens in science and art gallery. It's just just put a painting up. And it just is the context that it's always been in. And there's no one there. That's like, reframing the invite that collection only institutional, you know. Yeah. But I don't I don't know, like, because we don't have a lot student. I don't know what it's like, I don't know why that's the case or how easy it would be to disrupt that or James. Yeah. So your coverages good opportunity? Yeah. Yeah.
Or do you think that there needs to be like, obviously, you're talking about the organisations and the collaboration across? Do you think that there needs to be more of that, and it needs to be more if diversity of culture was to win? I think more money needs to be put into making it so that the public more aware of all of these organisations?
Yeah.
But it also, yeah, but it almost feels like a bit like, always money going through a sieve. If they're not, if there isn't that connection and that collaboration, like creating something out of it. Yeah. Because it's like, you can always point towards various institutions. But it only lasts so long as far as the interest is there. And then if there isn't some sort of networking, something to hold that and build upon it, and it is just like, cool. We've had a bit more money. We've done a fancier exhibition or something. A good programme for a year, but then what? So yeah,
yeah. Like funding, like genuine, authentic collaboration, and projects that have a legacy beyond just the city of culture year. Yeah. And then that, in turn will lead to more, you know, visible, this collaboration and understanding about these institutions and what they do and how they, yeah.
Yeah, well, I hope that there is money in this stuff like that. Yeah. I think there's a lot of interesting things to think about with it.
Yeah, um, I mean, I think I've covered all my questions. Really? Yeah. Oh, I was just gonna pick the Ask the as I'm creating an identity for what do you think that Southampton needs cultural identity? Or do you think we're okay with that card identity?
Yeah, I mean, what like, What do you mean by identity? Like
I just think that from Yeah, just like looking from the outset, like Samson is very based on like the sea and like maritime, whereas I don't think there's so much like, based on like, oh, like Lopes I haven't a logo. It's like, what is it? Like, to just Hampton? It's like a boat and it's blue. Can we do more than just think that there needs to be like, either like a logo or like something that symbolises like, the cultural side to Southampton that like, isn't there currently? Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's just from an outsider's perspective. But
yeah, it's yeah, it's an interesting thing. Isn't it? Like people? Yeah, what, like people's perspectives are, like, of the city from outside. Like, it's quite hard for them to know what those what people think, like, I knew before I came here that I wasn't like, that thrilled about. Like, I didn't think of it is like a very interesting creative place. So yeah, maybe some good kind of better visual identity would help to kind of change people's lives. Yeah,
I mean, it's definitely it's definitely the case that there's a lot more interesting cultural things going on, then it's perceived. Exactly, yeah. That a reflection of that can only be sort of a positive thing. But I suppose the the issue there is like, you don't want to go so far down that route, that you just discount other aspects? Because if you're talking about Southampton as a city rather than South Hampton, cultural identity, you don't want to just be like, yeah, it's corporate city and get rid of like, say the maritime history, which is so important to so many people. And especially as like you were mentioning before, like, the people who've lived here, their whole lifetimes and the older generations who really do know Southampton. Like what what aspect So the city delay taken up for a lot of them it is that maritime history and so many of them are connected. But then there's like other bits, other communities as well. But obviously really influential part of the city as well. Like, what's the what's the Indian festival? Yeah, so like, the Indian community that run like a big, like the biggest festival in Southampton has. So that's like a, obviously a huge part of it. Of the identity of Southampton. as a whole. So,
