Curator-Run Space

  Big Shop Friday is an artist-led organization and arts space based in central Milton Keynes, operating on the ground floor of a multi-storey carpark. We provide a space for the creative community and support emerging talent. Our goal is to nurture, inspire, and grow the community of people who create. Big Shop Friday is independent, artist-led and non-profit.  

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  Pocketed right in the heart of the village Baadii Khas, Baadii is a confluence for arts for the three village panchayats in cluster of Kandbari, near Baijnath in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh. The space is a melting pot for artists, artisans, craftspersons, and all residents from the area. A community driven initiative, the space is a platform for arts engagement, exhibition and discussion in the village. Dedicated to maximizing the intrinsic value of the arts in all media, and its impact on communities, Baadii is centered on bringing arts based experiences and interventions, as bridges for cohesion of cultures and people.  

Quotes on art by artists, writers, critics and art spectators. The Window Art Project wants to show the value of art to a broader public. It started in 2013 with a new quote on art on the window of our studio at Weesperzijde in Amsterdam every two weeks. The Weesperzijde is a busy pedestrian and cycle route to the center of the city. Every day more then 15.000 visitors are passing by, many in a hurry but more and more people notice the quotes. They read, react, smile, frown, reflect make a note or a picture of the quote. And regularly, we find new quotes in our letterbox or email.  

  L’AiR Arts is a grass-roots non profit association with a mission of supporting intercultural and artistic exchange through providing international artist residency opportunities. Our programs bring together artists, researchers, arts professionals and arts supporters of different nationalities and backgrounds with the aim to foster creativity and artistic practice, while promoting inclusion, diversity and international understanding through arts and cultural heritage.  

  E T A J is an artist-run space, a catalyst that focuses on the efficiency of the contemporary artistic object within the local context. Some artists have grouped themselves into the idea of conceiving a cultural cell. Through their journey, but also in their connection there is no conventional model. Whether it is a group exhibition, a solo one or other events originated here, the principles of the artistic practice and a sense of authenticity are those guiding the initial collective actions at E T A J.  

  Fluctuating images is an independent, non-commercial platform for media art and media design, established 2004 in Stuttgart, since 2008 in Berlin. The focus of its transdisciplinary curatorial and scientific approach are audiovisual productions (visualization of music) as well as developments in art, design, architecture, music, dance and film.  

  Exgirlfriend is a contemporary art exhibition space established by Elena Feijoo in Berlin-Steglitz in 2016. Since then, the gallery has moved its location to a 150 square meter hall within the larger HER arts building in Alt-Mariendorf. Exgirlfriend has been showcasing 7 innovative exhibitions by local and international emerging artists each year alongside a wide-ranging external programming schedule. At the end of each year, Exgirlfriend hosts an open call for which all project types and applicants are eligible. Exgirlfriend is in a constant state of flux determined by its changing cultural context as well as by everyone who has a relationship with the space—collaborators, artists, and audiences.

  Ergastule is an Artist-run space founded by ten artists in 2008. Its goal is to promote contemporary art pooling competencies and tools of its members to create and show art-works and editions in its studios in Nancy (FR) as well as off-site temporary group shows. Ergastule invites artists to realize their projects by bringing their ideas and learning new skills. The organization’s uniqueness is based on shared competences, each artist learning from the others. The association is interested by traditional as technical know-hows to serve contemporary art’s research. Ergastule aims to bring about a situation conducive to novelty. Competences: Shaping, casting & edition: polyester resins, ceramics, blown glass and cast glass, silicones elastomers, latex, plaster, wax, metals Graphism: Paper publishing, books, photo-engraving, photopolymer, press, intaglio, linocut Digital: numerical modeling, synthetic imagery, animation, 3D-numerising, 3D-printing, 3 axes milling etc.

  Berlinskej Model is a non-profit gallery based in art district Holešovice, Prague, Czech Republic. Berlinskej Model has been founded in 2011 and it’s known as a meeting point for the current art scene, crossing borders of the local district, genres and generations. The gallery is also organizing workshops, talks, discussion panels, concerts and regularly issuing art magazine RAJON. Berlinskej Model mainly focuses on contemporary art overlapping in political and social involved activism. Berlinskej Model runs exhibitions once per week, presenting every new artist on Wednesdays only. The show is on just for one night only, so it’s an opening and a closing ceremony in one, including a meal cooked by the exhibiting artist.  

[gP] is an artist collective living and working from Lincoln, UK. Promoting exchange with wider artist led initiatives nationally and internationally [gP] seeks to stimulate a critical discourse, and sustain an engaged visual arts culture in the city through the programming of exhibitions, events and workshops. ​ With an emphasis on a fluid and experimental approach, gP encourages a diverse range of artistic practices that are developed collectively. Within the core group of approximately 10 artists there are on-going collaborations with more specific interests such as Curio, Mulch, Angry Gang, GAST, Reel and KAC which extend into the wider artistic community, incorporating contributions from practitioners in other locales. This collaborative ethos is clearly demonstrated through our workshop practice too; continuing to encourage collective exploration of creative subjects, blurring the line between workshop facilitators and workshop attendees.  

Florìda is a cultural space located in the old Jewish Ghetto in Genoa’s historic center. It is an experimental project that aims to promote social and urban development through the tools of art, co-creation, and international artistic mobility. The goal is to enhance new lifestyles and enjoyment of the territory by counteracting the tendency of its inhabitants to abandon the historic center, with a particular focus on young people. The association hosts artists in residence, organizes exhibitions, and facilitates artistic collaborations to strengthen the local social and creative network, believing that artistic practice is an opportunity for contamination and enrichment for all parties involved. Since 2023, Florìda has hosted ten artists in residence, realized three international exhibitions, three artistic residencies for Academy students, and five ‘Small Talks’, a free and open dinner formula animated by a dialogue on artistic practices and contemporary cities. The association has also collaborated with several organizations and cultural institutions operating in the historic center of Genoa.

Snake House VT is dedicated to supporting underrepresented artists through exhibitions, performances, screenings, and other events and projects. We promote the exchange of ideas through unique programming, embracing work that presents challenging and provocative contemporary content that is outside of, or directly eschews, the predominant commercial system. Recognizing that many existing systems of power, including arts organizations, grant privilege and access unequally, we seek to engage with artists and their work without regard to, and with respect of, their race, class, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, gender identity & expression, geography, citizenship status, religion and mental or physical ability. We love discourse that disposes of patriarchal and antiquated hegemonies, and the radical notion that art can be a space for equity and difficulty, quiet success and epic failure. We also love a good sense of humor. Our projects include Single Channel VT which explores the moving image and time based media through Artist Curated Screenings and an Annual Video Festival. Artist Curated Screenings highlight the history, practitioners, and genres of the moving image and time based media. Each event showcases the work of an artist who also presents the work of another artist they are inspired by, or in conversation with.  […]

The Museum of Loss and Renewal is an art project that offers space and contexts for making and sharing, by taking time. Rather than being a museum in the traditional sense that accumulates ‘stuff’, The Museum of Loss and Renewal stimulates people to take time in which to generate thoughts, feelings and ideas. The Museum of Loss and Renewal is a growing collection of experiences that are regularly shared through the activities of its curators, partners and residents, and is a vehicle that enables the consideration of how to lead a more balanced life. The Museum of Loss and Renewal nurtures relationships between creative people across disciplines, worldwide. The Individual Residency Programme Taking Time / Prendendo Tempo and Group Residency Programme Place, People and Time are situated in Collemacchia, in the Apennine mountains of Italy’s Molise region. The Group Residency Programme Air, Sea and Soil takes place in Scotland’s Orkney Islands in partnership with The Pier Arts Centre. The Museum of Loss and Renewal Publishing is a vehicle for the production of artist’s publications, books and limited editions, printed matter, multiples and artists’ books. The Museum of Loss and Renewal Publishing offers residents, former residents and new partners creative and […]

Kulturhus Björkboda, nicknamed “KUBU”, is a multifunctional community venue in the middle of Kemiönsaari, opened in 2022. The 110-year-old school building houses contemporary art exhibitions program, a craft shop, a hall with a stage, a kitchen and a pop-up café as well as workshop, meeting, collaboration spaces and a studio-residency.

We are The Tender, a Boston area micro gallery project that sees curation as caring, and believes witnessing art in person is fuel we need. The Tender is curated by Katherine Spencer. We focus on contemporary, emerging artists, local or not, whose work might not be easy to find and speaks to us. And we are artists ourselves, looking to foster community and share this space.

U N k Sustains biological digestive creativity. Is the sole survivor of ambition in the sea of negativity. Loses itself in the minds of the imaginative. Lives by reviving the souls purpose. Yearns for collective cultural critique. Gunk is free, Gunk is unrestricted. Our aim is to create dialectics between the collective and community through organising events, fairs, happenings and screenings. Our community is built from our excitement to foster expression and new ways of thinking. We invite artists of all disciplines to share in inclusive creative experiences that also provide powerful motivational energy, to create, to be yourself and to be reborn. “Gunk serves as the connected culturally conscious critical communicative cooperative co opt.” – Gunk member Gunk’s first creative collaboration was initiated in a repurposed derelict space, that was condemned to be destroyed. We worked alongside our sponsor Snailfish Independent Bookstore, local artists and active community members in transforming the space. The public exhibition titled ’57 Art Fair’ hosted: Snailfish’s curated selection of Books, as well as works from artists spanning Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture and Photographic prints. This exhibition set the foundation for Gunk as an active Artist Alliance.

Artistic Curiosities * Unexpected Wonders Wondercabinet is the project of interdisciplinary relational artists, Anne Weshinskey and Árni Gudmundsson (V4L Arts Collective). We specialize in the instigation and exhibition of artistic curiosities, and creating spaces where unexpected wonders can occur. We pave a pathway to enjoying contemporary art through activities that engage everyone—from locals to those passing by on their way to somewhere else. Anne and Arni began working together 15 years ago while living and working in separate countries (Turkey and Sweden), and in 2016 moved to West Virginia where the type of conceptual and relational (community collaborative) work we do was completely unheard of in this rural area. In order to rectify this situation, we took over the fire truck bay of an old volunteer fire company and turned it into an exhibition and production space and roadside attraction called Wayside Wondercabinet.  Located within the Between the Hills Community Center in Loudoun County, VA,  Wayside Wondercabinet has since become a locus of cultural projects created for, and in collaboration with, the local community.  Besides exhibiting artistic work and serving as a venue for various cultural projects,  “The Wayside” is home to a permanent collection of curiosities and artworks by local […]