Great Britain

  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.  

Art Lab is a peer group meet-up for artists and art practitioners to discuss their work, concurrent ideas and critical thinking. Artists can present oeuvres, a selection of work, performances or work in progress to test out on a supportive audience. It’s open to anyone who would like to attend and contribute constructively. Art Lab is for sharing ideas, mutual learning, peer support and networking. The format is 3-4 presentations by artists/practitioners about their work/ideas/interests: 10-15 minute presentation followed by 10 minute Q&A each with a midway refreshment break. Art Lab welcomes all art practitioners at any stage in their career and operates a safe space policy. Art Lab is coordinated by Halifax based artist/curator Alice Bradshaw https://www.alicebradshaw.co.uk/ If you would like to present at any of the 2019 Art Labs please email Alice [email protected] with a brief outline of what you would like to talk about and whether you require any technical support eg projector/laptop to show images/video.

Studioname Leicester C.i.C a not for profit, creative community hub linking the Leicester’s cultural quarter with the St Matthews community. studionAme Leicester C.i.C believes that making art and the ability to be creative are central to the improvement of peoples lives and therefor central to the success of our communities. Art should not exclude through language or access when it has the ability to set people free by engendering creative thinking and expression. As artists taking over a post industrial space in a neglected part of the city, it falls upon us to seed new ways of working and living together. No longer reliant on the old broken models but the creators of a truly inclusive, sharing economies, using creative language and skills as our medium of exchange. Studioname Ltd is based on the 1st floor of 2 Brougham Street. Studios are costed at a flat rate that includes all heating, wifi, water, power and critical support where asked for. All artists have use of the kitchens, toilets and communal areas. The studios are all 24 hour 365 days a year access. Studios have open doors to help foster the cross pollination of ideas and open up a creative discourse […]

  Coventry Biennial celebrates and promotes contemporary art, producing high quality exhibitions, activities and events in one of the UK’s most creative and industrious cities. This biennial festival is deeply connected to Coventry, its histories and wider context, but also retains an outward looking perspective, ensuring that the programme has wider appeal, significance and impact. Now working towards our second festival in 2019, we are also looking forward to contributing to Coventry taking the title of UK City of Culture in 2021 and we intend to play a significant part in attracting local, national and international audiences to experience the distinctive voices, rich culture and diversity inherent to Coventry. Our programme occupies unexpected sites in the city such as historic buildings, community centres, empty retail units, theatres and public spaces as well as more traditional gallery and museum spaces. This invites new audiences leading to distinctive interactions with both the works on display and the city. The biennial is artist-led, meaning that it was founded by, is owned by and is run by artists and aims to provide meaningful opportunities for practitioners at all stages of their careers, from recent graduates to established artists, with peer-to-peer development opportunities embedded into […]

[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.  

TACO! is an artist-led space for research, production, and exchange located in Thamesmead, SE London.  TACO! is engaged with its local context and centres the work and role of artists in all the work it undertakes, supporting a dialogue between artists, audiences, community and place. TACO!’s activities are experimental and collaborative. Invited artists are supported to research, develop and realise projects over a dedicated period of time.  This research informs a public programme that includes exhibitions, events,  discussions, workshops, screenings, publishing, and co-authored participatory projects with local people and groups.  Projects initiated by artists vary in duration.  We set an open timeframe with no set expectations on outcomes. TACO!  currently comprises of a gallery, event space, bookshop and  broadcast studio at Cygnet Square, and production studio and workspace at Poplar Place.  All of these platforms provide opportunities for artists, and community production groups to make, present and distribute. RTM.FM is run as a community radio station providng a platform for DJs, artists, musicans, producers from across SE London to broadcast.  It is based at Cygnet Square. We also run training workshops in audio production and broadcasting.

sluice is an artist/curator-run initiative for similar. Sluice was founded in 2011 by art historian Ben Street and artist Karl England. Our focus is transnationally local, i.e we’re focused on the local – globally. Sluice is concerned with applied theory, both in regards of the impact of the societal and economic environment on the arts but also how the arts can in turn impact our societal and economic environment. Sluice has staged art fairs and biennials in London and expos in New York and Berlin. Sluice strategically adopts structures in order to showcase artist, curator and emergent discourse, projects and galleries. Sluice magazine grew out of these initiatives and is now independently published by Sluice Art twice a year.

ART from HEART CIC is a London based Organization that Curates, Organizes and Manages multidisciplinary group Art Exhibitions and Events focusing on contemporary issues and advocating Socio-Cultural causes. We are an enthusiastic team of creatives with a strong commercial sense who, in collaboration have skills and expertise in fundraising, curating, organizing, and managing large multimedia arts exhibitions, events programs, and festivals. ​We provide a service to Artists, aim to engage the Community and we support registered Charities whose causes are related and relevant to the selected exhibition theme. ART from HEART is CIC Registered No 12181754 Learn More visiting https://www.artfromheart.co.uk/​

The Bomb Factory Art Foundation was founded on the premise that art, artists and creative culture offer significant value in our society. Our mission is to support artists, cultural organisations and educational institutions to engage people of all ages and backgrounds in the viewing and creation of art. The Bomb Factory enables contemporary visual arts practice to thrive through the provision of affordable studio and exhibition space as well as a supportive network of artists where peer collaboration and critique is encouraged. ​All resident artists support the organisation by contributing their skills and time to the public programme. Their engagement with learning and participation enables The Bomb Factory Art Foundation to demonstrate the social value of art. Over the past five years, The Bomb Factory has established itself as an important fixture on the London Contemporary Art landscape whilst also becoming a valued and important resource for the local community. The Bomb Factory attracts visitors from all over London and beyond, who engage in our exhibition and education programmes. This includes art exhibitions, screenings, workshops, performances, poetry and music events, as well as talks and performance art open mics.

Award winning, not-for-profit arts publication reflecting on mental wellbeing. Produced and curated by Alice Bradshaw, Vanessa Haley & Lenny Szrama, founded in 2018.

  Art Dream Foundation is an upcoming online artist-run gallery and a collaborative project between two artists based in London and Zurich. They want to create a space that promotes hidden talent and artists that are underrepresented and often ignored. Joined by emerging young curators to collaborate on online exhibitions, residencies and creative projects, the Art Dream Foundation aspires to become an open platform for aspiring and emerging artists.

  Newcastle-based artist-run gallery housed above Bar Loco. Proud to offer exhibition opportunities to emerging artists.  

Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop is Workshop Foundation’s exhibition and residency space in London. It supports a diverse range of emerging and mid-career contemporary artists by providing them with space and time to develop their practice, championing principles of integrity and rigour. Through its residency programmes and exhibitions, it gives artists, curators and theorists a platform to present work and share ideas as well as creating an environment for freethinking and exchange. The Foundation seeks to progress artists’ careers and connect them to the public. It has now organized more than 25 exhibitions with over 100 artists and curators. Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop was founded in 2015 by artist Stacie McCormick in a former builder’s merchant.

  Soundstripes is an eclectic screening of short silent films, all live scored by a band of improvising musicians. Soundstripes is a co-organised by Jonny Best, Alice Bradshaw & Vanessa Haley and was established in Huddersfield in 2017.  

WE AIM TO SURVIVE! SUPPORT! ATTRACT ATTENTION! CENTRE THE ARTIST! MAKE CIVIC SPACE! Eastside Projects is an artist run multiverse, commissioning, producing and presenting experimental art practices and demonstrating ways in which art may be useful as part of society. Eastside Projects provides vital infrastructure, supports best practice and works to expand the role of the artist run space. Alongside imagining, testing and modeling a free public gallery, we are engaged in an expanded range of public activities – we make art, curate exhibitions, programme events, devise public art strategies, serve as commissioning agents, create production facilities, produce public art projects, generate and apply research, develop talent, train future art leaders and create structures to support artists locally, nationally and internationally. Our ESP programme supports and exercises new models for artists and curators to research, produce and thrive, and develops regional talent positioned in productive local and national contexts with an international viewpoint. Eastside Projects is a practice, a process and a tool. We believe in working collaboratively towards change and do so to support the cultural growth of Birmingham. Our programming aims to create active audiences by generating opportunities for deep engagement where individuals have agency and are able […]

  The East Leeds Project is a curatorial platform and operates nomadically at present within a five-mile green corridor running north to south through the eastern part of the city of Leeds, UK. This follows the route of the Wyke Beck Valley and is bookended by formal and historic parks at Roundhay and Temple Newsam. The project is research-led and seeks to locate an intersection between the overlapping concerns of contemporary visual art (as social practice); blue-green infrastructure in the city; and issues of sustainability – both human and environmental. We are actively seeking partnerships with artists and organisations interested in these practices globally. Team: Kerry Harker (Founder and Director), Claire Irving (Communities Director), Paul Harker (Communications Director)

Modern Clay is a studio project run by Mark Essen it provides a studio facility for the production of ceramics. It is accessible for artists and encouraged that the studio is available to be used by local community groups, artist educational projects and charitable groups. The studio is a resource for artists to produce their own work while developing a new programme of artistic opportunities for West Midlands artists. If offers support for community groups and is part of developing a new programme of artistic opportunities for West Midlands artists.

Soanyway is an independent online magazine, providing a platform for work that tells stories using any combination of words, images and sounds. The title ‘soanyway’ is an expression used in daily speech to refocus after digression, or as a means of changing or avoiding a subject. The conclusive ‘so’ merged with the ‘anyway’ of alternation suggests a diversity of possible stories in which interdisciplinary boundaries are crossed. This allows these apparent digressions to flow as multi-layered narrative. We interpret story broadly, considering it in relation to fact and fiction, narration or implication, and structure or a lack of it. We also regard most history, theory and critique as the telling of stories about stories. ​ISSN 2043-6408 Editors: Derek Horton, Gertrude Gibbons Advisors: Steve Argüelles, Billy Cancel, Leah Capaldi, Chris Paul Daniels, Poulomi Desai, Michelle Williams Gamaker, Alexandra Kingston-Reese, Evelyn Loschy , Sara Makari-Aghdam, Catriona McAra, Harold Offeh, Jonathan Watkins, Grace Weir “There’s a thousand sides to everything – not just heroes and villains. So – anyway – so anyway – so – any – way – ’Soanyway’ ought to be one word. Like a place or a river – Soanyway River.” Daria in Zabriskie Point (1970) dir. Michelangelo Antonioni  

Two Queens is an artist-run gallery and studios situated in Leicester’s Cultural Quarter. With the ambition of providing a centre for experimental modes of arts production, exhibition and exchange, Two Queens is dedicated to establishing an agenda for new activity in the city and across the region. We want to invest our energies into collaborations with new institutions and individuals from outside of Leicester whilst also assisting in the development of artists working within the city. Two Queens was established in 2011 by recent graduates from De Montfort and Loughborough Universities, and has been programming regular exhibitions and events since March 2012.