SWG3 (Studio Warehouse Glasgow) is a multi-disciplinary arts venue that exudes eccentricity as you walk through the steel doors. The huge open spaces can be transformed into whatever you wish; an exhibition space, a nightclub, a wedding venue, the space is a mean contender as one of the most popular venues in Scotland. Tucked down a lane in the heart of Finnieston in Glasgow, SWG3 thrives on its reputation for being a stellar venue and a huge player in the creative scene, inspiring young individuals to create and fulfil their potential in an open and free space.

SWG3 is a popular nightclub, the home to roller discos, themed nightclubs, resident DJs and music festivals. The venue can be hired for creative ventures and the space can be admirably catered for a variety of different events.

SWG3 prides itself on large contemporary spaces that can be used for a multitude of creative processes. Inside the vast space there is a Photography studio which is available to hire for commercials, editorial pieces, test shoots, music videos and more. Spaces also available include individual artist studios alongside a Design Studio which is shared by some great creative businesses, graphic designers and illustrators.

SRD Fashion show @ SWG3

Gallery space @ SWG3

SWG3 have a number of gallery exhibitions, and frequently Scotland’s creatives descend to wander around the vast space to experience up and coming national talent. This year SWG3 is taking part of Glasgow International, the world renowned festival of contemporary art where there will be an install of Don Levy’s exceptional, innovational work.

For further information or to arrange a site visit contact info@swg3.tv

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25-year-old Edinburgh College of Art sculpture graduate Alistair Grant shares how he started an artist studio space and gallery.

The Number Shop (TNS) project started back in March 2014 when I (Ali) was looking for a studio initially just for myself and was sticking my nosey nose into unoccupied buildings. Previously I’d not had any luck finding a space at the established studio complexes here in Edinburgh. This property had been vacant for a few years, to the point that it had almost become invisible to a passerby, even though it’s a street front property with big windows! I made contact with the Council who still owned the property and they agreed to let it out to me on a low cost monthly basis as it was vacant and slightly dilapidated. At the time I had no prior experience in attempting something like this so I was really winging it and pretending like I knew what I was doing. We thought we may well only have the building for a few months, but those few have turned into many.

The project quickly morphed from being a solo venture into what we are today – a shared studio of emerging artists with a project space and rolling program of projects – when I saw the potential in the building. It’s widely considered, and in some ways perhaps a self fulfilling prophecy that Edinburgh does not have enough contemporary arts spaces that support emerging artists. However I believe that in response to this attitude we are witnessing a genuine change with various similar projects to TNS being created in the city. Starting out, the focus of our purpose and intentions were very specific. On reflection, I realise this limited us in our actual usefulness to the greater arts scene. I wanted to offer affordable and flexible space to artists (which we continue to do) to recent art school graduates in an effort to smooth the transition from student to practising artist, by keeping the creative momentum which is often lost post-graduation. I felt that this disruption could leave some young artists lacking direction, time and money for making their own work, when out in the real world more rationally practical elements of daily life often take over. The worst case scenario here is that students who have studied art for four years or more do not carry on doing so after college (something I temporarily experienced and found really frustrating) or that they leave the city for artier pastures (Edinburgh does not have a great artist graduate retention). Having this narrow post-student focus was quite useful in giving the place a sense of direction to help get it off the ground, as it helped both the studio and me feel like we had a defined function and clear goals. However now that we are off the ground this limits who we can support, as really we would love to be able to get all types of artists involved, some of whom may not have attended art school, or long past emerging yet still in need of cheap, flexible spaces and a community to work in. This shift in ideology has meant we have simply broadened our catchment to ‘early career’ or ‘emerging’ artists.

Renovation was awful. It was mostly done by myself with much appreciated help and support from studio members and friends. Ripping up carpets (creating fluorescent dust clouds), removing thousands (not exaggerating) of staples by hand from the floor with pliers, stripping textured wallpaper (the texture of hell), painting weird-smelling outdoor brickwork and sanding down carpet glue that could only have been made from horses…But out the other side and looking at the building’s current state, it’s awesome to see what we have been able to achieve and the difference that has been made.

With that memory of renovation fading I’m always thinking about ways to develop the studio, scoping out empty potential buildings, thinking up ideas for new projects and building links with other arts orientated groups; workshop facilities, galleries, colleges. We are interested in renovating the rugby club next door but would need a hand with that, if you want to parter up and get involved please let us know!

With it being a small building we have space for ten artists, our group of artists was formed through an initial call-out, some of whom are still here! Open plan spaces give the artists within each room the freedom to be flexible with how much space they need for each project. We don’t have high end equipment or facilities, so it’s up to the artists to bring personal equipment and sharing is encouraged. I think we still have a kind of DIY/low-tech appearance, which is something that I am actually quite happy with, because that’s very much what we are about.

The combination of having both space to make art and a place to exhibit art has been critical in our (humble) success, the expansion of our creative network and shaping what we are today as well as our value to the Edinburgh contemporary art scene. Having the ‘Project Space’ exhibition room has given us an outward-facing attitude that allows us to make connections and has enabled us to become a destination. Whilst the resident artists are able to show work, most exhibitions have actually been from outside artists who have asked for shows. There is no cost for that and I am keen to keep that free and as accessible to outside artists as possible.

2015 has been a big year for us and a massive step up in our attempts at showcasing our studio residents to a high standard and to new audiences. In March we were a venue for the Edinburgh International Science Festival and our ‘Primordial Soup’ group show was presenting the results of collaborations between the artists of The Number Shop and scientists working in a variety of fields, all made possible by working closely with ASCUS – art and science group. We are currently installing (in the classic manic and messy fashion) for our first ever Edinburgh Art Festival show, in which all the studio residents are presenting new-made art in a variety of processes such as painting, installation, sculpture, printmaking, ceramics and illustration. Our ‘Work Out’ exhibition programme runs throughout the month of August with events and workshops. We are about to install a massive awning, which is also a painting, go us! Providing these types of opportunities and deadlines for the studio members is a delicate balance of offering a structure and a platform to present on, whilst allowing time and space to pursue personal projects on individual timescales with minimal disruption.

TNS presents WORK OUT as part of Edinburgh Art Festival which is open daily from 12-5pm until 30 August. For more information, visit the Edinburgh Art Festival website here.

TNS is located at 188 Pleasance, Edinburgh, EH8 9RT.

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From time to time we feature galleries and spaces that showcase & encourage grassroots artists. Browse through more of our Featured Venues. 
Contact us to talk about a feature on your venue.

I’d have never thought I would end up founding a contemporary art gallery right in the middle of the countryside. I thought I was as urban as a dirty bus-stop outside a kabab shop. But then suddenly it happened.

If I’m honest it started as a solution to a problem – that I have an archive of nearly 9,000 books and art works from the international avant garde which I needed to find some storage space for urgently and looking around in the city, I suddenly realised I was facing huge rents that I could not afford.

And then a friend – thanks Megan – pointed out this old school house in a village just 14 miles south of Edinburgh. It was in a former Knights Templar bailiwick (where the fabled Templar gold, spirited away from Paris in 1320, was supposedly hidden between an elm and an oak tree) and had been empty for years. After a visit or two I realised it was an amazing opportunity!

So I went in and negotiated a deal with the factors, moved my collection into two big rooms and suddenly had the insight that I had loads of space left over. Especially if one took into account the four cubicle and two shower old fashioned concrete toilet block that reminded me of my own school days in Denny freezing my bollocks off in the outhouse buildings of the 1960s. There are 2,500 square feet of old school rooms here (one complete with blackboard), a 1,000 square metre garden and a car park big enough for 8 – 10 cars.

I suddenly remembered that I didn’t own 8 cars never mind 10.

So LUST AND THE APPLE was conceived. Every available space would be used to create what I thought could be a very special art gallery showing risky and challenging contemporary art continuing the work I had done at Summerhall as the curator there for the last three years. I built a 9 x 5m white internal space in one room to allow a more traditional hanging and then I started to consider a programme of artists for the coming year. Initially I decided to show three artists every quarter but I am now more likely to exhibit four or more each time as the artists are inspired by the desire to use all of the spaces including the roof and car park.

Here’s the thing – the best side to having your own gallery is that you can put on whoever or whatever you want. My opening shows were Tim Sandys, Maris and Kenny Watson (all of whom I have worked with before) and in May, the gay new York icon Cary Leibowitz will create a new installation out of tartan football scarves, alongside other initiatives by Mike Ballard from London, Edinburgh’s own Alex Allan and the New Zealand artist Elke Finkenauer; each taking over bits of this rather fantastic place. There’s a BBQ opening on the 15 May.

For the Edinburgh Festival, the famous conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner has created a new outdoor work created especially for the gallery, Denmark’s art duo PUTPUT will be creating an artist’s greenhouse in the garden, David Connearn will most probably be making a gravel drawing in the car park (although we have an offsite project for the fields nearby which may happen if we can raise the money) and Cisco Jimenez (a very significant Mexican artist) will be showing paintings and ceramics in the white gallery. There will be other artists too soon to be announced including I hope one other very well known name. We may well be running a daily art minibus from Edinburgh for the first week too.

Other artists are planned – Jonathan Monk, Maurizio Nannucci, Gregor Schneider, Christine Borland have all indicated that they are likely to work with LUST AND THE APPLE in the future if we can find the right project. And I will be showing many emerging Scottish and UK artists (much as I did at Summerhall) as I want to help the next generation of graduates get a foothold in the contemporary art scene.

Finally – this is all done out of my own pocket. I cannot see any reason to approach Creative Scotland as in my experience of them, they are deeply bureaucratic, inflexible and cowardly about contemporary art projects. If you happen to know a rich private sponsor then do email me – I could do with the help. But in the meantime I hope to make LUST AND THE APPLE a significant part of the Scottish art scene even if it means I have to live off the apples from the tree found in the garden here. I will eat them lustly.

Lust & The Apple’s upcoming opening of four exhibitions featuring Cary Leibowitz (NYC), Mike Ballard (London), Alex Allan (Edinburgh_ and Elke Finkenauer (New Zealand) will be on Friday 15 May. There will be a minibus service from Edinburgh for £8 return and all are welcome for drinks, art and BBQ (weather permitting). These shows will continue to run until 19 July.

Read more about Paul Robertson’s career on Central Station in his My First 5 Jobs article here.

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From time to time we feature galleries and spaces that showcase & encourage grassroots artists. Browse through more of our Featured Venues. 
Contact us to talk about a feature on your venue.

The Whisky Bond is designed to suit the needs of creative projects and the people who generate them. It’s more than a physical space. With a regular programme of events, talks, performances, hacks and parties an exciting community thrives, where collaboration is encouraged and new contacts are made.

The lower three floors of the building are home to Glasgow Sculpture Studios (GSS) – a unique centre for research, production and presentation of contemporary sculptural practice. GSS support a vibrant community of established artists and emerging talent, as well as offering first-class workshop facilities to artists, tenants and the general public. A large ground floor gallery hosts their visual arts programme and presents work from established and emerging artists.

Communal spaces in the building, including the ground floor café, are laid out to encourage social bustle and flow. On the 3rd floor you’ll find The Distillery – an open plan, co-working space designed to suit the evolving working styles of freelancers, start-ups and those who require a flexible working space. In The Distillery, everything’s at hand – members can turn up, switch on and start work. It’s somewhere they come to focus on work but also to be around their neighbours – artists, designers, architects, journalists, producers etc. who will be found at the next desk, through the wall or having coffee on the sofa beside them.

Adding to those already occupied on the 3rd floor, in the Autumn of this year a range of new offices and workspaces will be available. These will build on the industrial nature of the building and provide blank canvases aimed at creative businesses who wish to move away from offices with no identity, to a more exciting space where they can also become part of The Whisky Bond community.

The Whisky Bond takes a leading role in the regeneration of Speirs Locks. Not only a thriving working environment, with a canal-side location and great views of the city, The Whisky Bond offers an alternative to the congested busyness of the city centre. The opportunity for exercise, lunches by the waterside and access to a lovely community garden help create a greater, healthier work/life balance.

To learn more about The Whisky Bond, see their website here.

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From time to time we feature galleries and spaces that showcase & encourage grassroots artists. Browse through more of our Featured Venues. 
Contact us to talk about a feature on your venue.

Gasworks is unique amongst London’s contemporary visual arts organisations in combining artists’ studios, international artists’ residencies, exhibitions and a community participation programme.

Established in 1994 in Vauxhall, south London, Gasworks has built a reputation for discovering and introducing new international and British talent. More than 300 artists from over 70 countries around the world have taken part in Gasworks’ programmes. Alumni include Turner Prize nominees Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Goshka Macuga, Marvin Gaye Chetwynd and The Otolith Group; as well as other internationally renowned and award winning artists such as Yinka Shonibare, Tania Bruguera, Matthew Darbyshire, Cinthia Marselle, Subodh Ghupta and Renata Lucas.

Gasworks is also the hub of the Triangle Network, a network of thirty grass-roots arts organisations from across the world. Triangle creates unparalleled links and develops projects with artists and arts organisations in Bangladesh, India, Kenya, South Africa, Lebanon, Brazil and Colombia amongst others.

Gasworks is currently undergoing a period of transformation as it fundraises for a £2 million capital project to purchase and refurbish its current building. This exciting campaign, supported by a £1 million pledge from Arts Council England, will secure the future of the organisation and upgrade the quality of the spaces provided to artists and the public.

Gasworks Building Project will:

• Double the size of the current gallery space
• Add two more studios for London-based artists
• Create a bigger and brighter participation and events’ space
• Construct a new kitchen and terrace to encourage further interaction between artists
• Make Gasworks’ building greener, reducing energy consumption by 50%.

Building work is scheduled to begin at the end of 2014 and Gasworks’ new building will re-open in 2015. More information on the Building Project can be found here.

In the meantime, Gasworks’ world-class programme of exhibitions, residencies and participation projects continues.

Currently on show in the gallery space is the solo exhibition Mouthfeel by Maryam Jafri. Comprising the newly commissioned short film of the same name and a new photo-text work entitled Product Recall: An Index of Innovation (both 2014), the exhibition explores the politics underpinning the industrial production of food, connecting themes as diverse as “big food”, flavour enhancement technology and overconsumption. The exhibition is accompanied by a series of events, and continues until 18 May 2014.

Mouthfeel is the third exhibition of The Civilising Process, a yearlong programme of exhibitions and events at Gasworks inspired by German sociologist Norbert Elias’ eponymous 1939 book, which looks at the development of the tastes, manners and sensibilities of Western Europeans since the Middle Ages.

As part of Gasworks’ Residencies’ programme, four international artists Joon Kim (Korea), Wilhelm Klotzek (Germany), Christina Kral (Germany) and Luisa Ungar (Colombia) will spend three months at Gasworks, their time in London culminating in an Open Studio Weekend on 27 and 28 June. Find out more about the artists here.

Gasworks is located at 155 Vauxhall Street, London SE11 5RH.

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From time to time we feature galleries and spaces that showcase & encourage grassroots artists. Browse through more of our Featured Venues. 
Contact us to talk about a feature on your venue.

The Virginia Gallery was created entirely by accident. Starting with a pop-up exhibition by painter Ivor Sexton in December 2010 in the basement beneath Luke & Jack, owners Ian and Drew were quickly approached by a variety of local artists to create a permanent exhibition space. Taking its name from the now long since demolished Virginia Galleries in the same street, and with the generous help of an army of volunteers and supporters, The Virginia Gallery has hosted an ever-changing collection of exhibitions by painters, photographers, sculptors, crafters, fashion designers, filmmakers and performers.

An ethos of supporting and exhibiting artists in all stages of their careers has continued from the start; with those who have never exhibited or worked with a gallery before, to those who have international recognition. In the spirit of the origins of the gallery, there has been no rule book or business model to follow, artists have been encouraged to support and advise one another, no art form has been held above or valued over another, and the gallery has continued to be open to suggestion and experimentation, whilst not taking itself too seriously. The gallery also remains deeply rooted in serving its community by supporting Glasgow festivals, charities and community organisations, and local artists’ collectives.

The result has been an ever-changing arts space, in every sense. By February this year the space has hosted, on average, 15 on-site exhibitions a year, while further consultancy and curatorships have created a series of pop-up exhibitions in other venues as diverse as The Lighthouse (Stand Up For Love) and Glasgow University (Stand Tall, Get Snapped: 30 people living with HIV).

The gallery has no paid staff members, no funding streams and no advertising budget: social media is the primary source of reaching out to an audience for future exhibitions and events. Alongside this is a constant and sometimes urgent desire to network audiences with new talent, and artists with future opportunities, and championing equalities, both in the sense of the recognised protected strands and in the sense of artists regardless of age, training or background. This ethos and a desire to increase access to art for everyone as a creative hub (a continuing homage to its name), is likely to drive the passions and direction of The Virginia Gallery in the coming years.

2014 is the first year where The Virginia Gallery is considering seeking out new funding sources to further bolster and diversify its approach. The programme of exhibitions for the coming months is still characteristically coming together. However, the main structure of exhibitions have been allocated.

Ménage a trois photo by Aurélie Prissette

Ménage a trois photo by Anne-Sophie Jal

until 21 February | “Ménage a trois” + PATCHWORK 8
in Association with Grains de Beauté
3 French photographers explore a post-feminist photographic-study of the female nude, with Aurélie Prissette, Pierre Joël, Anne-Sophie Jal.

PATCHWORK 8 photo by Jean-Marc Milliäre

14 February 3 – 7pm | PATCHWORK 8: Valentines Day Launch
This annual touring photographic exhibition from The Association Grains de Beaute features a collective of photographers from mainland Europe. The exhibition originates in Paris, comes to the The Virginia Gallery from Seville, and then moves on to other countries including Georgia.
Featured artists: Chérif B, Francis Barrier, German Blanco, Jésus Botaro, Philippe Clément, Anne-Sophie Jal, Pierre Joël, Dominique Mena-Dupont, Jean-Marc Millière, Franck Musset, Claude Ouvrard, Pauline Prénat, Aurélie Prissette, Véronique Witkowski.

24 February – 2 March | LGBT History Lessons: The Scene
Launch: Monday 24 February at 6.30pm
Curated by Historian Tommy Clarke
with additional material from The Mitchell Library, Our Story Scotland, LGBT Archive.
Have you ever wondered which pub used to be a church? Which venue has past links to an insurance company? A collection of little history lessons on some venues in Glasgow’s gay scene, past and present, giving a slightly different view to our local haunts.

Part of LGBT History Month Scotland 2014

Tangerine woman by Hazel Gore

Anna Sky in the night by Hazel Gore

Catriona Ruth Paterson

8 – 28 March | Her Story
Launch: Friday 7 March 6-9pm (International Women’s Day)
An exhibition of drawings and paintings by Hazel Gore and Catriona Ruth Paterson.
Maiden or Mother, Virgin or Seductress, Goddess or Monster, Real or Fantasy: the image of women and their archetypes and stereotypes in Fairytales and Storytelling is explored and subverted in this exhibition of work by two Glasgow-based women mixing elements of both the traditional and modern in imaginary and recognisable nightmares and dreamscapes.

Work by Thomas Abercromby

4 – 19 April | MAMA
Thomas Abercromby, and Little Book Transfers
Launch: Friday 4 April 2014 at 6.30pm
Exhibiting at The Virginia Gallery during Glasgow International Arts Festival 2014, contemporary artist Thomas Abercromby will be exhibiting his most recent work that deals with the issues of abandonment as a child. His practice has led him to create work concerned with the natural passage of time: a process that lets him engage in the expression of “universal emotions” with the viewer.

Little Book Transfers are an all-female collective of Visual Artists Hollie Russell, Nikki McGuigan and Mairi Hutchinson founded in July 2013. They collaborate harmoniously to create beautifully intricate murals. In the weeks leading up to MAMA they will begin a work in progress, decorating parts of the Virginia Gallery for a semi-permanent mural. During the launch of MAMA and into the exhibition run they will create a live visual performance by continuing to create a mural starting in one corner of the gallery that will grow to eventually counterpoint the work of Thomas Abercromby.

The Virginia Gallery continues to welcome contact from artists, crafts people, performers and creators, as well as businesses and organisations, as it continues to fill the programme for 2014-2015.

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From time to time we feature galleries and spaces that showcase & encourage grassroots artists. Browse through more of our Featured Venues. 
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Gamma Transport Division (GTD) is a new space in Stockbridge, Edinburgh. Managed by Gav Brough in partnership with Gamma Proforma, GTD has three elements. It’s a refined art space which hosts exhibitions every 8 weeks, primarily within the Contemporary Urban vein, curated by Rob Swain. There’s a Bicycle Workshop which focuses on custom builds and bespoke styling, and while you take in the art or design your dream bike you can enjoy a great cup of coffee from a vintage 1962 Faema espresso machine.

The first show, which runs until 11 December is from veteran abstract graffiti artist sheOne (James Choules). They’ve created an iBook catalogue for iPad which has lots of photos and overview text: PDF Version | iPad Version

The next exhibition will be a solo show from Phil Ashcroft which opens on 13 December.

sheOne

sheOne

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From time to time we feature galleries and spaces that showcase & encourage grassroots artists. Browse through more of our Featured Venues. 
Contact us to talk about a feature on your venue.

Launching this November, Projects: Manchester is a new pop-up space dedicated to nurturing and developing the work of early-career artists. Responding to the current ecology, and Mark Devereux Projects’ ongoing ambition to help nurture the best up and coming talent, the organisation is excited to offer creatives a new test space. Emphasising Manchester’s reputation for its support to early-career artists, the space will be available to trial new ideas.

Taking residence in one of the eight floors of a former office space at the Co-Operative’s major Federation House building in central Manchester and as part of Castlefield Gallery’s New Art Spaces initiative, the venue will offer artists the opportunity to showcase, develop and experiment.

Projects: Manchester will be an environment for artists to spend time testing, developing and experimenting in a vast, open space. Within a central location in Manchester, the space offers artists the opportunity to invite curators, producers and industry professionals to respond critically during the important developmental stages of making. Through giving practitioners the freedom and time to develop works and by trying to remove as many restrictions as we can, we are excited to see the ways in which artists may use the space.

On a day-to-day basis we are hearing of new ways in which artists are turning to the DIY approach in response to rising tuition fees, lack of opportunities and changes in the cultural ecology. Mark Devereux Projects has been established in response to this evolving climate and operates within an integral point between artist and institution.

Supporting three inaugural artists (Nicola Dale, David Ogle and Nicola Ellis), alongside an Associate Member programme open to any early-career artist, we provide a bespoke, critically engaged and nurturing support mechanism on a one-to-one basis in each of the artist’s studios or via Skype. Through this individual approach, we are able to find out more about each of the artist’s ambitions and requirements and provide directed knowledge and experience to enable the growth of their careers. Each practitioner requires something different, sometimes it may be a critically engaged dialogue with their practice, some may need advice on how to work self-employed or operate a business-like structure and some artists may just need a pat on the back and someone to listen.

Projects: Manchester will be available to artists within Mark Devereux Projects Associate Membership programme. Alongside the free use of the space, Associate artists will also benefit from bespoke one-to-one mentoring sessions, exhibition opportunities, group critiques & guidance sessions and online advisory materials. The Associate Membership programme is open to any artist based within the UK.

Projects: Manchester launches with ‘Beyond Merely Assembling’; Mark Devereux Projects’ first group exhibition of Associate Members works on 8 November. The exhibition continues until 20 November. A special free event to any early-career artist will take place on 17 November based around critical dialogue, discussion and advice.

Beyond Merely Assembling install. Image credit: Liz West

Beyond Merely Assembling install. Image credit: Liz West

Beyond Merely Assembling install. Image credit: Mark Devereux

Pavilion After Giotto install Phoebe Eustance. Image credit: Liz West

Pavilion After Giotto install Phoebe Eustance. Image credit: Liz West

Pavilion After Giotto install Phoebe Eustance. Image credit: Liz West

Divided We Stand install Mark Houghton. Image credit: Mark Devereux

Urban Bodger install Tom Beesley. Image credit: Mark Devereux

Urban Bodger, Tom Beesley. Image credit: Liz West

Waiting for the Gift Bettina Amtag. Image credit: Liz West

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From time to time we feature galleries and spaces that showcase & encourage grassroots artists. Browse through more of our Featured Venues. 
Contact us to talk about a feature on your venue.

No Man’s Art Gallery was founded by Dutch ex-lawyer, Emmelie Koster in 2010. In a very unusual career move, Koster suddenly decided to take up painting whilst in the second year of her masters degree in law. Unhappy with her paintings, she sold them online under a different name (Bob Koster) and set up an a fake art gallery to promote them. Soon afterwards, real artists began sending Emmelie their portfolios looking for representation. By the time she finished her studies and started her job as a lawyer, she realised that the gallery had become a project with serious potential and quit her legal career to focus on realising that potential.

© Max & Charlotte, Ou est Charlie, Piscine Pontoise, Paris V, 2009

The name ‘No Man’s Art Gallery’ refers to No Man’s Land, the land that has no laws and no set boundaries. No Man’s Art Gallery now provides an international platform for young artists by organising pop up galleries all over the world. Every three months they take on a different city to find local young artists with great talent. They exhibit the new-found artists’ work in their local city and travel with No Man’s Gallery to the next city. The exhibitions always show a wide variety of young artists, coming from all over the world. Previous exhibitions have been in Amsterdam, Hamburg, Mumbai, Paris, Copenhagen, and most recently in Shanghai.

Works by Sarah Wijzenbeek at the Mumbai Exhibition

The gallery has its headquarters in Amsterdam as well as a recently opened office in Copenhagen. They aim to promote artistic collaborations between the Netherlands and Denmark in addition to organising their pop-up galleries worldwide. No Man’s Art Gallery is the first art gallery to organise pop up galleries in a different country every few months. The exhibitions are open for a week before they are gone again and are always an adventure to visit. The location is secret, and only disclosed to those who sign up beforehand. So far, they’ve exhibited in special locations worldwide; the ruins of a cotton mill compound in Mumbai, a chapel on Vestre Kirkegaard in Copenhagen, a harbor building in Hamburg, an atomic shelter in Amsterdam.

© Daniel van der Noon, Mertropolis, 2012

In the three months preparation for a pop up gallery, they face the challenge of finding a location and setting up a complete network of artists, art lovers and buyers, members of the press, sponsors and local partners. They select their artists in a new city by contacting all art schools and visiting young ateliers to find the talents that the city has to offer. Everyone in No Man’s Art Gallery gets a say in the selection, and the final decisions are made by Emmelie Koster and Emma Sofie Jensen.

© Participant of the No Man’s Art Slum Photography Contest, Black Sludge, 2011

They also hope to be able to organise the No Man’s Art Slum Photography Contest annually. In 2011, private sponsorship for analogue cameras and film rolls was organised for 45 children from Dharavi, Mumbai, the biggest slum in Asia. The children were taught how to use the cameras in a short workshop and sent off to capture the moments in life that they enjoy the most. The results were absolutely amazing. All the children received the prints of their photos and a selection of the photos are now exhibited and for sale at No Man’s pop up galleries. The proceeds go directly back into buying new film and development of the film.

Mumbai Exhibition

Lyrical Artist Justus Raapgaarde reads his poetry at the Hamburg Exhibition

No Man’s Art Gallery’s latest pop-up gallery exhibition was in Shanghai. The exhibition featured local Chinese artists alongside the artists that were discovered at previous pop-up galleries in Copenhagen, Paris, Mumbai, Hamburg and Amsterdam. Additionally, three Chinese artists will be chosen to travel with No Man’s to their upcoming future exhibitions. Find out more here.

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© Stephen Isles

The building will contain exhibition spaces, with dedicated learning and resource spaces. An active programme of events, including talks, screenings and workshops will enable people of all ages to engage with and participate in contemporary art. By creating opportunities for artists based in Leeds and across the north, and showing cutting-edge contemporary art created elsewhere, The Tetley will help raise the city’s profile and to further cultural exchange between Leeds and other cities and places internationally.

Visitor facilities will include a café/bar offering a wide range of World Beers that will be distinctive in the Leeds area, and a range of spaces which are available to hire for private or corporate events, including the beautiful boardroom complete with portraits of former Tetley company chairmen. Visitors will also be able to buy editioned works created specially by artists, and unique items relating to the history of the Tetley company and the building itself.

© Stephen Isles

The Tetley houses a collection of artworks, documents and objects relating to the history of the much-loved Tetley Brewery, founded by Joshua Tetley in 1822. The collection will be available for public viewing and contemporary artists will be invited to create new work in response to it and the post-industrial heritage of the historically significant area. Project Space Leeds will also look after the Tetley archive and the redevelopment will preserve heritage features such as the original boardroom and war memorials in the building.

Associated events such as talks, seminars and education workshops sit alongside the exhibitions programme, engaging diverse audiences and aiming to grow awareness of the contemporary visual arts in Leeds. By working with organisations from outside Leeds, Project Space Leeds aims not only to bring established artists to the city and to provide opportunities for native talent, but also to position Leeds on the national and international radar.

Set to open in Autumn 2013, ‘The Tetley’ will create opportunities for artists based in the city and region to develop and show work that will appeal to a wide range of audiences, and artists will be commissioned to create new work as part of the capital refurbishment.

© Stephen Isles

Founded in 2006, and now a registered charity, Project Space Leeds, led by two of its founding directors, artist-curators Pippa Hale and Kerry Harker, will be at the heart of a creative renaissance along Leeds’ ‘South Bank’. ‘The Tetley’ will also enable the charity to generate income from commercial activity, which will support and broaden the scope of its artistic and education programmes and ensure a strong and sustainable future for the organisation.

“For years in Leeds there has been a gap in provision for contemporary visual art and it is fantastic that, at long last, the city will have its own interpretation of brilliantly inspiring, thriving places such as Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts and Bristol’s Arnolfini.” Kerry Harker, Director, Project Space Leeds

Developing a family friendly ethos is a key part of the plans for The Tetley. A new green space will be created outside the main entrance with imaginative ‘play facilities’ commissioned from artists and an annual programme of outdoor events.

Details of the exhibitions programme, commissions and events will be announced on the website shortly.

Find out more:
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