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. 
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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.