Can art save the high street?
Plus: 50 cultural events worth travelling for this autumn
This newsletter was sent to subscribers on Wednesday 27 October 2021
Hello!
This is my regular features-packed newsletter where I interview a culture mover-and-a-shaker, as well as letting you know a hot new trend and brand new things to see, do and listen to.
This week I speak to a brand new charity looking to bring art and artists to Britain’s blighted high streets. They’ve just given eight creatives a new home in a shopping centre in Bristol. It’s a fascinating project that’s well worth a read.
And do read to the end to get a stack of cultural travel inspo. Dreaming of these trips will get you through the coming darker nights.
Maxwell
Love art, museums and galleries? Then this newsletter is for you. It will keep you up-to-date on the latest news and trends from the museum world. Subscribe below (it’s free!)
barometer
What’s heating up and cooling down in the world of museums, art and galleries this week:
going up
A big boost for satellite sites as both the Natural History Museum and the British Library were awarded very tidy sums of cash in today’s Budget. £125m has been given for the construction of the Natural History Museum research centre at Harwell in Oxfordshire, and the British Library is to receive £77m for the redevelopment of its Boston Spa site. I imagine the corks were popping at these venues when the news came through.
going down
2021 may have brought us Oslo’s huge new Munch Museum, Berlin’s expansive Humboldt Forum, and LA’s glitzy Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, but what we were all holding our breath for was Wolverhampton’s “highly-anticipated” Wetherspoons museum right? Alas, it’s no more. The plans have been scrapped and the pub earmarked for this “flagship” attraction will now have a hotel built on it instead. Now I have a great soft spot for ‘Spoons, and this is my former home city. But I think we can all agree this is a lost museum no one will be crying into their newly-announced 99p pints over.
curated
My curated list of what’s new to see, do, watch, read and more, from across the globe.
NEW EXHIBITION
Hogarth & Europe at Tate Britain, London
Explore William Hogarth's work in a fresh light, seen for the first time alongside works by his continental contemporaries. It will explore the parallels and exchanges that crossed borders, and features his best-known paintings and prints such as Marriage A-la-Mode 1743 and Gin Lane 1751. They’ll be shown with works by famed European artists to reveal how changes in society took art in new directions, both in Britain and abroad. Opens 3 November. tate.org.uk
NEW EXHIBITION
Cy Twombly: Souvenirs of Time at Gagosian Rome, Italy
See the photographs that Cy Twombly took throughout his career of his studios and domestic interiors, and of classical sculptures. Made over a sixty-year period in locations across the United States and Italy, these images chronicle places that were central to the artist’s life and work. Opens Saturday. gagosian.com
NEW EVENT
Line of Light Festival in Nine Elms, London
To celebrate the newly-opened Northern line extension on London’s Underground, the route is to be illuminated above ground for two nights only. A series of high-density light beams will mark the two-mile stretch along with moving projections and an 'audio tapestry'. It’s totally free. Friday and Saturday from 18:30. nineelmslondon.com
NEW PODCAST SERIES
Meet Me at the Museum by Art Fund
There’s a new series of the enjoyable museum podcast from the charity that looks after the National Art Pass. It’s a simple idea: a celebrity takes someone they admire to one of their favourite spots, and we listen in as they chat about their surroundings. This sixth series includes actor Jack Lowden at the National Museum of Scotland. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts
interview
The department store Debenhams fell into administration on 1 December 2020, ending a two-century presence on the British high street. The day before, iconic retailers Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins, Evans and Burton had also collapsed. Most of these brands were all subsequently sold to online retailers, but they weren’t interested in also buying the 500+ bricks and mortar high-street shops. In total 17,500 outlets closed across the UK in 2020 alone - and that’s just the chain stores. Many of these units remain empty today.
Why am I telling you this? Well, because art and artists might be the solution to the seemingly terminal decline of Britain’s high streets. Step forward Hypha Studios, a new charity which is matchmaking creatives with empty high street spaces. They’ve spotted that artists often struggle to afford studio space, while there are all these units needing occupants to regenerate streets and neighbourhoods.
Last month Hypha Studios embarked on their biggest project yet: eight artists have just moved in to free project spaces within Broadwalk Shopping Centre in Knowle in Bristol. The artists will be supported with Arts Council England funding towards public events for the local community and the majority have their space for at least a year. For this week’s interview I speak to Camilla Cole, Founder & Director of Hypha Studios, to learn more about bringing her vision for the high street to a reality.
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Hi Camilla. You set up Hypha Studios just a few months ago. Why did you think it was needed?
Hi Maxwell! I am a curator by trade, and I used to work in central London galleries and private art collections but found I was stuck deep in admin and not doing the actual curating I was trained in and passionate about. So, I went freelance, and found I really loved organising exhibitions in non-gallery spaces. However, as a sole practitioner I realised that I couldn’t afford my own space and that there were other organisations that got spaces very cheaply. I tried to do this for myself, but it took a lot of time to find landlords and convince them of my ideas. So, I set up Hypha Studios as a big cultural umbrella to make it easier for others to use empty commercial and retail space for creative uses.
Basically, we put artists into empty spaces, for free. We have a growing network of landlords who like their space being occupied and used for the community, so when we get a new space, we put out an open call. The landlords trust us to manage the relationship with the practitioner, and we ensure a high quality cultural outcome which is the perfect fit for that space and place. Instead of paying us rent, the creative pledges to organise some public facing activities – this could be an exhibition, workshop, performances, anything.
Tell me about the latest project in Bristol
We have all seen on the news and in our towns how Covid, Brexit and the migration of shopping from high street to digital has affected everywhere. Shopping centres have been hit very hard, the British Retail Consortium stating over 12% of units are lying empty for a year or longer. Broadwalk Shopping Centre in Knowle, Bristol, is a perfect example – there are many empty units, though it is still central to the community, has popular shops and bingo, and is bustling.
For the last month we have been activating those empty units with creative uses, working with creative workers from the local area who get space for up to a year, hopefully longer. And such a range of creatives! Paul Hawkins, a performance poet and publisher in a former newsagent; Owl on the Roof theatre collective in the old greengrocers; the old DVD shop is now occupied by Tangle Immersive virtual and digital artists; then a former shoe shop is home to two photographers and an artist working at the intersection of science and contemporary art. It’s so exciting.
But what’s more exciting is the public engagement. Already there have been poetry events and photoshoots, and we hope for theatre performances and singing to come along soon. At the beginning of December the artists are organising a day when they will all be putting events and activities on, so check the website for announcements.
Why Bristol?
The landlord thought what we did made sense for them. They have longer term plans for the whole shopping centre but are committed to keeping it vibrant, busy and a useful community asset. It isn’t great for them to have empty units lowering the feel of the place, and Bristol is a city dripping with creativity, so it just fits.
We are acutely aware of the issues of artwashing and culture’s role in issues around displacement and gentrification – indeed my fellow Director Will Jennings is from an architecture background and thinks about this a lot! We consider this carefully in all our partnerships and actions. So, we partner with a local cultural organisation (in Bristol it’s with Gary Topp, Executive Director of the Arnolfini) who brings valuable local knowledge and insight. We prioritise those who are within walking distance of any space, who are already part of the immediate community, and in our (deliberately accessible and simple) application form we also ask about the need for space, intended use, and first ideas of public events.
What do landlords get out of it?
Leaving a property empty is costly, for the landlord but also, importantly, for the place it is in. They sit like broken teeth in often beautiful streets. Primarily, a landlord knows their space is occupied and secure. Often they own neighbouring or nearby properties, so to have interesting things happening and a buzz about the place only helps other tenants and atmosphere. And, though many get bad rep, we find landlords often genuinely care about the towns they have property in, and many are excited to see what cultural uses we can discover – or asking to be part of the judging panel.
What are your ambitions for the organisation - and what do you need to achieve them?
Money is key - we are a registered charity so rely on donations. Currently we operate on a shoestring and energy, but as we expand we need more sources of income to expand our team, cover admin costs, and we would love to be able to give artists financial support towards their time and practice. We do already support them with individual professional development or a mentoring session, and with Bristol we were excited to receive Arts Council England funding which means we can support the artists with their public events for the year.
We have some truly exciting plans in the pipeline, and no shortage of ambition to make this genuinely spread across the country and make it easy and simple for creatives to access empty space for short- or long-term use.
In fact, “Hypha” is the name of the branching filaments that make up the growing network of fungi – so I set this up deliberately to spread organically across the country, where there is space to grow and culture to support.
But for this, we recognise we need to expand internally and externally, improve the website, and build reliable systems. We will soon be advertising for new Trustees, and plan an advisory board, so readers should drop us an email if they want to know more. We have had tonnes of great conversations with local authorities about bringing their assets into use. And, I don’t know how many landlords read your excellent newsletter, but if any do then they evidently love art and culture, so they should get in touch!
How worried are you for emerging artists in this pandemic-era and beyond?
It’s tough. I mean, it’s tough for everyone, we are not claiming any exceptionalism for artists. But it’s well documented that many cultural workers have been severely affected by the pandemic – whether they lost jobs from restructuring cultural orgs, were in the estimated 3 million who fell through the “gaps” of government financial support, or have had their mental health affected.
Culture Hive estimate that 1/3 of cultural workers have casual, self-employed or freelance work, and are finding that casual labour and work is simply not there anymore, and even without Covid continuing a creative practice takes space, time, and money. But with Covid, a sector the government state as worth £112bn a year (though not enough of this filters down to the bottom of the pyramid in my view!) is at real risk of damage.
We don’t think we are the only solution, we don’t have all the answers, and we totally need to exist in an ecosystem alongside commercial studios, galleries, artist-led schemes, and all kinds of offers – but even in the last few months we have seen genuine impact for both artists, places, and public, and as we grow we are so excited about that only growing exponentially, and every creative we can help is so, so exciting.
Do commercial galleries do enough to nurture new and emerging artists?
Many galleries – commercial and public – do incredible things around access, education, and supporting new culture. However, wider than this, the gallery system just isn’t right for every artist. It can be great for a newly graduated maker who gets picked up to start their journey that way, but not all creatives have that trajectory - or want it. Artists who have taken breaks from their practice for caring responsibilities, or who start later in life, or those who didn’t go through the art school system and don’t know the lexicon and ways galleries work, should all have an opportunity to make, be seen, and be a part of the cultural sector.
Are there other ways art or artists could help save the high street? And what other 'failing' institutions do you think they could help?
Working with an excellent socially minded architects practice, RCKa, we have developed a toolkit case-study for adapting empty department stores for cultural uses, which you can see on our website. So, I would say to artists to think big, imagine an old BHS but where you could walk around artist studios, see immersive theatre, watch a gig, buy editioned prints, grab some food, and experience all kinds of pop-up exhibitions. So, I guess, think big and see what systems and structures already exist that we can simply slot into without reinventing too much.
The most powerful act for any creative is, I think, to not act in isolation. Yes, digital may be changing our physical place, but it can be hugely beneficial to our social space and networks. We have seen how word-of-mouth has really helped Hypha’s first open-calls, so we see the generosity and solidarity amongst the cultural community, and to be a part of that is really valuable now more than ever, then new ideas will always develop.
What's next for Hypha Studios?
I mentioned earlier that not all making spaces are suitable for all makers. Not all makers needing a permanent partitioned space in a former industrial building, as many studio complexes are – I am thinking of photographers, sculptors, film-makers, socially-engaged practitioners, all of whom may need unique spaces with light or lack of it, height, or publicly accessible space. So, we need more making space, but we need more types of making space.
One day we want to roll Hypha out nationwide... i.e. have small hubs of Hypha workers all over the country, so for example, the West Midlands or Somerset would have one team that would have great relationships with their landlords, councils, funding sources and ACE -so dedicated teams for specific areas.
As for right now; we are looking to have longer-term spaces which creatives, or emerging organisations/collectives, can use for free as they test their commercial viability, develop new ways of working, or explore new ways of interacting with public and audience.
Hopefully we can announce some of these soon, but we have to keep reminding ourselves how young we are – and every conversation we have opens up new ideas, possibilities and ways of supporting our shared culture.
Find out more at hyphastudios.com
and finally
Planning your next (or maybe first) post-pandemic holiday? Well, there’s an upbeat mood among the world’s arts capitals after months of disruptions, postponements and delayed openings. So why not consider the Telegraph’s 50 cultural events worth travelling for this autumn - from seminal exhibitions to historic festivals and new museums. I want to go to them all.
Love art, museums and galleries? Then this newsletter is for you. It will keep you up-to-date on the latest news and trends from the museum world. Subscribe below (it’s free!)