NeB Space & The Caravan Gallery Present Restore: Key Points
Meeting held 29th June 2009, 2-4PM, Purple Door, Portsmouth
Attendees: Steve Bomford (NeB), Jan Williams (The Caravan Gallery & Art Space Portsmouth), Karl March (NeB), Dan O’Neill (NeB), Kate Saunders (Artist), Denise Callender (UoP), Phyl Payne (ARC), Carl Leroy-Smith (Deer Park Alpha, South Coast Design Forum), Martin Dennison (City Growth), Jonathan Fost (Cultural Consortium), Simon Paine (Business Link), Steve Fisher (CIBAS), Claire Sambrook (UoP), Jon Adams (Art Space Portsmouth), Debbie Zoutewelle (Artists and Makers, Empty Shops Network), Dan Thompson (Artists and Makers, Empty Shops Network), Jez Stevens (athousandplateaus.ning.com), Caroline Sharman (New Theatre Royal), Jude Bennet (Aspex).
Apologies: Barry Walker (Town Centre Management)
Mailing List: Maureen Fost (Portsmouth and South East Hampshire Chamber of Commerce), Stephen Morgan (Cultural Consortium), Roger Sherliker (Hughes Ellard), Tim Clark (Garner Wood), Sarah Yates (Aspex & Coastal Currents Festival), Carl Downer (Sifer Design).
Steve Bomford (Noir et Blanc) and Jan Williams (The Caravan Gallery)
Reasons for Re-Store:
- 130+ empty shops identified (shown in slideshow).
- Encourage interested parties to participate in Re-Store.
- Create a diverse and dynamic group to identify creative solutions.
- Facilitate and develop solutions to utilise the empty shops.
- Enable the community to re-take ownership of the high street.
- Inform statutory organisations about the activities of Re-Store.
The Caravan Gallery
- Proves the value of temporary exhibitions and installations.
- Engages with local communities that are traditionally inaccessible.
- Demonstrates this approach could easily be applied to empty shops.
Dan Thompson and Debbie Zoutewelle - Empty Shops Network (ESN)
This is a network of artists and art organisations aimed at taking back the high street for the local community by bringing unique events and artists to new public arenas, providing a "more than just shopping" experience. Utilising empty shops across the UK the ESN has created temporary pop-up shops, community spaces and galleries.
www.artistsandmakers.com/emptyshops
- "88 million square feet of shopping space has been added to UK high streets and shopping centres in the last 20 years"
- Previous uses of empty shops have been well received – the temporary nature of the use creates a fresh buzz of local excitement for the duration of the event (typically 5 days – 1 month). These short, sharp ventures have been very successful.
- The ESN is very open and sharing, providing free advice and assistance to other organisations wishing to work with empty shops.
- The ESN hopes to publish an “Empty Shop” handbook by the end of July.
- The ESN method is suitable for temporary events, but may be unfeasible for long-term projects, as longer events may conflict with the interests of landlords and letting agencies.
- Hazel Blears - ‘£1000 for moving into empty shops’ scheme is likely to become available in September though may be filtered through various acronyms before it reaches the community.
- Private Landlords can be indisposed towards use of empty shops for long periods of time, but ‘Meanwhile Leases’ may be worth discussing. http://www.meanwhile.org.uk/2.html
- Public Liability insurance not often an issue, but buildings may have to be insured for temporary lettings.
- Local Authority support is very important for funding bids.
http://www.artistsandmakers.com
Carl Leroy-Smith - Deer Park Alpha/City Growth
Carl Leroy-Smith, architect and director of innovative local design company Deer Park Alpha (DPA), talked about his proposal for a creative car park makeover in the City North area
- DPA is in discussion with PCC to explore the possibility of staging a temporary transformation of the “Tricorn” car park. Participants will pay the nominal £5/day parking fee and then use the space they’ve ‘rented’ to host a small exhibition, table-top sale, miniature gig, micro-café etc.
- Long-term plans for the car park involve taking over a large portion of the space to paint the lines of the original roads and streets present before the Tricorn was built in a variety of engaging ways with facility for street markets and café culture. This will reconnect the characterless space with the city in an exciting and accessible fashion.
- The Partnership with the South Coast Design is looking to take on the Craneswater Centre (an empty building belonging to Highbury College) and convert it into approximately 12 studios.
- Kathy Wadsworth (Director of Regeneration and Strategic Director) is very receptive to proposals regarding the alternative usage of empty shops.
http://dpa-illustrated-news.org/
Dan and Carl answered questions relating to their presentations and an enthusiastic group discussion ensued on the potential use of empty premises in Portsmouth.
Notes
- Steve Bomford and Dan Thompson suggested that sponsorship is widely available but it’s important not to think too big; “every little helps” - £30 worth of tea and coffee donated by the Co-Op is £30 you can spend where it counts. Supermarkets, DIY Stores, Materials Bank etc. are good sources for sponsorship-in-kind. Freecycle groups are an excellent resource.
- Jez Stephens can offer high-end projection equipment for unique, dramatic publicity stunts, affordable and spontaneous installations and promotional activities. http://athousandplateaus.ning.com
- Claire Sambrook talked about her Southsea Deck Your Chairs project and www.visuallibraries.com
- Denise Callender suggested that empty shops would be a good platform for students to showcase their work and it would be good to partner with RESTORE to get that off the ground
- Phyl Payne reiterated the need for additional studio space in Portsmouth and talked about the role of ARC in supporting artists.
- Martin Dennison expressed a desire to ‘make Portsmouth a better place’.
- Caroline Sharman expressed an interest in hosting performance art and theatrical events in empty shops.
- Jan Williams asked Jon Adams and Steve Fisher if another Art Bus route was planned. They expressed an interest in involving empty shops as venues for future events. This sparked a brief discussion about the possibility of hosting an empty shops trail or festival.
- Jude Bennet talked about the current exhibition, Stranger Things Are Happening, which she has curated for Aspex: A number of disused shops are being used as temporary off-site venues and may be available for use when the exhibition is over. http://www.aspex.org.uk/exhibitions.html
- Panel Discussion: Empty Opportunities - Art in vacant shops, Thursday 6 August, 6.30pm, Aspex Gallery
Next Steps
- The collective contacts and potential mailing list of the Re:Store Group is comprehensive and far reaching; we need to consider who else to involve in the project and how we might publicise our activities.
- For the next meeting attendees were asked to prepare a 5 minute presentation/discussion regarding the possible use of an empty shop(s).
- Engage with elected official to highlight the community’s concerns regarding the empty shops.
- We need to think of practical ways to get involved and identify areas of interest and expertise – e.g. funding and sponsorship, resources at people’s disposal, willingness to participate etc.
The meeting closed at 4pm
NEXT MEETING: Wednesday 12th August, 2 – 4pm, Purple Door
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