ARTISTS TALKING

Based, in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, Art Gene is a bold and unusual entity – an experimental production space located in a town on the western fringe of the Lake District which, historically, has had limited contact with cutting-edge arts practice. Art Gene came about through a synergy of opportunity (a need by the local authority to redevelop a neglected listed building, allied to regeneration funding available to do so) and vision; the latter supplied by locally-based artists.

This profile forms part of a portfolio of material around studios including the studios toolkit ' designed especially for artists thinking of setting up some kind of workspace facility ' case studies of studio organisations at different stages of development and more.

Background

Founded by visual artists Stuart Bastik and Maddi Nicholson, and Julie Hammerton, director of a carnival arts project, Barracudas Limited, Art Gene, describes itself as: “a laboratory environment for artists and art-led initiatives – a facility where new contemporary work in all mediums is produced and exhibited, and where ideas are developed and exchanged.”

Art Gene’s base, a refurbished Edwardian listed building, was originally a school for ‘the Advancement of Science, Arts and Technology’. It later became Barrow Technical College. After the college closed in 1989 the building remained largely unused until it was reopened in 2002, following a £4 million redevelopment. Art Gene occupies two thirds of the building, which was redesigned specifically for arts use. Its facilities include seven large flexible spaces – used as studios and for residencies, projects and rehearsals – and a spacious contemporary art gallery. The redevelopment project was managed by Cumbria County Council and made possible with funding from European and other regeneration sources.

Stuart Bastik, who has been practising as an artist in Barrow since 1992, describes the genesis of the Art Gene project and space as “a happy coincidence”. “The building had been derelict and falling apart for over ten years,” he says, “and there was growing pressure for the county council to find a solution for it. Their need and ours came together.” Following an eighteen-month period of concerted lobbying – during which Bastik, Nicholson and others invited people of influence to the building to convince them of its potential as an arts space – the county arts service got behind the idea and worked with the county architect to put together design proposals and a funding bid.

At first, the traditional group studios model was considered, but was rejected as inappropriate to the situation in Barrow. “There are no existing group studios in the town,” says Bastik, “and there isn’t an art college. It’s not a natural catchment area for young and emerging artists.”

It was decided that only the core Art Gene personnel would take up permanent spaces. The remainder would be used to accommodate artists and projects on a temporary basis. “Artists on the ground here couldn’t afford to rent such large spaces over an extended period,” says Bastik, “so we decided to promote them as a time-limited development opportunity; somewhere to gain head space and work up new ideas. It gives our operation a more experimental, R&D focus.” The project and residency spaces can be used on an occasional basis by artists working in Barrow, but they are also promoted more widely, to attract high calibre practitioners from outside. “That way,” says Bastik, “we are benefiting both ends of the scale: the local grass roots, and established national and international artists.”

Activity

Art Gene’s Artists’ Studio Residency Programme comes in two flavours: a Residency Funding Scheme offers selected artists a supported residency opportunity; a Residency Letting Scheme allows artists to apply to hire space for a negotiated period (which will vary, depending on the project) to pursue their own self-directed residency.

Successful applicants to the Residency Funding Scheme receive a £2,000 honorarium and a high-quality managed studio space for two months. Accommodation, meals, travel and all other costs are to be met by the artist. Each residency is expected to conclude with either an open studio event or an exhibition in the Art Gene gallery. Artists’ projects may also be disseminated via the Art Gene website.

Space hired through the Residency Letting Scheme costs £350 per month. Applicants are encouraged to apply at least three months in advance, although studios may sometimes be available at short notice. Artists chosen for the letting scheme are offered a formal letter of acceptance, which may help them to secure funding. A number of the artists on the letting scheme have managed to attract funding from their regional arts councils”, says Bastik.

During 2005, Art Gene hopes to be able to offer four funded residencies. The artists so far confirmed are British-based. Applications from overseas are also welcomed. “Our web-based advertising has been very successful in attracting interest from further afield,” says Bastik, “and international research visits have helped us to promote what we do.” In the past eighteen months, Art Gene has visited Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Finland, Germany, France, India and New York. During its first two years of operation, two artists from Japan and one from Canada have spent periods in residence. A partnered touring exhibition of European video art also brought international artists over to Barrow.

At a more local level, Art Gene has hosted ‘pilot’ placements by graduates from the Cumbria Institute of the Arts in Carlisle. Along with space in which to develop their practice, the graduates were able to ‘shadow’ Bastik and Nicholson in their various professional roles: as administrators, public artists and workshop leaders, for example. “If we host placements in the future,” says Bastik, “we would prefer to take on people with a year’s experience outside of college, who will be better placed to identify more developed issues that they want to address.”

Negotiations are currently underway with a number of colleges, linked to Art Gene’s plans for further capital development. £100,000 of Arts Council England Grants for the Arts funding has been ‘approved’ to redevelop the basement area of the building and to upgrade the gallery. “We have a good exhibition space,” says Bastik, “but it needs to be made more flexible and better equipped. Our plan for the basement is to convert it into an open plan space which can be used for placements and storage. This would free up our larger spaces for higher profile residencies.”

Art Gene’s premises remain the property of the county council, which has located a number of its services there. This brings a number of advantages. The council’s Education Department, for example, provides free reception cover during weekdays. It also offers a gateway to work with the education sector. Maddi Nicholson developed a schools-based project on the theme of road safety with the Council’s Highways agency, Capita Symmonds, another of the building’s tenants. “The Register Office Marriage Room is also on site,” says Bastik, “that could offer scope for an interesting future project.”

In terms of their art practice, Bastik describes Art Gene’s founder directors as ‘specialists in not specialising’. “We are always looking for something we haven’t done before” he says. Bastik and Nicholson work both collaboratively and separately; on gallery-based projects and on public commissions. Barrow is currently undergoing massive regeneration, which could offer plenty of potential for artistic intervention. In the ward in which Art Gene is based, rows of traditional back-to-back terraced housing are earmarked for demolition. “We are helping to develop proposals for a new urban park,” says Bastik, “working with the local community to help raise aspirations about the kind of open spaces that could replace them.”

“We see ourselves as involved in a long-term process of proving what artists have to offer to a place such as Barrow,” he says. “Working here can feel really on the edge. When we first opened the gallery there would be people in there looking at the work but asking ‘where is the art exhibition’? Contemporary art just hasn’t been seen here. They were expecting salon style paintings. That’s beginning to change. The challenge now is to keep people coming in.”

Mission

To establish a facility of local, national and international significance for artists and art-led initiatives, dedicated to the production and exhibition of new works of contemporary art, through the provision of affordable managed workspaces, and a gallery.

The ‘Art Gene’:

With the discovery of the ‘criminal gene’ came another similar type of gene most often found in artists. The ‘artist gene’ exhibited many similar personality traits to the ‘criminal gene’ yet found its expression in obsessive creative activity.

Contacts

Art Gene
Bath Street
Barrow-in-Furness
Cumbria LA14 5TY

01229 825085
Fax/Voice Mail: 01229 828467
artgeneuk@btconnect.com
www.artgene.co.uk