During 1970s the ‘studio’ slipped into a ‘post’ studio condition, it had a fallen period and in recent years it has entered a post post studio age.

Whatever guise the studio takes, from large scale, global warehouses spanning countries and continents that employ a team of assistants to smaller established or emerging studio groups housed in owned, rented, permanent or temporary spaces to more intimate domestic environments, artists and designers still want to use and occupy studio spaces.

Rather than question what is a studio, is it more pertinent, in respect of the historical function of artist spaces, to ask where is the studio, what are the practices of the studio and what shapes these activities?

During East Street Arts Open Studios weekend you will visit many types of studio. They will all look and feel different, reflecting in some way the practices that take place there. Experimental practices will sit alongside more traditional activities; there will be collectives whose studios’ raison d’etre is the practice of that studio, at that given moment, in this city with that particular group of individuals.

It is now widely understood that a studio is no longer a site just for the production of work to then be exhibited elsewhere. Art is made in many ‘studios’, both physical and virtual and through collaboration. Many studios also act as exhibition, workshop, event and social spaces that nurture and develop companionship and networks.

They house a myriad of activities, they are flexible and always open: to visit, to interpretation, to critique, to change.

Studios should not play a backstage role to a city’s cultural and creative identity. How can they form a tangible and visible dynamic within a community’s artistic footprint?

Recent economic shifts, changes in commercial property usage and locations falling out of fashion have meant that interesting and previously non-designated art spaces have become available for East Street Arts members to use as studio space.

How does the location and nature of these temporary spaces influence and activate the practices that take place within them when they become ‘studio space’ year on year?

That will be my question when I visit artists and designers in their Open Studios, I know they like questions…

What will yours be?

These 3 terms refer to key texts written about the studio.

Buren, Daniel. The Function of the Studio. (1971.)

Davidts, Woulter and Paice, Kim (eds). The Fall of the Studio: Artists at Work. (Valiz, 2009)

Coles, Alex. The Transdisciplinary Studio. (Sternberg, 2012)

http://eaststreetarts.org.uk/news/open-studios-broadcast-on-resonance-fm/

East Street Arts in collaboration with artist Marion Harrison, present an hour broadcast on Resonance FM on Tuesday March 10th (8pm – 9pm)

This ‘publication’ broadcast documents the Open Studio Symposium and Weekend in October 2014 and includes interviews and contributions from Jon Wakeman, Karen Watson, Dean Kemp, Teresa Flavin, Nicola Golightly, David Cook,  Lloyd&Wilson, Adam Young, Lester Drake, Lydia Catterall and a few others!

This broadcast was an Open Studio commission by East Street Arts and was aired on Resonance FM. You can listen to the full broadcast below.