GUILD – Bricks part of four year artist project support programme

April 2019

Bricks is delighted to have been selected to be part of GUILD, a four-year (2018 – 2022) partnership project that aims to transform the landscape of artists led projects in England by developing their resilience and sustainability.

GUILD is set up and run by the fantastic artist led organisation East Street Arts in Leeds. Funded by Art Council England as a Sector Support Organisation with programme partners a-n, Locality, Key Fund, University of Leeds and the Stockholm Institute for Environment.

Bricks is one of twenty organisations on the programme, others include:

Abingdon Studios, Blackpool; Artworks, Halifax; Assembly House, Leeds; Bon Volks Studios, Margate; Caraboo, Bristol; Double Elephant Print Workshop, Exeter; Dyad Creative, Norwich; Fish Factory, Cornwall; Haarlem Artspace, Wirksworth; K6 Gallery, Southampton; Live Art Bistro (LAB), Leeds; Navigator North, Middlesbrough; Ort Gallery, Birmingham; PROFORMA, Greater Manchester; Shy Bairns, Salford; The Penthouse, North; Two Queens, Leicester; The Rising Sun Arts Centre, Reading; The Travelling Heritage Bureau, Manchester.

“Artists’ spaces across the UK are historically self-organised, under-resourced and prone to experiencing burnout. Their work is often time sensitive as they deal with rapid growth in some communities and crippling austerity measures in others. They generate new and innovative artwork, projects and public facing events and are essential catalysts for the art sector.” – East Street Arts

The programme includes a new approach to business modelling through embedding artists within their localities, advocating their impact on political and social environments, and profiling their international reach through the support of innovative and enterprising practice.

Partners will work together to utilise knowledge, reach, networks and influence to create a new approach to resilience that tests the reality and challenges of sustainability.

“While artists’ spaces across the UK help generate new and innovative artwork, projects and public facing events, and are historically self-organised, they are also under-resourced and are prone to experiencing burn out and we are committed to addressing this.” – East Street Arts

Operating as essential catalysts for the art’s sector, these spaces help explore and develop new art practices that can lead to community-led ventures, social housing, land trusts and public-facing bakeries and bars.

Karen Watson, East Street Arts

Read the article on a-n