'It's just one closed-down shop in a row of closed-down shops, its façade obscured by a corrugated steel roll-up door, an emblem of recession-hit Britain. But from this weekend, the shutters go up in this former hairdresser's salon in south London; the sunlight will pour once more through the plate-glass window, and passers-by will wonder what's going to happen here next.
Alas for the economy, this isn't a green shoot of the fiscal variety. The new enterprise at 4 Sceaux Gardens in Peckham won't be putting money into the nation's pockets in any conventional sense. Instead, artist Janette Parris will be taking up residence, to create an artwork based on West End musicals. Where commercial enterprise has stalled and shops shut out, artists and galleries are now taking the initiative and moving in - a development the government last week announced its support for, unveiling a £3m grant scheme to allow people to breathe new life into vacant shops. Tomorrow, Arts Council England will announce a further funding initiative.'
So basically if this scheme works, the rest of Britains High Streets are most likely to be transformed over the weeks and months ahead: shops that had closed their doors will morph into studio spaces, galleries and workshop venues. Brilliant !!
People all around me always say how they love creating art, as do I, but there's just something about watching someone else creating. I love it. I love to watch them getting totally lost in what their doing and wonder what it is thats going around there mind at that time.. You might beable to buy their art in the long run but it's times like that, that you can not buy. Priceless.
I totally agree, it's often more fascinating watching the process of someone creating something rather than what they come up with in the end. I watched the film Pollock over the holidays which basically dramatises Jackson Pollock's life (I don't know how much they really stuck to the truth though) but I found it a lot more interesting to see all the in and outs and ups and downs of his life, which fed into his work and shaped what he did as an artist than the actual pieces themselves.
ReplyDeleteIt's also a really good point about the empty shops and the correlation between them and artists looking for spaces. It makes sense but I don't know if the shop owners will see it like that because they're going to want a lot more money to buy or rent thoses premises than most artists could ever afford aren't they?? Is that where the government money comes into it though..?
I like the idea of it though, especially when there's an increase in people opting to do nearly all their shopping at big supermarkets because it's cheaper (which is understandable) than most high-street shops leading to the closing of many local shops and a lot more corrugated steel, white-washed or smashed windows, broken signs and a general ghost-town feeling.