Artspace Lifespace History
The Artspace Lifespace Project formalised as a Co-operative Ltd Company with not for profit status in Bristol 2007. This was after the success of the Bristol Arts Trade Centre a temporary arts venue established in an old Audi car garages building in Stokes Croft in the summer of 2006.
This huge sprawling site was brought back from the edge of dereliction by a volunteer force of initially around 20 artists, with hundreds eventually participating in a rolling program of events and exhibitions.
A driving force behind the ambitious project was The Invisible Circus, who transformed one area into a Cabaret stage and went on to produce a site-specific promenade spectacle in the space for the closing weekend.
The project attracted a lot of positive support from artists, performers and local residents as well as Bristol City Councils arts department. It caught the imagination of the creative community and acted as a catalyst sparking a wave of arts in unusual spaces and contributed to later establishment of Stokes Croft as a cultural quarter of the City.
Image: the 'team' back in the day
The roots of the Artspace Lifespace project actually extend much further back than Bristol, to 1992 in West London’s Portobello Market. These initial projects included gallery and event spaces on Portobello Road and a six-month temporary creation space established in Bridge House, a 25,000 sq ft site between the Westway motorway and Metropolitan Tube line.
This first big scale creation centre project was opened by Sir Hugh Casson the ex-head of the Royal Academy of Arts in April 1992. Bridge House was given to Artspace Lifespace by Kensington Housing Trust after the success of the Exposure gallery in the Portobello market.
The project brought together a large local network of diversely skilled artists as well as international guests visiting the area and served to create a forum and platform for collaboration as well as a direct feed back into the local community with the regeneration of formerly vacant and semi derelict spaces.