London's artists' studio crisis

19 October 2009

£21.75: The admission price to Frieze art fair and the daily budget of a London artist ....

Frieze Art Fair will see some 45,000 in foot-traffic and millions spent in London over the four days. This success is founded on the work of individual artists. Currently London's artists are caught in a pincer-grip of recession, space shortage and impending Olympic development.

In 2006 the average income of a London artist was between £8,000 and £11,400 a year with many artists supporting their practice by working in education or community development. Artists rely on affordable studio space as they do not earn enough to afford a studio at open market rents in addition to a separate place to live. Particularly vulnerable are the young and emerging artists at the lower end of this scale.

London's creative sector alone provides 554,000 jobs (12 per cent of all London jobs) This is thought to be the largest creative workforce of any city (London's Creative Sector, 2006, GLA Economics, 2007).

SPACE studios are the UK's largest provider of studio space, renting affordable studios to over 600 artists across 16 East London sites, ten of which are in Hackney. In the past four years SPACE have lost over 10,000 square feet to developers and are currently locked in a legal battle over proposed rent increases of 150% as they fight eviction from buildings for high-end loft apartments. Anna Harding, SPACE CEO states: “We are facing a threat from developers with no interest in the arts. London's future as a creative city is at risk. Unless we can support artists at grassroots level with affordable studio space there will be no creative industry here in future. London's art world needs studios, to invest in the process of art making, not just galleries to display the product. We are seeking a real creative legacy for London.”

David Powell, cultural consultant and visiting professor in Cultural Planning for London East Research Institute, says of the Olympic ‘opportunity': "One of the implications of the Olympic zone being cleaned up is that there are a huge number of buildings that have just gone. There is constant demand. And the demand has been pretty solid for a long period of time."

For further information on the current crisis in London's studios click here and here.