Sussex Group Behind National Empty Shops Initiative
A Sussex arts group are behind a national movement which is seeing empty shops transformed into art exhibitions, studios and workspaces, and community hubs.
The Worthing-based Revolutionary Arts Group have been using empty shops for nine years, since opening a temporary art gallery to coincide with a village fete. Since then, they have used shops to hold exhibitions and promote arts festivals, and partnered with Brighton organisation ConTemporary Gallery on projects in the city.
In fact they've been so successful that the Revolutionary Arts Group now run a national Empty Shops Network.
The informal organisation brings together around thirty active projects across the country with people who are starting up for the first time. It's gained national media coverage for its members, and has secured funding from arts organisation AN for a study into how artists use empty shops – and why. It has also been consulted by Hazel Blears MP's Department of Communities and Local Government, leading to her recent announcement of a range of measures to support projects in empty shops.
The Empty Shops Network is currently producing a website and an online map showing images from current projects. Future plans include a series of 'How To' guides, and exhibitions touring between different empty shops around the UK.
“Using empty shops is about celebrating the local, engaging with the character of empty spaces, exploring new ideas and exciting the community,” says organiser Dan Thompson, “and while it may lead to a successful business, that's not the first and only aim. The success of empty shop projects may be measured in many ways, from increasing local footfall to raising the profile of a community event.”
The Revolutionary Arts Group's own empty shop project is the Pop-Up Gallery, and they used a unit in Worthing's Guildbourne Centre earlier this year to open a gallery for just four days. The Pop-Up Gallery was rated a success by local shops, with some reporting an increase in customers.
The group are currently planning a range of projects in Worthing and Adur, and talking to arts groups in Coventry about projects in that city's vacant shops.
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