Using temporary space to revitalise Britain’s streets and cheer everyone up
By Tim Anselm
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The idea’s been suggested – in a Guardian article quoted below, this overview of artists’ squats, this piece in the Evening Standard and various places online – that during the recession empty commercial and office property could be used as temporary spaces by artists and community groups.
This could prevent high streets from becoming dreary aisles of boarded-up shops, which is in all communities’ interests. It would be great for community groups and creative people, who always need cheap space.
An official legal arrangement would also help property owners in many ways. By taking tenants on peppercorn rents – for a brief period – they would avoid the problems with being illegally squatted, while making sure their property is kept warm, wind and water tight.
So long as tenants understand that they have to vacate in reasonable time once people with money want to take on the lease, it could work in everyone’s favour. (Of course it’s quite possible that things could go so well that the temporary tenants take on the lease at a commercial rate, eventually).
I’m looking for free or cheap space for some projects so I’ve collected information and opinions about this idea. I thought I’d share this as a short document, with some observations on how a national strategy could work and some things to consider.
My main observation is that there isn’t really a “slack space movement” as such – this is a bit of wishful thinking by a journalist – but full credit to Robert Booth for trying to give life to the idea. An organised movement would be a very valuable thing at the moment.
Update 30/04/09: There is a network of people using dormant space or who want to, which the Revolutionary Arts Group (who, like me, are based in Sussex but the other side of Brighton) is coordinating on a voluntary basis.
A month into research on this, the thing that is most heartening to find is common agreement that no one individual or organisation can own the idea. In fact the whole point is it should operate on nomadic principles.
In the way of these things, Dan at RAG and I only made contact this morning – the contact being made through Google and the net initially, despite being an hour away from one another – and once we got talking found ourselves pretty much 100% in agreement.
This article outlines things that a general movement should be aiming to do, in terms of energising and exciting people, and drawing experiences and ideas from a lot of disparate sources.
Some of the activities of this movement could almost be art projects in their own right, like documenting how buildings look and where they are, their histories and stories associated with them.
The New Work Network has kindly offered to put this article out to their membership for discussion. I’m very happy to act as a general sounding board for any effort to pull a national response from artists together like this, but am not into reinventing the wheel so will also be supporting RAG where I can in what they are doing.
To most, the ring of hammer on nail as shop windows are boarded up on Britain’s struggling high streets can only mean unemployment and decline. But for a growing band of optimists, it heralds a golden opportunity.
Artists and curators have begun colonising “slack space” freed up by the recession and are transforming vacant shops into “creative squats”, galleries and studios […] The slack space movement has echoes in previous slumps when many now successful architects, magazine publishers and artists moved into vacant premises.
‘Artists’ creative use of vacant shops brings life to desolate high streets’ Robert Booth, Guardian
If ever there is an image that symbolises the times we are in, it is desolate town centres with rows of empty shops where once there were small local retailers, a Woolworths or a Zavvi. Decisive action must be taken to stop our high streets turning from clone towns into ghost towns.
Cllr Margaret Eaton, Local Government Association chair
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