Can studio spaces offer a solution? Can they become more than just a space for artists to create but also one where they can exhibit and sell work? In this article, we spoke to several studios that either offer exhibition spaces alongside studios or market open studios where visitors can come in and see the studio space and buy work to support the artists.

Mixing studios with exhibition spaces

Camilla Cole is the founder of Hypha Studios and says “We matchmake artists with empty space across the country, awarding them the use of it totally for free, in return for free events for local communities”. It means Hypha Studio spaces pop up nationwide, with several sites in London including one in the heart of the Mayfair gallery district - they host exhibitions, studios, or both.

Cole sees Hypha as addressing three major issues:

“1.⁠ ⁠There’s no shortage of talent but it’s difficult to get jobs in the arts

2.⁠ ⁠It is difficult to afford to be an artist - pay for a studio or get seen by a gallery (especially with funding drying up and galleries closing)

3.⁠ ⁠Access to the arts can exclude the majority of the public” 

It benefits both artists and communities, but also landlords as Cole says it can: “activate spaces while they are empty, get great footfall for other occupiers, [and] create a destination.”

How each space accessed by Hypha Studios is used will vary. Cole says “We have a creative solution for every empty space. For ground floor high street shops, which are public-facing spaces - we consider them perfect to be galleries with a rolling exhibition programme.

We also have spaces that are not public facing - so office block floors or within buildings with no glass frontage. These spaces we turn into studio spaces, and they are harder to come by as they need to be longer-term”.

All sales are handled by the artists as Hypha Studios is a not-for-profit organisation, but it is working on a new initiative called ‘Hypha Curates’ which would raise some money for the organisation to further its programme.

The Koppel Project is another organisation with studios and exhibition spaces focused on supporting emerging artists and recent art school graduates. Art Haxhijakupi, the Programme and Communications Manager at The Koppel Project describes the business model as “partnering with property owners and different organisations who grant us use of their buildings for a period of time. We then transform these spaces, making them not only viable as studios but also converting parts into gallery areas … Affordability is at the core of our mission as we provide studios at reasonable rates, and in certain cases, completely free … Our model reinvests income from studios into the exhibition programme. ”

Barbara - an artist who has shown at The Koppel Project space in Kingston, South-West London highlights the importance of accessing the exhibition space: “On the surface it looks like there are plenty of opportunities to show your work these days, but once you start the application process you suddenly find many hidden fees and extra charges … Most if not all of that stress is taken away when The Koppel Project has a space and support to offer to their artists … Having an exhibition space like this makes showing "the world you carry inside you" possible.”

Hypha Studios and The Koppel Project both lead nomadic existences taking over spaces temporarily and Haxhijakupi says “This nomadic existence has shaped our engagement with the art community, compelling us to question static, property-driven models of creative practice”. It’s a trend being observed more widely within galleries that are adopting nomadic/pop-up models to counter the high costs of a permanent home.

The Bomb Factory Art Foundation, founded by artist Pallas Citroen in 2015, has also adopted a similar model mixing studio spaces across London with exhibition spaces including a giant one in Marylebone that has hosted an exhibition by top-tier artist Mat Collishaw and many shows by emerging artists.

While this model of mixing studio and exhibition spaces has gained momentum over the last decade it’s not a new model, as demonstrated by Bow Arts. Bow Arts was founded in 1994 and while “our studios came first but our Nunnery Gallery – our main exhibition space – quickly followed a couple of years later, and both have now been running for over 25 years”, says Sophie Hill, Bow Arts’ Director of Arts and Events. “The model is important as the gallery provides an open, creative and boundary-pushing space in which art can be championed and displayed alongside the teeming backdrop of where art is made every day”.

Bow Art also capitalises on temporary spaces and in one example Hill states “We collaborated with curatorial duo ha.lf (both of whom have studios with Bow Arts) for the hugely successful ‘Take a Seat’ exhibition – not only funding the exhibition and enabling it to take shape, but offering free residency space to artists to build their artworks for the exhibition in the months running up to opening”. It was an enjoyable exhibition where artists made art chairs visitors sat on. Like the companies above, Bow Arts is a not-for-profit and champions largely emerging artists with its annual Bow Open focused on showcasing its studio artists.

Selling at open studios

The idea of inviting the public into artist studios to see ‘where the creative magic happens’ is not new, but recently some studios have started to turn it into a commercial opportunity for artists to sell directly to visitors who are looking to purchase artworks.

Wimbledon Art Studios has embraced this model with gusto, re-titling the event as Wimbledon Art Fair as they felt it wasn’t clear that visitors could buy - with the level of marketing the art fair employs it draws a significant crowd. Visiting over a weekend in November it was busy in every corridor and that’s made more impressive given there are over 150 artists and makers on show in a vast studio complex.

Across the road, Delta House Studios has renamed its open studios to The Secret Studio Show to emphasise that it’s as much an exhibition, where works can be purchased, as a chance to see artist studios. The studio has a gallery space and at a recent Secret Studio Show, it showed the work of artists located in Delta House’s other nearby space that doesn’t have a gallery nor hosts an open studio - thus giving visitors access to artist’s works across both sites. As the task force of artists who organise the event confirms: “This event offers artists invaluable exposure and opportunities for direct engagement and relationship-building with art enthusiasts and potential buyers”.

Both Wimbledon and Delta offer small-scale works and postcards for sale to ensure there’s work available to buyers with smaller budgets, making art collecting more accessible.

We’ve noticed that more artists are using open studios as a chance to sell work and another effective example we’ve seen is Kindred Studios in West London who also host a selling exhibition in their gallery space and give visitors the chance to see artists in their studios and purchase directly from them. It’s another example of a weekend event that’s always been busy anytime I’ve visited. 

What next?

There will never be a shortage of artists wanting to create work and exhibit in a cultural hub like London, especially given the number of top art schools in the city. The organisations in this article have stepped in to provide a space for these artists to both show harder-to-sell work and provide a platform where they can sell. It also takes advantage of how London will always have areas under construction and development and that’s where resourceful organisations can step in and set up studios and exhibition spaces, both temporarily and longer-term.

As Haxhijakupi from the Koppel Project pointedly says “The support we offer through our exhibition spaces is critical in a time when funding is harder to come by and artists are often expected to work for free.”

Cole of Hypha Studios sums it up best when she says: “Artists and curators are the most resourceful people I know, and they just need the space to show or do what they do best”. In a difficult time for artists, when other means of support are drying up, the organisations in this article offer the opportunities these artists need. While they cannot resolve the chronic underfunding of the arts in the UK, they are providing a valuable lifeline.