Meanwhile in the North

Since the Future High Street Fund was launched a group of arts organisations operating predominately in the North initiated a conversation about the opportunity and challenges with the Future High Street Initiative.

As a group we have been meeting and discussing how we can promote what we do Taking into consideration our various approaches and models to using meanwhile space. We are a dynamic network of arts charities based in the north of England operating place- based models. We harness a wide range of meanwhile spaces, positioning their use within artistic and social practice for the benefit of artists, creative communities and the public at large.

The organisations have been operating in temporary space over a 10 year period our and combined portfolio is made up of 1,944 properties that have supported over 2,733 artists in our meanwhile space and had over a million visitors.

Building on our experience of meanwhile occupancy across our towns and cities in the north we bring both a strategic and responsive approach to embedding widespread access to creative and cultural space within our work:

As part of our conversations it is apparent that we need to understand and collate information that will enable us to better promote what we do and ensure that we are strategically plugged into the decisions that are being made at local authority level on how they are dealing with the issues around future high street and vacant properties.

Alongside this we have also established that changes are afoot in terms of business rates, the way in which local authorities want to work, landlords expectations and the way in which working with intermediaries can be complex and not always suitable or ethical for our sector.

Meanwhile in the North Consortium members:
East Street Arts
Skippko
Axis
Castlefield Gallery
The NewBridge Project

Other things!