Resource, reuse, reward

There is a long history of regeneration in the arts. London’s Tate Modern used to be a power station, The Baltic in Gateshead is a former flour mill and there are countless rehearsal studios situated in railway viaducts. Such projects have long shown how resourceful those in the arts can be with spare space. Recent examples include Edel Assanti, a former travel agents office in Victoria that was transformed into a studio and exhibition space, and The Library Space in Battersea (no prizes for guessing what that used to be).

From trendy pop-up exhibitions in abandoned warehouses, to large scale rebuilding projects, such as LSO St Lukes and the Halle Ochestra’s new project in Ancoats, reusing spaces is in vogue. It’s a trend born from a deep-seated thriftiness that pioneering and successful artists continue to demonstrate. Painters reuse canvases and composers, throughout history, have reused themes from pieces of music written earlier in their careers.

I find this resourcefulness inspiring and I believe it should be heralded as one of the reasons we still have a thriving arts scene in Britain. The number of abandoned buildings is on the rise and this can only be seen as a good thing for struggling artists: the use of these spaces costs considerably less than hiring a studio or gallery; the spaces are usually situated in areas where there isn’t already an exhibition space, making it attractive for artists wanting to widen their customer base; and for rehearsing musicians, the occasional train passing overhead is of little concern as they’ll likely be making enough noise to mask it anyway.

Art itself is increasingly being made from recycled, reused and ‘found’ materials – as a trip to any contemporary sculpture gallery aught to confirm – so it’s only natural that the staging for such works reflect the nature of the art itself. These are exciting times for artists; with so much waste, there is a fast-growing palette of inspiration to draw from.

So get out there and find something that is worthless to someone and make it worthwhile for everyone else.