In a city yearning for new creative venues, SHOP has been a welcome addition to Preston’s burgeoning D.I.Y art scene. Since the start of 2023, the converted shop has hosted creatives and artists who are encouraged to take over the space with their experiments. In its short history, SHOP – named after Charity Shop Rwanda, the previous tenants of twenty years – has hosted a multitude of events, from electric cello performances to yoga classes and vegetarian curry-fuelled album launches. The space’s most recent exhibition was socially engaged artist Niki Colclough’s deep listening installation, The Future of Listening (October 2023), co-designed with SHOP’s own architect, Lee Ivett. I sat down with them both to discuss the creation of SHOP and The Future of Listening.
Ivett has previous experience with artist-led spaces, having been an instigator in 2017 of Glasgow’s resident-led art space, KIOSK, alongside developer Duncan Blackmore. In Ivett’s words, that project was ‘an experiment in what a space would be used for if it was given to residents to decide how a space was used and by whom,’ a philosophy that also underpins SHOP. We chat over tea Colclough has foraged and brewed especially for The Future of Listening experience – there are ritualistic elements to her work that only materialise through her being present in the space and with an audience.
During our conversation, Ivett touches on his architectural background. ‘Most of my experience as an architect has been building projects myself, and doing community based projects – building stuff for people – and actually a lot of the work over the last ten years was funded by art funding, because in architecture there isn’t any funding to f*** around, be playful and invest in the development of practice.’Returning to Preston after studying and working in Glasgow for barely twenty years , Ivett found a significant change in the cityscape. As he puts it, ‘there were people trying to do stuff, but a space didn’t exist.’ He continues, ‘there wasn’t a single art space in the whole of Preston that had a shop window – it was either hidden behind closed doors, or it was part of the university, or it was a massive institution.’ Unlike other large Northwest cities, Preston lacks art spaces – there are currently very few places to experience contemporary art in the city. Only The Birley (an artist-led studios and project space) and PR1 gallery (part of UCLan) have a vigorous new exhibition programme and a permanent presence in the city centre, despite a wealth of talent (including Turner-Prize winning artist Lubaina Himid) living in Preston. New art spaces are something the city desperately needs, given that the city’s main art gallery, The Harris, has been closed for refurbishment since late 2021.
Ivett decided he wanted to help address the problem. Teaming up with Preston-based architects North West Design Collective (NWDC Studios), a conservation-accredited, female-led architects who restore and reuse existing buildings, SHOP became a co-venture between NWDC Studios and Ivett. Coming together, they wanted to test the potential of this kind of low cost, accessible and experimental space. It sits on the edge of the high street, surrounded by crumbling blocks of cement from demolished buildings. Spread over two floors, the top is used as the office for both Ivett and NWDC Studios, freeing up the bottom half to be used for exhibitions, community activities, and events. Currently the rent and all other associated costs related to the building, are covered by Ivett and NWDC. SHOP hasn’t yet received any external funding but has recently established a Community Interest Company so that they can invite others into the development of the project and explore a variety of potential funding options. So far, Ivett and NWDC have technically operated SHOP at a financial loss but see the benefits and value of the project being much greater than any kind of financial reward. While the space is funded, the activity that it hosts is funded by the instigators of that activity. This might potentially involve arts funding but most often is self-funded in some way. This model, part architectural business and art space, supplements the costs of the space and keeps it free for artists to use when exhibiting.
The exchange could be seen as this; artists are supported, given freedom and encouraged to experiment but lack the institutional weight of a big gallery, one that brings in audiences and has the funding to pay artists and staff. For many artists this is an exciting opportunity, and it expands the field of artists able to exhibit. However, it still requires a large amount of unpaid labour on the part of the artist. Like most DIY or artist-led spaces, this is the only way a space can operate, relying on the good will and unpaid work of a few individuals. Though SHOP’s operational model is different, this issue persists. But SHOP does manage to balance a public-facing space that’s open to a range of exhibitors with a community space that encourages hyper local connections and interactions, like through their open-door policy, local maker market events and heritage open days. Their events frequently spill out onto the street, bringing vitality to a part of town undergoing redevelopment. As art spaces continue to disappear, smaller purpose-built venues like SHOP show how a DIY approach, married with a business model, can result in a unique arts space. It’s the commercial component that most DIY spaces do not have, and the philanthropic business ventures of NWDC Studios, that helps prop-up the more traditional artist-led space downstairs used for SHOP’s exhibiting.
Across the wider art ecological landscape, artists have had a tumultuous history with establishing spaces. Historically, this has been for a myriad of reasons, partly due to funding cuts and reallocations (most notably National Portfolio Organisations whose status and funding are up for review every four years), redevelopment and lack of investment – investing too much time, care, and money in a space can be dangerous for artists. Artists’ spaces often have short-term arrangements or contracts with landlords. This means spaces can be lost at the drop of a hat. Even well-established spaces fall victim to this, like Manchester’s PAPER gallery which opened in 2012 and was forced to close its physical space earlier this year.
When refitting SHOP, the biggest expenses were the most mundane. The boiler needed to be serviced and made safe. They had to strip the inside, remove the lowered ceiling, and move the stairs. Though the building would never have a white cube aesthetic, SHOP’s willingness to depart from the limitations of a traditional gallery look has provided artists with something to respond to. It’s essentially a gutted-out terrace with wooden floors painted blue and chipboard fixtures. The interior is rich with the remnants of previous projects in the form of sculptural artworks and glossy posters. Where artists so often take up residence in derelict offices in inaccessible buildings, SHOP has been transformed into a warm, fit for purpose space. In total, SHOP has cost around £7,000. Ivett adds ‘that’s why it is important to say that some architects have done this but did not spend thirty, forty, or fifty grand on it. There’s a shared mentality with a lot of arts practitioners that you have a go and see what happens.’ Ivett adds, ‘you hope for the best, and you see what comes out of it. You try and learn through each step that you make, rather than necessarily getting obsessed with the final outcome, and a lot of architecture is obviously really premised on the final. The way we’re mainly judged is by trying to predict when something will be finished, how much it will cost, and what it will look like.’ SHOP has acted as an incubator for artists, who may have the impulse of an idea but no output or venue to explore it. It poses the question, why are artists and architects so rarely in collaboration?
For Colclough, this space engenders questions about the wider arts ecology. ‘Who gets to make art?’ she asks. ‘I think what’s really great about this space is that it gives a platform for artists to come and test stuff out without any pressure.’ The Future of Listening falls comfortably into this category of experimentation facilitated by SHOP. The spatialised soundscape features field recordings from nineteen ancient woodlands threatened by the construction of the HS2 railway line. The sounds of running water and animal calls blend together and surround us. Some moments are blissfully peaceful, but also brutal, like the falling water that echoes into an industrialised cityscape. Structurally, a sloped and covered wooden installation fills the space. Speakers are positioned around the room to create the immersive soundscape to effortlessly transport the audience to another place and time, creating a dialogic space to consider the value we attribute to these spaces.
The project is increasingly timely. At the start of the exhibition’s run, phase 2b of HS2 was officially cancelled. It’s not clear if these green spaces will be safeguarded or still be lost to other development projects. This makes the work all the more relevant, asking what value we attach to nature. The HS2 line was concentrated on economics, and never the environment, which continues to be looked past even in the line’s cancellation. Afterward Colclough tells me, ‘I wanted to create a space for people to come together, to listen and contemplate their relationship with our more-than-human companions. It’s not telling people what to do or think, it’s encouraging them to look more widely at how political decisions are made’
For each showing, an audience of between four and five people is invited into SHOP to lie on the installation platform and experience the immersive soundscape. Each time slot is ticketed (not to charge visitors, but because Colclough needs to be in the space to facilitate the experience). As she says, ‘I like to make spaces to gather, often this takes the format of a workshop or a walk, making the installation has been a way to test this process in an exhibition format’.’
Like many socially engaged artists, Colclough’s research-based practice has multi-faceted outcomes. This is an ongoing body of work that exceeds this one exhibition, with multiple strands that can branch off into different projects and forms. The roots of The Future of Listening extend back to 2021 when Colclough underwent training as a Shinrin Yoku (forest bathing) leader. This training involved immersing herself in a forest environment to fully engage with the sights, sounds, and overall ambiance of the natural surroundings. In 2022, she initiated the audio archiving of nineteen ancient woodlands facing the threat of destruction by HS2. This soundscape installation is a continuation of her previous work, the important thread that carries through her practice is the creation of collaborative dialogues.
For artists like Colclough, SHOP strikes a delicate balance between supporting experimentation and fostering connections. It has emerged as a hub for experimentation and community engagement into a city hungry for contemporary art experiences. The Future of Listening exhibition demonstrates that innovative work can exist beyond the traditional gallery walls. As SHOP continues to evolve as an architectural and visual art space, it contributes to the growing number of spaces that are challenging traditional gallery norms and traditional ways of working within the arts.
James McColl is a writer and artist based in the North West of England.
SHOP Preston is online here and here. Niki Colclough’s website is here.
This exploration is supported by Arts Council England as part of Corridor8’s commissioning programme.
Published 13.03.2024 by Jazmine Linklater in Explorations
1,965 words
