Test Space
Speaking Up for Grassroots Arts Sunderland
Test Space is Sue Loughlin and Corinne Kilvington who have been working together since meeting at UNION 23, a year long course for artists and creatives provided by UNION Arts: The Northern School for Creativity and Activism. Corinne’s is the founder and artistic director of Theatre Space North East.
This collaborative partnership organised Speak Up for Grassroots Arts Sunderland after receiving funding from an Arts Council England Project Grant, seed funded by UNION Arts.
Test Space used event-based strategies to pose questions around the democratisation of the arts, the role of arts spaces in supporting creative community cohesion and methods for sustaining local creative ecosystems in the Sunderland area.
Findings were made available in printed and digital formats with the intention that they be used to support the case for artist-led initiatives in Sunderland. Read the documents here:
This project adds to the current localised, regional and national support for artist-led.
Test Space was funded by:
Test Space Aims:
Explore methods of initiating and sustaining artist led initiatives in Sunderland
Give voice to underrepresented artists, creative practitioners & community members within Sunderland & it’s surrounding areas
Explore ways of serving local artists & the wider Sunderland community better
The project investigated:
Ways art hierarchies can be destabilised to help level the playing field for local practitioners
What the artistic and wider community need from an evolving cultural scene
Methods for building artist led/grass roots projects via collective working methods, which are none exploitative & caring
Activities were designed to elicit understanding, knowledge & evidence for dissemination, and included:
A sequence of learning conversations between local stakeholders
Speak Up for Grassroots Arts - two in person community debate events
A period of evaluation & documentation
The sharing of findings
