Empty Spaces.

Something we noticed during our walk around Letchworth was the number of empty spaces. It gave an eerie feel about the place, especially in the tucked away areas…

Although, it was good to see that, with collaboration from Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation and Digswell Art Trust, a space called Vision of Utopia was used as a pop up gallery with events and workshops combining local artists and the public. There were also spaces in The Arcade with tables that you can book for the collectors market on a Saturday, so if you have collectables you can try to sell them.

Clearly vacant stores reflect badly on any town, but these are both great ways to get people in to the town, and maybe they will visit the other shops nearby. I may have to look into how much it would cost to use a space and have a pop up exhibition or something, with a few friends, either while I am here or back in Suffolk. It would be good experience, however, we shall see.

Garden City Gallery.

You may remember at the beginning of the week I visited Letchworth and not only did we stop at the LAC; we popped in to a lesser-known space called Garden City Gallery. This space definitely helped when we discussed ideas about possible future career spaces and we discovered it is good to look up on places after you visit, it will help you gain insight of your experience.

We would not have known about the place if our friend had not told us of it, as it is a doorway situated between two shops, partially hidden by the ‘signage’ of the shoe shop next door. We later discovered that the woman who owns the gallery space also owns this shoe shop. 

Up the stairs, you will find three main spaces with different purposes. They are used to show work, you can rent a space for this purpose, even meetings, or you can attend workshops they put on. There is also a small art shop adjoining the first room on your right, which is reasonably priced, plus a small kitchen area.

It was mentioned that a downside of having the place is that mainly because of where it is placed, not many people notice it and go in. In reality, the space is a hobby. More networking and advertising is needed and we agreed after the visit, that someone could even be hired to do that. There are signs in front of the entrance advertising forthcoming workshops and that they sell art supplies as well, but these look outdated and cluttered.

With a few little effective changes, it could be made more fruitful. It was pointed out that a successful space was out in Wymondley, which of course we had to visit and find out for ourselves (coming in another post).