Short or medium-term studios and workspace for artists, arts organisations and charities across the UK.
In addition to our permanent studio buildings in Leeds, we also work across the country to match artists and arts organisations with empty spaces. These spaces, often negotiated on a temporary lease, are known as temporary or meanwhile spaces. The ‘meanwhile’ model is widely recognised and commonly used by arts organisations.
These work well for artists who need flexible space for a short period, those who don’t have the funding for a permanent space, and creatives in areas where studio provision is limited.
How does it work?
Any commercially owned building is subject to business rates, with or without tenants occupying the space. If the tenants of the building are a registered charity, like East Street Arts for example, the landlord receives charitable rate relief (a discount), which is an attractive offer. This means that we’re able to offer more affordable and flexible terms for artists and collectives to occupy these empty spaces.
What do we offer?
The temporary spaces we offer are predominantly in former retail or office units where the landlord is struggling to find a commercial tenant. While they are searching for the right tenant we take on a meanwhile lease and work with local artists to put the space to positive use. Since we began working in meanwhile space over a decade ago, we’ve occupied over 500 buildings and supported more than 2,000 artists to do great things.
We are particularly interested in working with artists who engage with the local community, and are committed to working with artists of all backgrounds, ages, levels, and progressions within their artistic practice.
Things to consider
Meanwhile spaces can be extremely affordable per sqft compared to traditional studio spaces, however, there are a few things to consider when thinking of applying for a temporary space:
- We can be given a 30-day notice to vacate the space at any stage, although in practice we often end up being there for a few months or, in some cases, years.
- As repurposed venues, these spaces have limited facilities, such as no WiFi and/or limited/no heating.
- No commercial activity is allowed in the spaces – this means they cannot be used primarily as selling spaces but it is ok to have occasional events, shows and gallery sales, it just can’t be the main focus of activity.
- While you will be in regular contact with our spaces team, we manage meanwhile spaces remotely from our base in Leeds. We will visit the premises to conduct inductions and check-ins but, on the whole, you will be responsible for day-to-day tasks such as cleaning and locking up.
- We will ask for monthly monitoring information from you, including any audience figures and meter readings.
Our current spaces
The map shows the locations of the spaces that we currently occupy.