Estate Agency

Campbell Works is delighted to present Estate Agency, a new project by Anna Francis with:

Rebecca Davies
Nicola Winstanley
Penny Vincent

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Estate Agency is a project exploring systems of culture-led regeneration, via exhibitions in Stoke-on-Trent and London, plus a symposium and series of discussion events. It asks ‘If councils and governments now recognise the value of arts and culture in developing places, what happens to these places, their communities and the cultural protagonists involved in the process, post-development?’ The project looks to two cities, with very different fortunes; via the closure of one cultural organisation ‘Campbell Works’ in London, to be transformed into an estate agency.

The project aims to consider the experience of many London based artists and arts organisations, where the places and spaces they have been involved in developing are no longer viable and sustainable places to remain, due to rising costs and the want of ring-fencing of cultural space within development contexts. The second part of the project involves hosting a reception agency in Stoke-on-Trent, providing a service for incoming artists.

In line with much of Anna’s recent work, Estate Agency explores the impact of art and artists on the regeneration of places and takes the form of a temporary intervention, which aims to raise questions and begin conversations around the processes of development.

Anna is a director at AirSpace gallery, Stoke-on-Trent and Associate Professor of Fine Art and Social Practice at Staffordshire University. Anna was recently commissioned by The Portland Street Community Group and the British Ceramics Biennial, to deliver a 4-week programme of activity with artist Rebecca Davies, exploring the viability of a derelict pub in Stoke-on-Trent, as a community hub and art space. This successful project is leading to the development of a community-led business plan to develop the pub permanently. Anna has lead on the AirSpace gallery Spode Rose Garden project since 2013 – which has seen the gallery develop a derelict garden into a beautiful green outdoor art space for the town of Stoke, working with partners Stoke-on-Trent City Council.

For Estate Agency, Anna and AirSpace have partnered with Campbell Works in London, the creative partnership of artists Neil Taylor & Harriet Murray. Their studio practice extends to running an artist-led gallery space, initiating and curating art projects, and undertaking a wide range of public realm interventions. Their exciting projects within their gallery in North Hackney, as well as series of high profile public realm interventions, make them well placed to host this project, as they see creative neighbours and friends leaving London, due to rising costs.

The Project:

Through a series of creative ‘shifts’ undertaken by a team of Estate Agents, the project will focus around artists being priced out of London, but will also engage with the impacts of development on communities. Estate Agency will be set up initially as a high street estate agents, but instead of showing local properties, and development opportunities local to Stoke Newington, all of the properties for sale or to let will be in Stoke-on-Trent, this will include both residential and artist studio provision. The Estate Agents are artists Anna Francis, Rebecca Davies and Nic Winstanley and Community Development specialist Penny Vincent.

Campbell Works is located in Stoke Newington, an area of London where currently the rate of change and development is frighteningly fast. To give context, the popular Church Street, Stoke Newington includes 7 high-class estate agencies, all within a stone’s throw of each other. These Estate Agencies vary in terms of their design, but all show relatively local properties. The Campbell Works Estate Agency will talk about Stoke properties and will frame activity around advocating for relocation to achieve a better quality of life, with a view to questioning what happens to London in the context of rising costs of living.

Estate Agency will include a display in Stoke – acting as welcome hoardings for newly arrived creatives, around which a series of 3 discussion events will be hosted – exploring Regeneration processes, the role of the artist in socially engaged models of work, and the responsibilities that artists have to the people of a place, when working within these development contexts. Through the interventions in London and Stoke-on-Trent and drawing on case studies and experience from elsewhere, the project will aim to consider what happens when artists are priced out of the places they have helped to develop and whether there are alternative approaches, that creatives can lead on.

The Symposium Event and Artist Relocation Day in Stoke Newington, on Saturday, 29th April will explore the context of Stoke Newington; with 7 estate agents on Church Street Stoke Newington, property is big business – and as described by Campbell Works ‘Every other conversation we have is about this,’ Artists and Other creative workers are being pushed out of the areas of London they used to inhabit, as the areas are getting developed, sometimes at breakneck speed. What happens to London if all the creative practitioners leave? And if this is happening to artists, what of the other communities in these places, What happens to them?

The second part of this is to consider where these artists are moving to – as we have seen in Margate (often now referred to as Shoreditch-on-Sea), areas of other places are now being colonised by artists, and the processes of regeneration are beginning again.

What responsibility do artists and arts organisations have in this process?

Are artists complicit in the developers’ plans, or are we as much of a victim as the communities that are being forced out?

How can we use our collective creative agency to do things differently?

As art organisations see the neighbourhoods around them change, do we need to change the way we work to reflect those changes?

The event will see include presentations by Anna Francis on her Stoke based practice, considering housing in the city, and a presentation by Rebecca Davies on her long term project in Elephant and Castle. The day will also include presentations by Social Artist Dan Thompson, and Urban Studies Specialist Martha Mingay.

The return events in Stoke, framed around welcome hoardings for incoming creatives will focus on the following questions:

1. Not just Artist, but also Resident/Community Member – what happens when we work where we live?

2. How to plan to be different: learning from elsewhere – safeguarding communities, and making a place for culture long term.

3. Responsibility and agency; redressing the balance re. socially engaged practices, why do we work

For more information about Estate Agency, including the full programme of the week’s activities please visit: www.estate-agency.org