Affordable studios
What is an affordable studio provider?
Artists need studios. For many artists committed to their practice, having a studio is essential. However, the vast majority do not earn enough from their art practice to be able to afford a studio at open market prices in addition to a separate place to live. Affordable studio providers respond to this need.
They charge rents at a level that artists are able to pay without having to spend too much working time on other income-generating activities. For example, affordable studio providers in London charge rents which are, on average, one third of those for similar spaces on the open market, as a result of their charitable or non-profit structures. (See report Commercial workspace provision for visual artists – a comparison with the affordable sector)
Currently, some 147 organisations manage over 270 buildings, providing studios for 6,000 artists across the UK. (Figures taken from a national survey of studio groups and organisations undertaken by Acme (England only) and updated by NFASP in June 2008 (UK wide).
These organisations support art and artists at the most fundamental level and, in doing so, effectively subsidise the contemporary visual arts and their associated social and economic functions in the UK.
