Work/Live Residencies

Acme's work/live residencies are highly subsidised programmes which complement our principal activity of providing affordable non-residential studios for artists.

Since the work space, the studio, is at the heart of the residency programmes, Acme uses the term work/live, rather than the more commonly used live/work. The accompanying living space helps to take pressure off artists financially; they avoid having to pay two rents on a separate living space and studio. By living and working in the same space they also gain time which would otherwise be spent commuting.

Because Acme's work/live residencies are such a scare resource, the length of the residency is limited so that as many artists as possible will benefit from this creative breathing space. The programmes are advertised nationally and artists are selected from an open submission with the help of external experts. The artists chosen are those who are most likely to make maximum use of this opportunity.

The Fire Station Work/Live Programme
Gillender Street, London E14

Acme's work/live programme at the Fire Station is one of the most directly supportive schemes for artists in the United Kingdom, providing combined studio and living space at low rents as well as special bursaries: rent free space and grants of £5,000/year, worth over £30,000.

The former fire station was bought in 1997 and converted with funding from the National Lottery and other sources. Restored and developed to provide 12 purpose-designed work/live and six non-residential studios, these units were developed in response to the lack of affordable space for artists to work and live in, and in particular, to the lack of studios properly accessible to disabled artists.

The fixed-term residency scheme is intended to allow artists more time to concentrate on the development of their work and professional careers, and less time working to survive.

"If I was asked to devise an art award, it might consist of a house and studio; maybe like Acme Studios, who offer, from a national open submission, five-year work/live residencies at low rents and two-and-a-half-year bursaries at The Fire Station, in Bow in East London; that seems a good model." Jeremy Dellar, Frieze, Nov-Dec 2005

Programme 1 (1997 - 2001)

In 1997, 12 artists were selected from a national submission to take up the first three year residencies: Edward Allington, Helena Ben-Zenou, Gillian Blease, Paul Burwell, Martin Creed, Permindar Kaur, Kypros Kyprianou, Marty St. James, Lindsay Seers, Virgil Tracy, Barbara Tyrrell and Joanna Woodward. Three bursaries, including one for an artist with a disability, were awarded to Paul Burwell, Barbara Tyrrell, Joanna Woodward and Noel Paine.

Programme 2 (2001 - 2005)

Programme 2, which began in April 2001, awarded four year work/live residencies to: John Askew, Sonia Baka, Stephen Conning, Stevie Deas, Elizabeth LeMoine, Gordon McKenna, Pat Naldi, Hayley Newman, Stuart Parkinson, Tim Sanderson, Erika Tan and Aaron Williamson. Gordon McKenna was awarded a bursary for an artist with a disability.

During Programme 2, four artists were able to realise opportunities elsewhere and their places on the residency scheme were taken up by Paul Harrison, Laurence Harvey, Kevin Heavey and Jack Southern.

Programme 3 (2005 - 2010)

Programme 3 offered nine five-year work/live residencies at low rents to Kate Broad, Lisa Cheung, Maggie Hills, Robert Holyhead, Lizzie Hughes, Riccardo Iacono, Samson Kambalu, Damien Roach and Jack Southern.

Two bursaries of £5,000 per year plus free work/live space for two and a half years were awarded to Ming Wong and Ben Cove, whose bursary was open to artists with disabilities.

For more information on The Fire Station artists, please click here:
fire_station_artists.pdf
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As part of our international agency programme, one of the work/live units is occupied by an artist on a scholarship from Aargauer Kuratorium, a foundation based in Switzerland.

The Fire Station Project: History

In December 1997, The Fire Station Project opened in a former London County Council Fire Brigade Station in London's East End. It was the product of many years of planning by Acme to create the first permanent, fully accessible, low-cost, combined working and living spaces for professional fine artists in the UK. Twelve artists, selected from a national submission, moved into the building and so began the first three year residency programme.

Acme's principal role is to support artists and their career development by providing studio space at low cost to maximise the time they can devote to their work. The programme at the Fire Station extends this support by providing studios which include living space at low rents, given that there are many artists in London who cannot afford working space in addition to somewhere to live.

The work/live programme provides breathing space, allowing artists to concentrate on the development of their work by greatly reducing or removing other practical and economic pressures.

A central element of the project is to ensure that this fundamental and practical form of support is accessible to artists with and without disabilities. The building has been converted so that it is fully accessible to people using wheelchairs and we are committed to making further adaptations to support artists with differing disabilities.

Each programme has offered at least one bursary assisted place to an artist with a disability. Our commitment to access continues to develop as an important and integral feature of the Fire Station's support for artists in future years.

The building, originally purchased by Acme in 1996, was located is an 'employment zone'. This meant that the local authority, the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, wanted to encourage employment use and did not want to see the building being used solely for residential purposes. Acme's proposal to develop work/live space, with the studio at the heart of each of the units and the living space incidental to it, achieved planning consent because we could guarantee that the use of the building as genuine workspace would be maintained. This is in contrast to many, so-called live/work projects which often drift into purely residential use.

The original 12 firemen's flats on the upper four storeys of the Fire Station have been converted to 12 work/live units - simple, open, self-contained spaces (averaging 550 sq.ft.) including ancillary kitchens and bathrooms. The ground floor has been converted to six large non-residential studio spaces let to artists registered on Acme's studio list. The building proved to be ideally suited to its new purpose; very few structural alterations were necessary and the new lift was accommodated within one of the original practice towers at the rear of the building.

The Fire Station project was supported by the National Lottery through the Arts Council of England, The Foundation for Sport and the Arts, The Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Zuger Kulturstiftung Landis Gyr, The Esmée Fairbairn Charitable Trust, London Arts Board and the Arts Council of England.

As part of our lottery project we invited Station House Opera to create a new large scale performance, Snakes and Ladders, which used the whole rear elevation of the building as a four-storey stage set. Performed over six evenings, the first performance followed the formal opening of the Fire Station and celebrated Acme's first 25 years.

In addition, we commissioned William Raban to make a half-hour film, Firestation, which focussed on the history of the building and its transformation to artists' studios. Artist John Riddy was also invited to make a photographic record of this process of transformation.

The Sugar House Work/Live Programme
Sugar House Lane, London E15

The work/live residency programme, based at The Sugar House, complements and builds on the work/live scheme established at Acme's nearby Fire Station building in Gillender Street.

Like the Fire Station, The Sugar House work/live residency project was designed in response to the lack of affordable space in London for artists to work and live in. The project alleviates pressures on artists - both financial and practical. Low rent reduces the amount of time artists have to spend earning to pay for somewhere to live and work, while increasing the time spent developing their professional careers.

The units are situated on the first and second floors of the building. Those on the second floor are double height, with mezzanine sleeping areas extending into the open roof spaces. The units have separate kitchens, bathrooms and stores, with open plan working and living/sleeping areas. Designed to maximise working space, most units are open-plan.

Acme has worked closely with the architects, Survey & Design Partnership, to achieve units which are flexible and maximise the working area and the sense of space and light. The units vary between 500 and 900 sq. ft. and are suitable for occupation by two people.

The Sugar House Programmes (2002 - 2011)

In April 2002, eight artists were selected from a national submission to take up the first work/live residencies, ending in February 2007: Neil Exeter, Louisa Fairclough, James Fisher, James Grant, Al Holmes, Brigid McCleer, Gail Pickering and Akiko Usami.

Maria Fusco subsequently joined the programme when Louisa Fairclough was able to take up an opportunity elsewhere.

As part of our international agency programme one of the work/live units is occupied by an artists on a scholarship from the Australia Council for the Arts.

The Sugar House Project: History

The old Sugar House is a Victorian warehouse originally used for the storing and packaging of sugar brought up river and unloaded on the adjacent wharf at Three Mills Wall River. It now forms part of a business village owned and managed by the Boss Group, situated in Sugar House Lane (which took its name from the building), to the south of Stratford High Street. The building is close to the Three Mills Island film production unit and is in an area which is becoming increasingly developed as a centre for the creative industries.

The Sugar House project has been developed in partnership with Solon Co-operative Housing Services and the Boss Group and is funded by the Housing Corporation. Corporation, Stratford Development Partnership and Acme Studios.