Gasworks is part of Triangle Arts Trust and comprises of fifteen artists studios and a gallery. Twelve of the studios are rented to London based artists and the remaining three are used to accommodate artists taking part in an international residency programme. Since inception in 1994, Gasworks has hosted over 100 artists from 45 different countries including Cuba, India, China, Taiwan, Venezuela, Pakistan, Brazil, Mexico, Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa, The Caribbean, USA, Chile and France.
Gasworks Gallery is the public face of Triangle Arts Trust in London and programmes up to seven exhibitions a year which profile emerging and mid-career international and UK artists whose practice is of outstanding quality and who have had little previous exposure in London. The Gallery is committed to the professional development of artists and offers a strong level of curatorial, administrative and practical support in order to enable artists to realise ambitious and experimental projects. The exhibitions at Gasworks are complimented by an education and outreach programme which aims to introduce themes and ideas of contemporary practice to both a younger and a professional audience.
The Gallery, which began as an artist-run space in 1994, has recently undergone significant change and development and has seen a transition from A4E lottery project funding to become a fixed term revenue client of London Arts in April 2001. This development has been coupled with key organisational changes which have resulted in the building of a sustainable internal infrastructure which will ensure longevity and further organisational development.
As part of this organisational development, Gasworks embarked on a series of initiatives which researched the gallery’s current audiences. This process began with a project funded by London Arts and was delivered by marketing consultancy firm The Write Thing. The research brief for The Write Thing asked the consultants to look at Gasworks’ press and publicity campaigns and begin to address the issue of repeat audiences to a diverse range of exhibitions. This research was particularly to focus on black an ethnic minority audiences. The results from this brief were unexpected and opened up new areas of interest and discussion particularly in relation to our local context and Gasworks building and how this serves our audiences. (To see a copy of The Write Thing’s Report and Gasworks evaluation go to www.gasworks.org.uk).
In order to further research these two areas of interest, Gasworks Gallery invited art/architecture team Kathrin Boehm and Andreas Lang to develop a project: lay out.
Boehm and Lang were asked to undertake this research due to their working
philosophy which includes an interest in the existing dynamics between formal
and informal structures, a willingness to let the meaning and relevance of
their projects develop as they progress, and a firm commitment to collaboration.
lay out concludes in a website which is both a device for publishing the results
of the project, as well as a tool for filtering and collecting information.
The website will be used as an integral tool to inform Gasworks future development
initiatives. www.layout-gasworks.net
The website database has been programmed by e-2 and the website designed and
programmed by Red Leader Industries.
Gasworks Gallery is grateful to The Cross River Partnership Small Grants Fund, The Bodyshop Foundation and The Garfield Weston Foundation for supporting the project.