#2 Dita Hashi, 2022/23 Alternative Pathway Awards
50 opportunities for 50 years
“Like most working people in the capital, especially those from working class or poor backgrounds, we can feel the crisis of housing and space in the city and we know how it affects our lives, both professionally and personally.”
London-based artist-worker Dita Hashi moved into a studio at Acme’s Warton House building in November 2022 as one of the three recipients of the Alternative Pathway Awards, giving her the appropriate workspace to work and produce.
Launched for Acme’s 50th anniversary, the three new awards intend to widen access for artists from all backgrounds and experiences by increasing the diversity and representation of voices in contemporary art.
A Genesis Kickstart Fund project, supported by The Genesis Foundation, the awards will support early-career artists in necessitous circumstances who face additional barriers to sustaining their professional practice.
“Opportunities like the Alternative Pathway Awards are important to artists as they meet the fundamental need of having workspace in which to work!”
Dita Hashi
Practically, the studio space will enable Dita to work on specific areas of her practice: “I have been interested in painting as a medium for a long time and having access to this space would mean finally being able to develop that.”
“My plans are plastering my writings on the wall, starting on some painting ideas I have and finally having somewhere secure to leave them! I will be using space to watch some films on a projector, watch my own video works and see how they look and feel in the space, in a similar manner to how they could be displayed in a gallery space.”
More broadly, Dita aims to “make lots and lots of mistakes and experiment as much as I can in the studio, learn how to live through a European winter whilst staying productive artistically and hopefully read and finish volume one of Capital with my friends, Lena and Sura.”
In addition to the concrete benefits of access to workspace, Dita plans to “spend some part of the time and space granted by this award learning how to speak about my artistic practice and my relationship to the arts more generally.” She is also “really excited about the mentorship element of the awards”, during which the three Alternative Pathway awardees will work with Acme x OSE Fellow, Shamica Ruddock.
“The Alternative Pathway Awards are especially important for early career artists,” Dita says, as they provide “the necessary space for experimentation without the pressure of making work to sell, or commissions bound by the necessity of making studio rent for the month.”