#40 Understanding the Value of Artists' Studios: The Childers Street Project 2021-2022
50 stories from The Acme Archive
In 2021, Acme and University College London (UCL) collaborated on a research project exploring the importance of long-term, secure and affordable artists' studios for artists, and their connection to the local area in which they work.
For this case study, Acme Propeller Factory in Deptford was selected. Acme’s largest studio building for over three decades, it provided an ideal setting to capture the experiences of artists who had worked there for many years, alongside those who had only recently arrived. UCL’s researchers from Bartlett School of Planning began with a literature review before developing a value-based framework that guided 21 onsite interviews with artists working in the building.
The Childers Street project culminated in a published report available here, and an evening celebrating the building launched the first day of Lewisham’s Borough of Culture Year 2022. On the night, listening stations played excerpts from the interviews, while archive images and studio portraits of Acme Propeller Factory artists were on display. Acme also commissioned new artworks which were projected onto the walls of Childers Street - offering the local community a glimpse into the creative activity taking place behind the building's walls.