Community involvement creating embroidery panel Creative Land Trust

Community impact

Creative workspaces support communities, both the artists and creative people working within the spaces and the diverse range of people and communities in the vicinity.

How Creative Land Trust creates long-term change

CLT is a creative placekeeper; its role is distinct from studio provision. It secures permanent creative infrastructure that would otherwise be difficult to protect through the market alone. Some of our spaces include funded public outreach programmes that work with local artists and people to engage with the arts, culture and heritage of the area. Find out more below. 

Wallis Road Studios: Cell Studios 

Wallis Road, Cell Studios & Mainyard Studios in Hackney Wick

Cell Studios was founded in 1999 and is committed to supporting visual artists of all disciplines and points in their careers. Cell Studios were the tenant in the building on the site before its recent redevelopment.

To read more about the project please click here

Wallis Road Studios: Mainyard Studios 

Wallis Road Studios, Mainyard Studios

Hackney Wick has been home to Mainyard Studios for over a decade, with its original site and headquarters on the neighbouring site to Wallis Road Studios. They occupy two buildings at Wallis Road Studios. Their studios support artists, makers and small creative businesses. The service they provide also includes business support, community outreach and networking opportunities for its tenant base.  

To read more about the project please click here

THE CHALLENGE

Rising land values, redevelopment pressure and insecure leases are shrinking affordable creative space in London and increasing precarity for artists and providers.

Foundational outcomes

0-36 months

WHAT CLT DOES

  • Secures buildings

  • Protects affordability

  • Partners providers

  • Supports artists

  • Shapes policy

Artist outcomes

1-5 years

  • Workspace secured

  • Providers stabilised

  • Infrastructure retained

Place outcomes

3-7 years

  • Practice sustained

  • Careers opened

  • Access widen

  • Artists retained

System outcomes

5+ years

  • Communities grow

  • Local engagement rises

  • Creativity visible

  • Places enriched

Long-term impact

  • Infrastructure recognised

  • Policy strengthened

  • Model informs others

LONG-TERM IMPACT

A London where artists from all backgrounds build long-term careers, creative communities remain rooted in neighbourhoods, and affordable creative infrastructure is protected.

Creative infrastructure

Securing affordable space for the long term

73%

say they have extended their professional network in the building

87%

say they are confident they can keep their studio long-term

90%

choose to renew their studio rental contracts

50%

of new studio holders were working from home before

182

Artists supported

90%

say they are confident in the long-term provision of their building

93%

agreed their space is affordable

100%

say their studio is essential to their creative development

Our impact includes:

  • A growing portfolio of permanent artist studio space across the capital
  • Hundreds of artists supported
  • Buildings protected for creative use in perpetuity
  • Strong and sustained demand for affordable workspace
  • Long-term cultural and community benefit within neighbourhoods across London

We work collaboratively with studio providers, developers, local authorities, funders and communities to strengthen London’s long-term creative infrastructure.

Our Reports

We commission reports to help illustrate the impact and importance of affordable creative workspace for artists, communities, place, the economy and society.

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Our Reports

We commission reports to help illustrate the impact and importance of affordable creative workspace for artists, communities, place, the economy and society.

Nothing Found

Research

Creative Land Trust was conceived following a series of reports highlighting the challenges of sustaining creative industries in prospering cities, and the risks poses to our culture and economies if the sector is not protected.

Since then, we have seen unprecedented changes to communities and industries. COVID-19 highlighted the fragility of our creative industries as well as shedding light on many other challenges within the sector.

As we continue to understand and forecast the many external forces that affect studio provision, we will document findings, reports and case studies to help inform our support of the sector.

  • Diversity and Inclusivity by Design

    PEC & Anastasios Maragiannis (2019)

    Anastasios Maragiannis explores ideas of diversity and inclusivity in the creative spaces of art and design through co-design methods, her research looks at how to use co-design methods in order to empower marginalised groups.

  • Livelihoods of Visual Artists

    TBR (December 2018)

    Existing research states average annual turnover for artists from their practice was around £10,000, that only a very small minority earn more than £20,000 per annum. This study seeks to update evidence through an examination of the relationship between incomes, characteristics and demographics.

  • Artists Workspace Data Note

    GLA (August 2018)

    ‘In 2014, 56 per cent of sites charged an average of £11+ per square foot. In 2017, this had risen to 79 per cent.’ This paper looks at how workspace provision for London’s artists has changed since our 2014 study on the subject.

  • Making Space

    Creative United (August 2016)

    Many studios are on short-term leases, with 64% on leases of less than five years. 30% could disappear within five years, affecting some 3,500 artists. The aim of this study has been to investigate the UK’s existing creative workspace provision, and identify new forms of provision and potential funding models.

Research

Creative Land Trust was conceived following a series of reports highlighting the challenges of sustaining creative industries in prospering cities, and the risks posed to our culture and economies if the sector is not protected.

Since then, we have seen unprecedented changes to communities and industries. COVID-19 highlighted the fragility of our creative industries as well as shedding light on many other challenges within the sector.

As we continue to understand and forecast the many external forces that affect studio provision, we will document findings, reports and case studies to help inform our support of the sector.

  • Creative Highstreets

    We Made That & PRD (January 2022)

    ‘50% of adults would like to see more cultural experiences on their high streets.’ This paper articulates the opportunity for rejuvenating high streets, and provides practical information from case study research on how to prioritise strategies, plans and actions for embedding creative and cultural uses in high streets.

  • Creatives for London

    Culture and Commerce Taskforce (October 2021)

    “100% of project representatives said creatives added value to the project.” Through a condensed review of four live City of London Corporation projects, this report develops an understanding of the value of embedding a cultural or creative person within a built environment project.