Community involvement creating embroidery panel Creative Land Trust

Impact

Creative Land Trust is building a long-term portfolio of permanent creative infrastructure across London. Our impact on artists, communities and the capital is already being felt in individual artists’ lives, their ecosystems and outreach to local communities.

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.

What Creative Land Trust does

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.

Nothing Found

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.

  • Putting Art Back into Planning

    Town and Country Planning Association (March 2021)

    A practical guide to reunite art and planning. Including principles to guide the development of an arts strategy and specific recommendations on the components of a successful strategic approach.

  • Mapping Creative Hubs in England

    British Council (March 2021)

    ‘Security of tenure Security of tenure alongside a lack of fit for purpose space, were cited by a fifth of the sample as a key challenge.’ British Council provides a better understanding of the profile of creative hubs, who their members and beneficiaries are, as well as their role and impact in their community.

  • Flexible Workspaces on our High Streets

    GLA & LEAP (March 2021)

    A call for the reimagination of the relationships between landlords, tenants, operators, and local authorities, ensuring that high street assets create social and economic value by providing space for local business of all sizes.

  • Culture and Commerce: Fuelling Creative Renewal

    City of London Corporation and Culture Mile, the Culture & Commerce Taskforce (February 2021)

    A blueprint for a deeper relationship between the creative and business sectors to accelerate London’s recovery from the pandemic.

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.

  • The impact of Covid on London’s flexible workspaces report

    Monday Works (2023)

    The COVID-19 survey report by Monday Works tells the story of how Covid-19 affected flexible workspaces, how they evolved and opportunities for the sector moving forward. The report is based on three surveys conducted between July 2021 and May 2022, plus more in-depth surveys and interviews with three workspace operators to create case studies.

  • Creative Improvement Districts

    Culture Commons (Nov 2022)

    This policy paper, explores the rise of cultural regeneration as a favoured mechanism for growth by the UK Government and local decision makers. Learning from recent regeneration schemes that have successfully incorporated the creative and cultural sectors.