Happy 40th Birthday, Centrespace

Pictured above: the original team (including George Sobol, right) convert the building into what was to become the Bristol Craft Centre in 1977

In November 2017 Centrespace, a thriving gallery and artists’ studios complex down a narrow alley deep in the old centre of Bristol, celebrates its first 40 years with an exhibition that mixes work by the current membership – including award winning contemporary craft, glass, ceramics, illustration, graphic design, traditional upholstery, printmaking, animation, fine art, architectural design and much more – alongside archive images of the building, past events and members at work through the decades.

Artist Simon Tozer has occupied a studio at Centrespace for over five years. A printmaker, Simon shares a space with illustrator friend Lucie Sheridan. “My initial experience of Centrespace, long before I moved here, was surreal: being told of a chocolate factory down a narrow and dark alleyway just off Corn Street.

I went to have a look, and halfway along the alley was a beautiful gallery: next to it, an open doorway. On entering I saw through the gloom a confectionery counter with a ‘ring for service’ bell. This was Guilberts Chocolates, where I went several times before discovering the studio spaces above.

Current Centrespace residents include children’s illustrator and author Gwen Millward

“Centrespace is like a Tardis: it opens to a warren of about 30 workshop spaces across three floors, each very different in size and shape, and according to their use. Guilberts has since moved to premises in Small Street, but their space lives on in name as the Chocolate Factory, an event and workshop space for hire on our ground floor.

The studios house a collection of talented people that design and make, or repair, all manner of things. “One of the attractions for me is the diversity of trades, from traditional crafts like upholstery, musical instrument repair and woodcarving, to more contemporary professions, such as animation, architecture and modelmaking,” Simon explains. “There are also artists, illustrators, jewellers and more.

Another Centrespace resident: specialist furniture restorer Sean Keohane

“There have been several fruitful collaborations between members – including sculptor/storyteller Eleanor Glover and animator Emma Lazenby on Dogshaped, an animation that tells the story of a man with a dog-shaped hole in his chest.

“Another lovely collaboration was that between bike builder Robin Mather and Nick Hand of the Letterpress Collective, to create a bicycle with a vintage printing press on the back.

“I think that the artists and makers that work here like the environment and its slightly hidden location, and they also care about the building itself. It is one of the things that brings us together – like an ageing relative it needs attending to regularly: it needs love, support, and occasional professional intervention.”

Bristol Craft Centre co-founder George Sobol at his woodturning machine back in 1977

The ground-floor gallery hosts weekly or fortnightly exhibitions. “As a hire space, it runs on a not-for-profit basis as part of our co-operative mission to provide a benefit to the surrounding community. And it has hosted some wonderful exhibitions. Some of the nicest are when schools and local colleges use the gallery for showing end-of-year artwork. The students get a valuable benefit from the experience of seeing their work hung in a professional gallery, viewed by the public.

“To date, well over 250 makers have been members of the co-op, and as a current resident I am indebted to those founder members who came together in 1977, formed the co-operative [originally the Bristol Craft Centre] and bought the building, creating a legacy that has – for the next 40 years – provided space and opportunities for an ever-changing community of makers in the centre of Bristol, and we hope it will continue to do so for many more years to come.”

Centrespace: 40th Anniversary Exhibition Nov 18-22, Centrespace, Leonard Lane, Bristol. For more info, visit www.centrespacegallery.com/exhibitions

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