Introducing… Creative Workspace

Pictured above: Creative Workspace hosted this decorate-your-photo-portrait workshop led by Colourful Minds, at the launch of a photography exhibition by UWE Photography students

Creative Workspace is both a place for creatives to make work and a community arts centre based in Withywood, south Bristol. The venue offers affordable rehearsal and workshop space – suitable for makers of theatre, dance, music and visual art – and also programmes a variety of family-friendly theatre shows and arts activities during the school holidays. Run by Brave Bold Drama Community Interest Theatre Company, CW’s aim is to improve access to creative experiences for all members of the community.

Here’s Paul Lawless of Creative Workspace and Brave Bold Drama to tell us more.

So, Paul: tell us how, and why, Creative Workspace began.
Gill, our artistic director, already lived super-close to Creative Workspace in Withywood. The previous tenants moved out in September 2016, and this paved the way for us. Gill was initially offered storage space in the building for her theatre company, but instead she agreed to take over the lease and to run the venue as a community arts centre and theatre rehearsal space.
Gill and I had worked together previously devising and touring a family show. She approached me to join her in the venture and before we knew it we had registered Brave Bold Drama as a Community Interest Company (CIC) and were now operating out of a building!

Family drumming workshop led by Chango Drums

And what have you set out to do with Creative Workspace?
Creative Workspace supports fellow emerging theatre artists and other freelance creatives by offering affordable, artist-centred rehearsal space. Alongside this, during school holidays, we operate as a community arts centre, offering creative opportunities for residents of the immediate and surrounding area of south Bristol.
We want to dismantle the cultural and financial barriers that prevent people from exploring their creativity. There is currently very low arts engagement in this area. We want to inspire, empower and enable this community so that they develop the confidence to express their creativity – through whatever art form. In turn, we aim to boost self-esteem and further their chances of succeeding in employment, increase their wellbeing – and give them a say in what happens within their community.

Costume-making workshop helping families create costumes for World Book Day

Tell us about the various things you are doing in Withywood.
We have various strands to our work. During term times we facilitate an Arts Award programme for teenagers in the BS13 postcode, host dance sessions for women in the area to increase wellbeing and confidence, and programme drop-in creativity days for families with children aged 0-11 during school holidays. Our creativity day programme includes everything from crazy golf junk modelling to music tech to crafting and costume making.
We hosted a ‘By The Sea’ drop-in day recently, where the kids helped put a song together with a musician who works for Cartoon Network. Our bottom line is that whenever we are open to the public there will be a working professional artist present in the venue and an opportunity for our participants to get creative themselves.
During term times when Creative Workspace is closed to the public due to theatre hires, we run inter-generational workshops in local care homes to tackle loneliness and also partner with local children’s centres delivering imaginative play sessions for local families.

Intergenerational rock-painting workshop facilitated by Brave Bold Drama

And why did you choose Withywood as your base? 
The ward of Hartcliffe and Withywood is an area of multiple deprivation. As mentioned previously, Gill is based here and I live in Knowle West. Both areas have bad reputations, but these perceptions aren’t entirely accurate. There is a strong sense of community in these areas and people are thankful and supportive of what we are offering. They have a lot to offer themselves.
In the longer term we will also have resident artists making work within the space and we have recently received funds from Arts Council England to achieve this, which we are very grateful for.

Tell us about your plans for this summer.
We have an exciting programme of events coming up in August. Paul Midgeley of Twin Wave CIC will be coming in to facilitate music workshops with incredible junk-modelled instruments – and an air drum which is activated by a laser. We also have several theatre shows visiting including Friendly Ever After from the rather excellent, Bristol-based Brazilian clowning troupe NOS Three as well as Exeter’s delightful family theatre company Paddleboat Theatre who bring their show Rustle to us on August 24.
We also have our play in a week, a week-long project for budding performers and theatre makers aged 8-11, led by Brave Bold Drama with some guest facilitation from the excellent Steph Kempson (Sharp Teeth Theatre) who has worked with Bristol Old Vic. Those involved get to collaborate with professional theatre makers and create a show devised entirely by themselves which will be performed to friends and family at the end of the week.

A summer-holiday puppet-making workshop

You’re also crowdfunding to have your outdoor space cleared and cultivated. What is your vision for this space?
Many residents of Hartcliffe and Withywood live in flats or towers blocks. They don’t have access to their own outdoor space or, for many that do, that space isn’t safe to access. We are currently crowdfunding to clear and cultivate this outdoor area of Creative Workspace to combat these issues.
We want the community to work alongside a professional gardener and landscaper to shape this area. We would like a vegetable patch, so we can use these as ingredients in the cafe and also allow community members to access the plot as a healthy alternative to food banks. We’d like lots of other things too, but it’s really up to the community to decide whatever else happens with this area. Eventually we’d like the community to lead the long-term maintenance of this area, and to learn from one another.

For more on what’s coming up at Creative Workspace and how you can get involved, visit www.creativeworkspacebristol.co.uk
If you’d like to contribute to the Creative Workspace Garden appeal, you can do so at localgiving.org/appeal/CreativeWorkspaceGarden