News / Sparks Bristol
Launch confirmed for new creative space in old M&S building
The opening date has been announced for a new creative arts and sustainability hub in a former high street shop in Bristol city centre.
The old M&S building in Broadmead, which closed after 70 years in 2022, will reopen as Sparks Bristol during the second weekend of May.
The new space is a collaboration between Global Goals Centre and Artspace Lifespace, and the ground floor has been designed and constructed by the Invisible Circus.
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The ground floor will open to the public on May 13 and 14 from midday to 5pm with exhibitions, shops and discussion.
New arts and sustainability hub Sparks Bristol is set to open in the former M&S in Broadmead in May – photo: Artspace Lifespace
“It’ll still be a department store but just with the occasional surprise,” said Artpsace Lifespace company manager, Kathryn Chiswell Jones.
“The ambition is to provide a vibrant, positive venue where local people and visitors can shop, recycle and explore what a greener, fairer and creative future could look like”.
Jenny Foster, project lead of Global Goals Centre, added: “We hope that we can engage a lot more people in finding inspiration to be part of change for a better city and for a better, more hopeful world.”
The interior of the shop is being transformed into a “colourful environment which challenges the expectation people have of a normal shopping centre” – photo: Artspace Lifespace
Sparks Bristol will offer shopping, advice, events and art installations on the ground floor, with departments dedicated to fashion, travel, gardening, gifts, re-use, food and energy.
The departments will be run by various local organisations including Travelwest, Mila Plants, Emmaus, Bristol City Leap and A Single Thread.
Each area will provide ideas on how to take easy and money-saving action on climate, sustainability and well-being.
The upper floors will be filled with studio, workshop, office and performance spaces for local artists.
Sparks Bristol will occupy the store on a ‘meanwhile use’ basis, until the site is redeveloped permanently – photo: Charlie Watts
Sparks Bristol is a pilot initiative which will run until at least December 2023, ahead of the old M&S site being redeveloped.
Anyone interested in volunteering at the space is invited to attend a volunteering morning on April 29, ahead of its opening on May 13 and 14.
The opening will be the same weekend that the Invisible Circus are holding the first of their street theatre weekends in Broadmead as part of their WOW festival.
Main photo: Artspace Lifespace
Read next:
- Plans for Broadmead’s former M&S revealed
- M&S to leave Broadmead after almost 70 years
- What should happen to Bristol’s former Debenhams?
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