An artist-run space or artist-run centre (Canada) is a gallery or other facility operated or directed by artists, frequently circumventing the structures of public art centers, museums, or commercial galleries and allowing for a more experimental program. An artist-run initiative (ARI) is any project run by artists, including

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...

or visual artists, to present their and others' projects. They might approximate a traditional

art gallery An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The lon ...

space in appearance or function, or they may take a markedly different approach, limited only by the artist's understanding of the term. "Artist-run initiatives" is an umbrella name for many types of artist-generated activity.

Argentina

The two main artist-run spaces from

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

were Belleza y Felicidad and

APPETITE Appetite is the desire to eat food items, usually due to hunger. Appealing foods can stimulate appetite even when hunger is absent, although appetite can be greatly reduced by satiety. Appetite exists in all higher life-forms, and serves to regu ...

, both set the standards for emerging art in Argentina. APPETITE was a gallery was the first Argentinian gallery to be accepted at Frieze, London, and encouraged a lot of galleries to its San Telmo

barrio ''Barrio'' () is a Spanish language, Spanish word that means "Quarter (urban subdivision), quarter" or "neighborhood". In the modern Spanish language, it is generally defined as each area of a city, usually delimited by functional (e.g. residenti ...

Australia

Many artist-run spaces exist in Australia. These spaces are often provided with funding assistance by government and state funding bodies.

Canada

Artist-run centre is the common term of use for artist-initiated and managed organizations in Canada. Centres follow the not-for-profit arts organization model, do not charge admission fees, are non-commercial and de-emphasize the selling of work. The centres were created originally in response to a lack of opportunity to present contemporary work in Canada and a desire to network with other artists nationally and internationally. In the 1990s there were over 100 artist-run centres across Canada. There are currently at least 60 artist-run centres with continuous operating funding. Important historical artist-run initiatives include the

North Edmonton Sculpture Workshop The North Edmonton Sculpture Workshop (NESW) is an artist collective, or artist-run initiative, centred on a co-operative shared studio in Edmonton, Alberta, focused on "the creation and promotion of ambitious Contemporary art, contemporary sculpt ...

Ireland

Although varying widely in structure, contemporary spaces like

Ormston House Ormston House is a contemporary art gallery and cultural resource centre, in Limerick, Ireland. Background It was opened in 2011 at 9-10 Patrick Street, Limerick. It was founded after art students occupied the ground floor of the 19th-century ...

, Pallas Projects, Sample-Studios, and

126 Artist-run Gallery 126 Artist-run Gallery is an artist-run space located in Galway City, Ireland. It was founded in 2005 and "has built an international reputation for ambitious programming." History 126 was founded in 2005 by artists Austin Ivers and Ben Geoghe ...

have all emerged in the Republic of Ireland in the last 25 years. Following the

Financial crisis of 2007–2008 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fi ...

, a number of Irish cities experienced high levels of commercial vacancies. Annette Moloney, curator and author of ''Art in Slack Spaces'' (2010), "notes that artists ereincreasingly making use of the recession as an opportunity to use vacant shops." At this time, artist initiated projects like The Complex, Block T, Basic Space, The Joinery, and This is Not a Shop, availed of such spaces in Dublin, while Occupy Space, Ormston House, Raggle Taggle Consortium, and Faber Studios appeared in Limerick. Additionally, Basement Project Space, Cork Contemporary Projects, The Couch, The Black Mariah and Sample-Studios/Tactic in Cork, as well as 126 and projects by Engage Art Studios in Galway appeared more or less simultaneously. In 2015, 126 published ''FOOTFALL: Articulating the Value of Artist Led Organisations in Ireland. The Future is Self-Organised – Artist-Run Spaces'' was an exhibition curated by Pallas Projects at the

Limerick City Gallery of Art Limerick City Gallery of Art (LCGA; ga, Gailearaí Ealaíon Chathair Luimní) is an art museum in the city of Limerick, Ireland. It is run by Limerick City Council and is located in Pery Square, in the Newtown Pery area of the city. The galle ...

. A number of artist-run spaces and projects from Ireland and abroad were represented, as well as artists who have worked with Pallas over its 20 year history, in this 2015–16 exhibition. Pallas then co-published, with Onomatopee, ''Artist-Run Europe: Practice/Projects/Spaces'' later in 2016. It is a collection of experiences, and essays by various artist-run projects in Europe.

Mexico

''Bikini Wax'' is an experimental project in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

of exhibitions, events, parties, and lectures that was started in the house of the artists. ''La Feria de la Acción'' (The Action Fair) was an artist-run

fair A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Types Variations of fairs incl ...

that ran parallel to

Zona Maco Zona Maco is an art fair organized since 2003 that takes place biannually during February and September in Mexico City. The fair comprises three events: Zona Maco Arte Contemporáneo showcases contemporary and modern artworks and design, Zona Maco ...

and Material Art Fair in Mexico City in 2020. It showed only interactive, relational, or

performative In the philosophy of language and speech acts theory, performative utterances are sentences which not only describe a given reality, but also change the social reality they are describing. In a 1955 lecture series, later published as ''How to D ...

works.

New Zealand

A number of artist-run spaces have flourished throughout New Zealand since the 1990s. Some have been short-lived, whereas others have secured long-term funding and been operating for more than a decade. *

The Blue Oyster Art Project Space Blue Oyster Art Project Space, located in Dunedin’s city centre, is a space that presents contemporary experimental art projects. Blue Oyster included over 1,000 artists in more than 270 projects over its first 10 years and it continues to prov ...

was established in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

in 1999; its founding members were Emily Barr, Steve Carr,

Wallace Chapman Wallace Leslie Chapman (born 1969) is a New Zealand radio and television host. Early life Chapman attended Nelson College from 1982 to 1986.''Nelson College Old Boys' Register, 1856–2006'', 6th edition Career He began his broadcasting career ...

, Douglas Kelaher and Kate Plaisted. The gallery is currently located on Dowling Street in Dunedin's CBD and is funded by Creative New Zealand and

Dunedin City Council The Dunedin City Council ( mi, Kaunihera ā-Rohe o Ōtepoti) is the local government authority for Dunedin in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority elected to represent the people of Dunedin. Since October 2022, the Mayor of Dunedin is Jules ...

. It is overseen by a board of Dunedin artists and arts professionals. * The Physics Room in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

emerged from South Island Art Projects, an organisation that in 1992 began presenting temporary and public art events without a formal location. In 1996 The Physics Room was established in a gallery space in the Christchurch Arts Centre. The gallery is now located in the CBD on Tuam Street and receives operational funding from Creative New Zealand.

United Kingdom

There are numerous ARIs in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, often working around and critiquing the functioning of larger art institutions and organisations. An ARI is a project independently run by visual artists which generally showcases the work of local and emerging artists; many exist on low budgets and are managed by artist collectives. In the UK, ARIs tend to be smaller and less permanent than public and municipal organisations and can, for example, become established for the duration of an event or for the period of a lease on a property. Most ARIs in the UK are funded by the Arts Council, the national development agency for the arts in the UK, distributing public money from Government and the National Lottery. Artist-run spaces had a particularly strong effect on urban regeneration in Glasgow, where the city won the accolade ' European Capital of Culture' in 1990 largely due to the large number of artist-run exhibition spaces and galleries, such as

Transmission Gallery Transmission Gallery is an artist-run space in Glasgow. It was established in 1983 by graduates of Glasgow School of Art. It primarily shows the work of young early career artists and is run by a changing voluntary committee of six people. Among ...

. Curator Hans Ulrich Obrist coined the term "The Glasgow Miracle" to describe this. East London has continued to house a number of artist-run spaces. In

Shoreditch Shoreditch is a district in the East End of London in England, and forms the southern part of the London Borough of Hackney. Neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets are also perceived as part of the area. In the 16th century, Shoreditch was an impor ...

, London Charles Thomson founded the

Stuckism International Gallery The Stuckism International Gallery was the gallery of the Stuckist art movement. It was open from 2002 to 2005 in Shoreditch, and was run by Charles Thomson, the co-founder of Stuckism. It was launched by a procession carrying a coffin marked ...

in 2002 warehouse.Alberge, Dalya. "Artists brandish brushes at rivals", ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', 20 July 2002, p. 3. Onlin
reprint
retrieved 17 February 2008. The last show there was in 2004. The Transition Gallery was founded in October 2002 in a converted garage close to

Victoria Park Victoria Park may refer to: Places Australia * Victoria Park Nature Reserve, a protected area in Northern Rivers region, New South Wales * Victoria Park, Adelaide, a park and racecourse * Victoria Park, Brisbane, a public park and former golf ...

, Hackney, London, and is run by artists

Cathy Lomax Cathy Lomax (born 1963) is a London artist, curator and director of the Transition Gallery. She is mainly known for her figurative paintings which often focus on the female image and are inspired by 'the seductive imagery of film, fame and fa ...

and

Alex Michon Alex Michon is a British artist and writer, based in London, who runs the Transition Gallery in Hackney with Cathy Lomax. Career Alex Michon gained an MA in Fine art at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London in 2003. She exh ...

to show work by established and new contemporary artists. In 2016, the artist-run project

Auto Italia South East Auto Italia is an artist-run project and studio in Bethnal Green, London, England. It commissions and produces new artwork, collaborating directly with emerging artists. Throughout its history, Auto Italia’s work has taken many forms, ranging ...

relocated to Bethnal Green after programming and producing artists work nomadically in donated or squatted buildings since 2007.

studio1.1 Studio1.1 is an artist-run space situated in Shoreditch, East London with outpost galleries of Studio1.1 in Brazil (Studio1.3), Croatia (Studio1.4) and the Netherlands (Studio1.2). History The gallery was founded in April 2003 as a co-operativ ...

was founded as a

co-operative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

in 2003 and is run by artists Michael Keenan and Keran James. The gallery is an artist-run,

not-for-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

space, located in a former sex shop in Redchurch Street,

, East London. One ARI, the Belfast-based

Catalyst Arts Catalyst Arts a non-profit artist-run space based in Belfast city centre. History Catalyst Arts was formed in 1993 in response to what was seen as a cultural vacuum. In accordance with its constitution it is run by unpaid volunteers, and seeks t ...

, wrote that:

"Artist-run means initiating exchange; emphasizing cross and inter-disciplinary approaches to making art; developing networks; through curation, putting creative ideas and arguments into action"

Northern Ireland

is based directly on Transmission, and in turn inspired 126 in Galway. Artcetera, PS², Platform, and the Belfast Print Workshop are all other artist-run spaces in Belfast.

United States

Chicago

Chicago has a long tradition of artist-run spaces and projects dating back to the late 1800s. In 1876 artist D. Knight Carter founded Vincennes Gallery of Fine Arts which was reorganized in 1880, by Frank C. Bromley, Henry Arthur Elkins along with other artist to establish a permanent gallery and residency for studio artists. In 1984, the exhibition ''Alternative Spaces'' curated by Lynne Warren at the

Museum of Contemporary Art Museum of Contemporary Art (often abbreviated to MCA, MoCA or MOCA) may refer to: Africa * Museum of Contemporary Art (Tangier), Morocco, officially le Galerie d'Art Contemporain Mohamed Drissi Asia East Asia * Museum of Contemporary Art Shangha ...

catalogued the scores of artists and artists' spaces to emerge in Chicago including a wave of alternative spaces that emerged from 1960s through 1984 including

Artemisia Gallery Artemisia Gallery was an alternative exhibition space in Chicago, Illinois, that operated from 1973 until its closure in 2003. History The gallery was a cooperative, started by 20 women who were frustrated by the lack of opportunities for femal ...

(1973-2003), ARC Gallery (1973-), Gallery Bugs Bunny (1968-1972), N.A.M.E. Gallery (1973-1997), NAB Gallery (1974-1984),

Randolph Street Gallery Randolph Street Gallery (RSG) was an alternative exhibition space in Chicago, Illinois, from 1979 until its closing in 1998 and a vital local force in the development of a variety of new art forms and the contemporary national and international arts ...

(1979-1998), 1019 W. Lake St./Noise Factory (1981-1985), W.P.A. Gallery (1981-?) and Axe Street Arena (1985-1989). In 2009, ''Artist-run Chicago'' was mounted by the

Hyde Park Art Center The Hyde Park Art Center (HPAC) is a visual arts organization and the oldest Alternative exhibition spaces, alternative exhibition space in the city of Chicago. Since 2006, HPAC has been located just north of Hyde Park Boulevard, at 5020 S.Cornell ...

and featured notable artist-run spaces operating between the late 1990s an 2009.

Los Angeles

Los Angeles has a tradition of artist run spaces dating back to at least the 1950s. Chris Burden's Shoot piece took place in a space run by artist

Barbara T. Smith Barbara Turner Smith (born 1931 in Pasadena, California) is an American artist known for her performance art in the late 1960s, exploring themes of food, nurturing, the body, spirituality, and sexuality. Smith was part of the Feminist Movement in ...

. Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions was founded by several individuals including two artists. Machine Project, Pretend Gallery, Actual Size, and

Human Resources Human resources (HR) is the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills which the individuals command. Similar terms include m ...

are all managed by artists. Currently Los Angeles has a vibrant artist-run scene, as evidenced by an artist-run fair called Other Places Art Fair (OPAF), consisting of almost entirely artist-run spaces and initiatives.

New York

During the 1950s in Manhattan, artist-run co-ops became the alternative to the uptown

Madison Avenue Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Stre ...

galleries that catered mostly to wealthy blue-chip and European art-oriented collectors. From the early 1950s to the early 1960s the Tenth Street galleries located mostly in the East Village in lower Manhattan became the proving ground for much of the contemporary art that achieved popularity and commercial success in the decades that followed. During the 1960s, the

Park Place Gallery The Park Place Gallery was a contemporary cooperative art gallery, in operation from 1963 to 1967, and was located in New York City. The Park Place Gallery was a notable as a post-World War II gallery for both its location and that it supported a ...

became the first important contemporary gallery in

SoHo Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develop ...

. Park Place gallery was an artist-run cooperative that featured cutting-edge

Geometric abstraction Geometric abstraction is a form of abstract art based on the use of geometric forms sometimes, though not always, placed in non-illusionistic space and combined into non-objective (non-representational) compositions. Although the genre was popu ...

. Eventually, by the 1970s,

became the new center for the New York art world as hundreds of commercial galleries opened in a sudden wave of artistic prosperity. Contemporary artist-run galleries include: *

MINUS SPACE Minus Space is an art gallery located in Dumbo, Brooklyn, NY. It specializes in abstract art and reductive art. History Minus Space began as an online curatorial and critical project presenting reductive and concept based art. Reductive art includ ...

is an artist-run curatorial project devoted to

reductive art Reductive art is a term to describe an artistic style or an aesthetic, rather than an art movement. Movements and other terms associated with reductive art include Minimal art, ABC art, anti-illusionism, cool art, rejective art, Bauhaus aesthetic, ...

. Minus Space maintains an exhibition space in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

and curates exhibitions at other venues nationally and internationally. Minus Space also has a location on the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

enabling it to collaborate with other institutions.

San Francisco

Savernack Street Savernack Street Gallery (2013–2016) was a small art gallery in the Mission District of San Francisco; founded in 2013 by artist Carrie Sinclair Katz. The gallery interior was inaccessible and visitors can only view artwork by looking through a ...

is an artist-run micro-gallery located in San Francisco's Mission District created and curated by artist Carrie Sinclair Katz. The gallery interior is inaccessible to visitors and artwork can only be viewed by looking through a reverse peephole located on the storefront. The exhibitions usually feature a single piece of miniature artwork that appears larger or life sized when viewed through the peephole.

Portland

Portland, Oregon, is home to artist-run initiatives including Carnation Contemporary and Chicken Coop Contemporary.

Footnotes

References

* Bizewski, Janusz
Janusz Bizewski Gallery, Visual Artist
* Colon, Lorne. "Artist-run Manhattan Graphics Center celebrates 20 years", ''Downtown Express'', Vol 18, Issue 52, May 12–18, 2006. * Detterer, Gabriele & Nannucci, Maurizio (ed.). "Artist-Run Spaces",

JRP-Ringier JRP, Ringier, formerly JRP Editions, is a Swiss publisher of high-quality books on contemporary art. Founded by Lionel Bovier in Zurich, Switzerland, the company has more than 400 titles in active distribution worldwide, including artists’ ...

/ Les presses du réel, 2012, / . * Kimm, Ronni and Jesse Aron Green eds.
Dispatches and Directions: On Artist-Run Organizations in Los Angeles
'
ART2102
Los Angeles, 2011. * MacAdam, Barbara A. "Tilman - Minus Space", ''Art News,'' January 2008, Vol 107, No 1, p 132. * ''Machine Learning'', exhibition catalog, The Boyden Gallery of St. Mary's College of Maryland, The Painting Center, Gallery Sonja Roesch and Minus Space. Essay by Matthew Deleget. * Satinsky, Abigail; Bryce Dwyer & Shannon Stratton eds. "Phonebook: A directory of independent art spaces, programming, and projects across the United States." threewalls, Chicago, 2011. * Volk, Gregory. "The Chelsea Alternative", ''Flash Art,'' Summer 1999, Vol.XXXII, No.207.

External links

criticalnetwork: UK-based artist-run initiative and network, which promotes the projects of other UK and Ireland-based ARIs
{{Authority control Artist groups and collectives Artist-run centres Types of art museums and galleries