Acme, also styled ACME, is a charity based in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, England which provides affordable studio and living space,
residencies and awards for
visual artist
The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts a ...
s. Its studios are known as Acme Studios. It formerly provided two gallery spaces, first the Acme Gallery and later the Acme Project Space.
History
Acme was founded in 1972 by Jonathan Harvey and David Panton, who both received an
OBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
for services to the arts in 2014. Harvey and Pandon led a group of London graduates, finding at that time there were empty factories, warehouses and other properties available to provide cheap spaces for artists to work and live in, albeit temporary.
The Acme Gallery
From 1976 to 1981 Acme ran The Acme Gallery, a contemporary art space and former disused banana warehouse in
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...
. The gallery focused on showcasing installation and performance art which was difficult to exhibit elsewhere, and between 1976 and 1981 featured artists such as
Stephen Cripps
Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to deat ...
,
Jock McFadyen,
Helen Chadwick
Helen Chadwick (18 May 1953 – 15 March 1996) was a British sculptor, photographer and installation artist. In 1987, she became one of the first women artists to be nominated for the Turner Prize. Chadwick was known for "challenging stereotypi ...
,
Stuart Brisley
Stuart Brisley (born 1933) is a British artist. Education
Brisley studied at Guildford School of Art from 1949 to 1954 and at the Royal College of Art from 1956 to 1959. In 1959–60 he attended the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich, Ge ...
and
Frank Bowling
Sir Richard Sheridan Patrick Michael Aloysius Franklin Bowling (born 26 February 1934, Bartica, British Guiana), known as Frank Bowling, is a Guyana-born British artist. His paintings relate to Abstract expressionism, Color Field painting, a ...
. Alongside
Camden Arts Centre
Camden Art Centre (formerly known as Hampstead Arts Centre until 1967 and Camden Arts Centre until 2020) is a contemporary art gallery in the London Borough of Camden, England that hosts temporary exhibitions and educational outreach projects. T ...
, The Acme Gallery was one of the venues to host the
New Contemporaries Live Show.
Acme Project Space
From June 2009 to December 2015,
[ the Acme Project Space provided both UK-based and international artists on Acme's Residencies & Awards programme with a project and exhibition space, to show new work and engage in a critical dialogue with a wider audience. The Project Space featured artists such as David Blandy, Vishwa Shroff, ]Luke McCreadie
People
* Luke (given name), a masculine given name (including a list of people and characters with the name)
*Luke (surname) (including a list of people and characters with the name)
* Luke the Evangelist, author of the Gospel of Luke. Also known ...
, Clare Price Clare may refer to:
Places Antarctica
* Clare Range, a mountain range in Victoria Land
Australia
* Clare, South Australia, a town in the Clare Valley
* Clare Valley, South Australia
Canada
* Clare (electoral district), an electoral district
* ...
, and Marianna Simnett
Marianna Simnett (born 1986) is a Berlin-based multi-disciplinary artist who works with film, installation, drawing, and sculpture. She is best known for her large-scale video installations.
Early life and education
Simnett studied at a musical th ...
.
Today
Acme provides studio and living space, residencies and awards for visual artist
The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts a ...
s.
Acme supports 800 artists with affordable studio space across 16 sites in Greater London (within Bethnal Green
Bethnal Green is an area in the East End of London northeast of Charing Cross. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the Green, much of which survives today as Bethnal Green Gardens, beside Cambridge Heath Road. By t ...
, Bow, Deptford
Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, within the London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a Ford (crossing), ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home ...
, Elephant & Castle
The Elephant and Castle is an area around a major road junction in London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark. The name also informally refers to much of Walworth and Newington, due to the proximity of the London Underground station ...
, Homerton
Homerton ( ) is an area in London, England, in the London Borough of Hackney. It is bordered to the west by Hackney Central, to the north by Lower Clapton, in the east by Hackney Wick, Leyton and by South Hackney to the south. In 2019, it ...
, Kensal Green
Kensal Green is an area in north-west London. It lies mainly in the London Borough of Brent, with a small part to the south within London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea. Kensal Green is located on the Harrow Road, a ...
, Peckham
Peckham () is a district in southeast London, within the London Borough of Southwark. It is south-east of Charing Cross. At the 2001 Census the Peckham ward had a population of 14,720.
History
"Peckham" is a Saxon place name meaning the vill ...
, Poplar, Stockwell
Stockwell is a district in south west London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. It is situated south of Charing Cross. Battersea, Brixton, Clapham, South Lambeth, Oval and Kennington all border Stockwell.
History
The name S ...
, Stratford, West Norwood
West Norwood is a largely residential area of south London within the London Borough of Lambeth, located 5.4 miles (8.7 km) south south-east of Charing Cross. The centre of West Norwood sits in a bowl surrounded by hillsides on its east, ...
, as well as Carshalton
Carshalton () is a town, with a historic village centre, in south London, England, within the London Borough of Sutton. It is situated south-southwest of Charing Cross, in the valley of the River Wandle, one of the sources of which is Carshal ...
and Purfleet
Purfleet-on-Thames is a town in the Thurrock unitary authority, Essex, England. It is bordered by the A13 road to the north and the River Thames to the south and is within the easternmost part of the M25 motorway but just outside the Greater Lond ...
). It also provides space for Auto Italia South East, East London Printmakers, Kinetika, not/nowhere, and the Central Saint Martins
Central Saint Martins is a public tertiary art school in London, England. It is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. It offers full-time courses at foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and a variety of shor ...
Associate Studio Programme.
Residencies and awards
As well as artist studio
A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design, ...
provision, Acme also offers artist support, and hundreds of artists have benefited from its programme since 1982. In 2014, Australian artist Tom Polo took up an associate artist residency with Acme.Slade School of Fine Art
The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...
, Goldsmiths, University of London
Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wor ...
, Australia Council for the Arts
The Australia Council for the Arts, commonly known as the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announced in 1967 as the Austr ...
, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec
The Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ) is a public agency founded in 1994 by the government of Quebec.
CALQ offers support and funding for art projects in the performing arts, multidisciplinary arts, circus arts, visual arts, me ...
, and Khazanah Nasional
Khazanah Nasional Berhad is the sovereign wealth fund of the Government of Malaysia, entrusted with growing the nation's long-term wealth via distinct commercial and strategic objectives. Khazanah's commercial objective is to grow financia ...
, catered for emerging Malaysian artists. The Khazanah Nasional Associate Artist Residency Programme (KAAR) has invited renowned industry professionals such as Vanessa Murrell Vanessa may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Vanessa'' (Millais painting), an 1868 painting by Pre-Raphaelite artist John Everett Millais
* ''Vanessa'', a 1933 novel by Hugh Walpole
* ''Vanessa'', a 1952 instrumental song written by Bernie W ...
to help develop and prepare young artists for the next growth phase in their professional careers. The programme also includes Acme's five-year Fire Station Residency, established in 1997, whose previous recipients include Martin Creed
Martin Creed (born 21 October 1968) is a British artist, composer and performer. He won the Turner Prize in 2001 for exhibitions during the preceding year, with the jury praising his audacity for exhibiting a single installation, '' Work No. ...
, Lindsay Seers
Lindsay Seers (born 1966) is a British artist living and working in London. Her installation ''Extramission 6 (Black Maria)'' was included in Nicolas Bourriaud's Tate Triennial, ' Altermodern' in 2009. She was recently awarded the Derek Jarman A ...
, Erika Tan
Erika Tan (; born 1967) is a London-based Singaporean contemporary artist and curator whose research-led practice emerges from her interests in anthropology and the moving image. Her recent research examines the postcolonial and transnational, w ...
, Haroon Mirza, Jonathan Baldock, Samson Kambalu and George Charman
George may refer to:
People
* George (given name)
* George (surname)
* George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George
* George Washington, First President of the United States
* George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...
.
Publications
* ''Studios for Artists: Concepts and Concrete'', ed. Jonathan Harvey, Graham Ellard, 2015. ()
* ''72-82'', William Raban, 2015. (co-published by LUX)
References
{{reflist
Charities based in London
Artists' studios in London
Arts in London