The Story
PAST
Residence was first dreamt about at an Open Space meeting organised by Theatre Bristol (www.theatrebristol.net) in December 2006. Residence’s future co-founders stood at the tea and coffee table and bemoaned their lack of a home. Each one of us spoke about our need to have somewhere we could store our materials, produce our work and most importantly create theatre and performance. We all found ourselves flitting from begged and borrowed rehearsal space – which offered us no continuity and no option to leave our creative process mid-flow and return to it next morning. Similarly we had all looked into the possibility of renting our own studio space but had found the costs prohibitive. We had considered sharing space and joining groups of visual artists such as Spike Island and Jamaica Street Studios – but the needs of our practice and the noise we make had meant that these options too had proved unworkable. So we decided to join forces. And at a series of meetings at Café Kino (supported by Theatre Bristol’s Creative Producer Katie Keeler) we mapped out what we would need. We worked out how we could share resources and support each other and create a new type of live artists studio space.
In April 2007 we got our first break – we moved into The Old Horfield Police Station. We rented inexpensive space from Artspace LifeSpace (www.artspacelifespace.purplecloud.net) who had been given guardianship of the building (which had been empty for a couple of years) by Bristol City Council. We found ourselves very happy at the police station with our own ‘wing’ of the building. We solo occupied two small offices, a communal space and storage space and we shared the large rehearsal space with ArtSpace LifeSpace. We quickly found that sharing a creation space had benefits we hadn’t envisaged. The communal space where we hung out, drank coffee and hosted (open) conversations around theatre became central to the joy of being part of Residence. Some of the suspicion and competitive attitudes we had had towards each other dropped away as we supported, advised, gossiped, consoled, shared and celebrated. Rather than being simply a space – Residence was working as a home. Instead of scurrying away in our bedrooms and snatched rehearsal spaces we felt like we were part of a community with a legitimate place where we could be and make our work.
In June 2008 Bristol City Council took back the Horfield Police Station from ArtsSpace LifeSpace – but luckily they had already established themselves at Old Bridewell Police Station, a much larger complex of buildings. ArtsSpace had space for us so we moved in, and set up the space in a similar manner to our previous police station. We worked hard on the space bringing it up from a derelict condition to just about liveable. But the lack of heating and hot water as well as the incredibly damp conditions meant it was a very difficult space to work out of. After six months or so we started looking again for a new home, this time approaching the council directly about a space of “our own”.
PRESENT
We moved to The Milk Bar on St Nicholas Street in October 2009, and share the building with Simon Games (http://www.simongames.co.uk/) – which we hope will offer creative partnerships. We are renting the space from Bristol City Council for one year. The building has been empty for six years but we have re-painted it, reconnected the gas and electricity and installed central heating. We are all really excited to see some of Residence’s strengths in operation again as its members are able to use the space to the full, populate the building and initiate new events and ideas. For more information on what we are up to browse through the events and projects section of this website.
Future
We are working with Theatre Bristol to develop Residence so it can become self-sufficient and sustainable. We would like to be able to afford a more ‘fit-for-purpose’ space with better facilities. We envisage being able to invite national and international artists to come to live and work in our space (temporarily) so that we can share and develop our practice in both formal and informal ways.
