This is the news page and blog feed for Cultivate, mostly the thoughts from gallery curator Sean Worrall (and sometimes the contributions of co-founder Emma Harvey). This blog feed did come direct from the corner of the street where Cultivate physically existed for a number of years. Cultivate existed as a physical gallery right in the middle of Vyner Street, East London for some three and a bit very very busy buzzing exciting years until they took our corner back and before they forced all the artists and galleries out and knocked it down.

Play…

When we first moved in to the beautifully unique thing that was Vyner Street there was something like fourteen working galleries and functioning art spaces, it was a destination for people from all over the world, it was special (most took it for granted until it was too late).

We were given two weeks to get out at the end of 2014, the building was knocked down and as with most places and spaces in East London, the corner is now the site for some over priced flats than no one from around here can afford to live in Last time I looked down the street there was a couple of the bigger commercial galleries hanging on while the property developers were busy turning everything else in to expensive housing to sell to overseas investors who then rent it back for as much as they can make ouut of those who can actually afford it, that and the coffee peddlers and the laughable self-declared “future thinker” rich kid who’s mummy bought him a big slice of the street to take over and destroy (he claimed ir was in the name of art, he was nothing more than a property developing wolf in expensive sheep-like friend-of-the-artists clothing, you mostly finding him talking about himself at Ted Talks and such, there’s some further reading here .

These days Cultivate is a nomadic thing. We do things here, there and everywhere, shows in conventional galleries, in car parks, shows under bridges, in railway arches, warehouse spaces, shows in London and shows beyond the city. Some times the shows will be invited group shows, now and again we host open call show, sometimes solo shows or two people shows, sometimes with months of notice and build up, sometimes with just a day’s warning and a guerilla raid…

Some of the many open calls at Cultivate

When Emma and I set up Cultivate as a permanent space at the end of summer 2011, the idea was to have a space that was run by artists and on and artists terms. We were fed up with the outrageous prices gallery owners were charging artists to use their spaces, we were annoyed by the cynical way artists were being treated by those who make their more than comfortable livings out of exploiting artists rather than working with artists in a fair and reasonable way. The idea was for artists to come together, to be strong together, to work together, to stand together and to create an alternative together – to support each other, help each other, to give as well as take. And it still very much what Cultivate is about.

And so here we are in the middle of 2016 (tomorrow is mid-summer day), Emma and I are still finding spaces and places, pulling events together. Some artists are really getting it, some artists just land on us and take take take (and then have hissy fits when they don’t get invited back), while others get that it is a collective effort and they do have to roll their sleeves up and share the commitment and the workload.

Almost five years now, we’ve learned a lot, we’ve made some mistakes, I’d like to think we’ve got a lot of it right. We’ve put on something like 150 art shows, we’ve shown the work of well over a thousand artists, we’ve been excited by artists, we’ve been disappointed by artists, we’ve laughed, we’ve cried, we’ve shouted about artists (occasionally we’ve shouted at artists), we’ve fought to survive, we’ve met loads of great people, (some great dogs as well, dogs love art galleries), we’ve made some great friends, we’ve made one or two enemies. We’ve watch artists who got their first gallery experience via our walls go on to great things, we continue to be excited by new artists, we still see artists being exploited, we still see a cynical London art business looking to fool new young artists in to parting with their cash, some indeed try to silence us when we speak out about their cynical ways…

Mostly we’re just artists trying to do things the right way, do it on our terms and if you’re thinking is on the same wave length as ours (and your art genuinely excites us) then we’re happy to work with you. park your ego and your attitude outside and come say hello, come and work with us, but do remember, support is a two way thing, in needs to be about give as well as take, and to slightly misquote something someone else once said, we are not here as some sort of aircraft carrier for you to land on and then use to take off from without a thought for the welfare of the carrier… we are not just your stepping stone, we’re not here to be tossed aside and dismissed when you think you don’t need us anymore and you’ve used us for what you want, this is not a one way street.  .

Cultivate, September First Thursday, 2013

LINKS

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SEAN WORRALL / EMMA HARVEY