How the Creative Land Trust is bringing art back to our cities

There is a need during this pandemic for spaces to be sterile. But when the world does limp back to normality, we will need to bring life and community back into our town and city centres. Sterility will not help with that challenge. Creativity, however, most definitely will. Enter Creative Land Trust, a charitable organisation set up in 2019 by the mayor of London with the aim of creating affordable workspace for artists in perpetuity. The trust, led by former Eden Project boss Gordon Seabright and co-chaired by Alex Notay, build-to-rent fund director at PfP Capital, and Catherine Webster, executive director, strategy & investment at Quintain, is on a mission to bring the heart back to the UK’s towns and cities and to do so by establishing affordable places for the country’s creatives to thrive. The trust has an initial pot of funding from Bloomberg Philanthropy, Arts Council England and the Outset Contemporary Art Fund, which it will use to try to secure 1,000 workspaces in London over five years. For Seabright, Notay and Webster, though, it is about more than just securing long-lasting, affordable studios, it is a “powerful mission” to make towns and cities better places to be for everyone. “We’ve had a moment to pause and realise the value of creativity and the joy that it brings us,” says Seabright. “The combination of that and people realising how much they value their communities, how much they value the things they do together with their neighbours, means this is absolutely a moment where we have an opportunity to work with developers and local councils to make sure that we have arts and creativity right at the heart of our cities.” “The vibrant communities that we all love are often created by artists in the first place,” adds Notay. “The Meatpacking District in New York, Shoreditch or Brixton in London, it is those hubs of creatives in those spaces that create the energy and draw the people and activity. We are going to need that, that public art and that engagement to bring people back again, to feel confident, to come into spaces and breathe and enjoy them. “Office and retail needs to come back in some new form and having a sense of place that has responded to this through art that people can connect with, talk about, catch somebody’s eye on and have a little conversation – even if it is still at 2m distance – is really important.” Integral part of the planning process Webster wants the wider real estate business to understand that creative space can be part of the overall picture and is keen to see it become part of the planning process, much like affordable housing. “The type of space we can take is incredibly broad. So if it can be brought in very early on with the planning authorities to really think about how they can bring creatives into their community, then that would just create a nicer place for people to work,” she says. Webster says the types of spaces the trust is looking for in its first 1,000 workspaces range from half-built office schemes, industrial units and former shops to upper levels and older buildings. As long as the price is in an affordable bracket, it believes it can create lasting artistic units that add real value to places. At the moment though, there is an immediate need to preserve the current number of studio spaces in London (and the UK), not just increase them. Artists – superstars aside – are not surviving on six-figure salaries and have, like many, been struggling to pay their rents in the face of Covid-19. In April, London mayor Sadiq Khan set up a £2.3m Culture at Risk fund and commissioned Creative Land Trust to run the Creative Workspace Resilience fund as part of the larger incentive. That fund will deliver around £1.5m of cash to studio providers enabling them to help artists with their occupational costs. “The idea is to see us through this crisis period and make sure that the artists – even if they can’t earn much or any money at the moment – don’t lose their studio spaces,” says Seabright. “And that at the end of the crisis, we’ve still got a vigorous sector that we can then move on to expand.” For Seabright, Notay and Webster it is that maintenance of space and expansion of it that will help bring our towns and cities back to life post-pandemic. They believe the lessons we have learnt about ourselves and the places in which we live and what they mean to us could – and should – be a real opportunity for the Creative Land Trust to deliver on its ambitions. “Among the things that we’re all realising in this difficult period in our lives, is what is important to us,” says Seabright. “People are rediscovering the passion for art and culture and will place more value than they ever have before on the business of spending their working days in a place that is surrounded by beauty or inspiration or challenge. “I would just ask developers to talk to us about spaces,” concludes Seabright, “and the interesting things we can work with them on to make spaces better than they would otherwise be and to bring joy and creativity and challenge right into the heart of our city’s developments.” A powerful mission indeed. Picture: Alamy (Banksy’s Girl with a Pearl Earring in Bristol was adapted in lockdown as art brings the community together) To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@egi.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @estatesgazette