Speaker: Mauricio Vincenzi

About: Creekside Artists and Deptford Arts Network

Deptford Artists Network (DAN) was set up quite recently: studio co-ops meet, same boat, no point in being isolated. DAN: setup by Bea Denton (6 months ago) , PR officer for Creekside, started making network happen, contacted OAP, Temporary Contemporary, Core Blimey, Frameworks, and others in the area. All the Studios organised events, exhibitions, thus DAN joined these efforts: Deptford X (annual festival), Arts Unwrapped.

Creekside Artists was a simple concept: group of artists looking for affordable space, Deptford was still cheap for semi-industrial units, set up in the Faircharm Trading Estate. Not a formal co-op, works like a co-op, rent divided directly between the members, non-profit organisation, tasks that need to be done are shared, many studio groups didn’t survive, Creekside survived because they set up a management committee, with a person in charge of PR, another the website, etc.