Being a Self Employed Practitioner located in Newcastle
I have looked throughout Newcastle Upon Tyne searching for places which may be of use to Fine Artists with creating work, looking for studio spaces, galleries which would show and sell work and affordable shops to buy supplies from, below will be a list of a few places which I believe will be of most help when taking the step from student to professional, I have excluded the larger and more famous gallery spaces because you would need some kind of reputation before the curators think about exhibiting work there, so I have wrote purely about galleries with a good chance of being useful and exhibiting our work.
Firstly, I will talk about studio spaces to rent, one which looked promising was Foundry Lane Studios which was renovated from an apartment block in 2006 into a big studio complex holding spaces for mainly artists to work in but also other practices such as architecture and graphics. Prices for these studios spaces differ, but however the average price seems to be about thirty pound for two hours and then paying fifteen pound for every additional hour, but after asking at reception they said they may be able to negotiate on the price when buying time slots in bulk. As for the studio spaces themselves go the rooms are of decent size, large enough to comfortable fill with all necessary artistry equipment and four or five A3 sized canvases side by side on easels. It is quite a long walk from the town centre so if you planned on getting there with minimal exercise you would have to search for specific but routes or alternative means of getting there, they also have a car park which is never full according to staff so driving there is always an option if possible, there are studios spaces on ground floor so disabled access is available but there is also an additional floor which is only entered through climbing stairs. You have to bring your own equipment so if you planned on photography based work be prepared to have everything ready in advance. Food and drink can be bought from a small cafe inside or there is a pub called The Clarendon just two streets away which sells at affordable prices.
Another studio space which can be rented out is Banana Studios, this specialises in photography, so when renting you are allowed to borrow all their lighting, cameras and props but must pay for damage after if anything gets broken which would be extremely expensive due to the high quality equipment they use. They rent out to anyone doing photography shoots which is usually either artists or fashion students and the cost is based on time spent there, the starting price is forty pound for two hours and then an additional twenty pound for every hour after. The studio itself is at the top floor of a large building which makes it ideal to allow natural light in which is useful depending on what type of image you are after. Banana studios are located within the town centre so car park space is not guaranteed but nearby buses are frequent and common but other means of transportation would be possible. The building itself is disabled access friendly and even though their is no elevator, the staff could put up a stair lift if necessary for customers. There isn't anywhere inside the building to purchase food or drink but being in the town centre there are numerous cafes, restaurants or fast food shops located around. The size of the spaces are very large, each with tables, large sofas, cabinets and the photography equipment fitting in comfortable with a lot of walking space left over. I would suggest if going here, split the cost and work with others to gain the most achievable at the most affordable budget.
There are a lot of galleries within Newcastle, however I ignored the large and famous ones such as the Baltic and Lazarides due to it not being for new and aspiring artists, but for already successful artists who have enough reputation to be scouted and shown. So the galleries I looked at are places with a reasonable chance of showing our work.
There are a few galleries which would be up for showing and/or putting work up for sale, one gallery in particular which looked particularly promising is 'North East Art Collective', which is based within Newcastle towns Eldon square. Within entry you will notice hundreds of different fine art work within twelve rooms, it is packed full of interesting work, mainly paintings but also including sculptures, jewelry, ceramics and prints. I asked the manager about details with whether or not he would be able to show our universities fine art work and he seemed enthusiastic and keen, but would first need to see the art work. The work itself however has to be based around the North East for paintings based on buildings and landscapes, but the gallery itself contains a lot of abstract and sculptural work which isn't based on anything northern in particular so there is a tolerance to some leeway on the significance behind the work. The gallery itself is top floor and in the corner of Eldon Square, which I believe makes it a bit hidden and hard to randomly stumble on to, so business for it may be slow and your work while being shown may take a while to get sold. It is possible to get to the gallery through elevators for disabled access and although there are some ramps inside some doors are a little narrow which may make it impossible for wheelchairs to get through. The work itself ranges from a variety of prices, bigger works have a price tag of thousands whereas the average painting is between eighty pound and three hundred pound, but there are small stuff which can be sold easily for less than ten pound depending on what the artist produces for retail. The manager gave me his his business card and e-mail and allowed me to get into contact with him if I needed any questions asked so the North east collective seems like an extremely promising gallery as long as work is based upon the North East or abstracted with at least some relevance.
The biscuit factory is a large warehouse styled building which specialises in contemporary designed art and holds work from hundreds of artists, they have a lot of paintings on canvases spread over walls throughout the entire building but a lot of the work is shown in a kind of gift shop appearance. You can contact them on their website and send images of your own work and they will decide if they would show it for sale in their building. Inside is a restaurant and a cafe so food and drink are available if you want to have a look just for a day out and browse some art works as well. Disabled access is available with ramps and elevators so it is wheelchair friendly and car parking is available outside so you can drive and park there for four hours. The work their show is generally paintings, ceramics and small sculptural art works, and due to them hosting a lot of work they don't usually show very large work unless under special circumstances, so if your art is mainly large sculptural pieces or huge canvases it is worth inquiring but chances are they wont exhibit it.
Another gallery space is the Baltic 39, which is a little sister to the Baltic and shows exhibitions from upcoming and new artists and change their exhibitions on a weekly basis, the owner and curator of the Baltic 39 came to university and gave a seminar speaking about both the Baltic and also the Baltic 39, he said that on average every week there are around the figures of two hundred artists whom ask to show their work and only ten get given the opportunity,but every week they change the shows and a one in twenty chance of being given the opportunity is very good considering the prestigious name of Baltic in the north of England. The Baltic 39 is disabled access friendly with elevators allowing wheelchair users to move around and the work is shown in large white rooms with lighting and other equipment able to be borrowed for use of displaying work. Their exhibitions generally show sculptural work and installments rather than paintings on canvases, however Baltic 39 is partnered with Northumbria University of art so tend to be biased and favour showing their universities work rather than sharing the work around, so you would have to make your work stand out from their own to get exhibited.
Excluding basic craft shops such as WH Smiths and the works, Newcastle has an amazing arts and crafts store called 'Newcastle Arts Centre', which sells a wide variety of artistry equipment such as high quality paints, paper, pencils and easels and other materials along that sort of nature. They also have weekly workshops and courses including lessons and seminars with cultural art experts. I picked up a leaflet and the experiences range between painting in acrylic to Chinese brush painting with Dr Chun-Chao Chiu, who has a doctorate in art. The supplies which they sell are very affordable and also give out student discount, so may be a good place to buy products for work when going professional. They show a few pieces of art on their walls but aren't looking for more to show but however have a gift shop which has a range of small pieces of artwork such as postcards with paintings on and small sculptural pieces being sold by artists for on average ten each. When asking a manager if they could sell some of our work he gave me an e-mail address and said to contact and although they only seek out new work every once in a while they will hold onto sent pictures of artists work and if when they are looking to replenish their shelves they may e-mail back. The shop itself is on an inclined hill with not a lot of parking near and being inside the town centre may be a bit hectic for parking and difficult for wheelchair users, however the inside provides ramps and wide hallways so people in wheel chairs can get around easily once inside.
However, if you are a digital artist then you would need a shop more suitable for selling equipment such as high quality printing paper, inks and lighting for studios, for that I would recommend the Digital F Stop Gallery, which is both a contemporary photography gallery and also an photographic shop, where you can buy both equipment and work. You could also send e-mails to the managers at F stop gallery to possibly show and sell your digital image art, but however I found that the building itself seemed to be better in selling equipment and materials than actually being a gallery. I would recommend this for those whom seek out high quality professional digital art equipment but I wouldn't chose to exhibit my work here.
In conclusion, I have found Newcastle town to be full of artistic opportunities, between studios to rent out to produce work, galleries to show and sell the work and high quality craft stores to buy the equipment, it is very possible to survive in Newcastle as an artist with a little luck and skill, and taking away the professional side it is full of huge galleries like the Baltic and Laing Art gallery which you need to have a renowned and famous name and reputation to get in but nothing to stop you getting influences just a few minutes' walk away. Newcastle is underrated when it comes to its art scene, but when you look around you find a lot of possibilities with work, artistic beauty in the location from the beautiful scenery to the intriquite buildings architecture and a way to live as a professional fine artist.
