The role of contemporary artist-run spaces in the UK

Using Hull as a model this paper looks at an artist-run organisation through its complete cycle of being established, flourishing, and closing, over a period of about 20 years. In this context, “artist run” is taken to mean a place set up for the exhibition of work by the artists themselves, emphasizing the model of the laboratory where work is made and shown, rather than a simple gallery model. Hull Times Based Arts is studied in the context of other arts provision in the city, particularly the local art school, municipal gallery, and other artist-initiated activities. It is argued that in the late C20th artist-run organisations were in a strong position to encourage the making and exhibition of work that was characterised by three things:1.political/interventionist art work2.place-specific artworks3.radical formal experimentation The paper concludes that at their best, artist-led organizations should not seek to replicate their more professionalised counterparts, but value a different, more radical mode of practice, one which is more critical, engaged and open compared to a publicly-administered or commercial gallery, but that this may come at the expense of sustainability.