Arts West Side

Owned by Bristol City Council, 6 West Street was handed over to Trinity Community Arts, via the city's Community Asset Transfer (CAT) process on a 'peppercorn' leasehold. We looked after the building from 2011 to 2018, in order to increase arts provision in Old Market, at a time when the area was struggling with borded up and vacant premises.

By taking on the management of 6 West Street, Trinity aimed to provide more activities within the area and increase opportunities and support the ongoing regeneration of Old Marke, through the space Arts West Side. Our aim was to be able to accommodate the needs of small grass-roots groups and community initiatives that may otherwise not be able to afford inner city space.

For 7 years, Arts West Side provided artists and communities with an affordable, central resource used and visited by an average of 2,000 people each year, helping to encourage other businesses and social enterprises to take up residency in the area.

Tenants across the seven years included Phase 8 Photography, the Bristol Somali Youth Network, Good Roots Cafe, Pixeled Whipped and Dave Bain Illustrators.

SPACE @ Arts West Side

SPACE was party of an exciting partnership between two Key Arts Providers for Bristol running from April 2016 to March 2018. Standing for ‘Sound, Performance, Art, Community, Engagement’, SPACE hosts public events, art shows, artist residencies, community meetings, pop-up shops, as well as providing opportunities for volunteers, all from AWS main shop-front (Apr 2016 - March 2018).

Run by Artspace Lifespace our shared vision for SPACE (Sound-Performance-Art-Community-Engagement) was to create a welcoming and open shared environment from Arts West Side, supporting the creative communities in Bristol with a new hub where they can showcase work and share ideas. SPACE provided an exciting programme including monthly events, exhibitions, workshops, art & crafts, pop-up shops, small theatre shows, fashion markets and so much more.

Trinity handed back the keys to BCC on the 30th of March 2018, leaving SPACE to be the sole manager of 6 West Street -  read our statement here.

Artspace Lifespace (ASLS) continued their SPACE project and 6 West Street from April 2018 until 2020 until the building was subsequently leased or sold commercial by Bristol City Council.