Studio Futures: Lessons from Leeds and Glasgow (Research Summary)

Summary

In Spring/Summer 2024 supported by Belfast City Council’s Studio Support Grant Creative Exchange staff and board reps (Sinead, Thomas and Caragh) undertook two R&D visits to Leeds and Glasgow to better understand how sustainable artist workspaces are developed, financed and managed. At a time when the studio sector in Belfast faces significant challenges, this research offers insight into long-term building security, diversified income models, and the role of civic partnerships in sustaining creative infrastructure. This page provides a public summary of our findings from the experience. We extend sincere thanks to all the organisations, artists and freelance professionals who met with us at the time for their generosity in sharing their experience, learnings and insights with us.

Introduction

The purpose of these visits was to learn from established studio providers, explore sustainable business models, and better understand how artist workspaces can grow and thrive within different cultural and funding landscapes.

The research focused on:

• Building ownership and lease structures

• Organisational scale and staffing

• Income diversification

• Relationships with local authorities

• Governance and growth over time
  

Leeds: East Street Arts

Founded in 1993, East Street Arts (ESA) is now one of the largest studio providers in England. The organisation supports hundreds of artists annually and operates across Leeds and nationally through a combination of permanent and temporary spaces.

Organisational profile:

• Established: 1993

• Staff team: approx. 20+ (mix of employed and freelance roles)

• Operates 60+ temporary buildings across the UK

• Owns key permanent buildings in Leeds

• Runs multiple programmes including studios, residencies, events and the Art Hostel
  

ESA has grown from an artist-led initiative into a substantial charity with a diversified income model. Their activity includes:

• Permanent studio buildings

• Meanwhile (temporary) studio provision

• Artist residencies

• The Art Hostel social enterprise

• Events and hireable spaces
  

The scale of ESA’s operations allows them to cross-subsidise activity and take strategic risks. Their long-term development has been supported by capital funding (including Arts Council England investment), mortgage financing, and strong relationships with property brokers and local authorities.

Key learnings: The importance of a long-term vision, diversified income, internal culture structures, and the strategic use of temporary space alongside permanent assets.

Glasgow: Wasps Studios

Founded in 1977, Wasps (Workshop & Artists Studio Provision Scotland) is the largest studio provider in the UK.

Organisational profile:

• Established: 1977

• 27 staff (approx. 21 FTE)

• Operates across 20+ buildings in Scotland

• Supports hundreds of artists and creative businesses

• Majority of buildings owned or held in trust

• Structured across three interlinked entities
  

Wasps operates at national scale and is now financially self-sustaining in day-to-day operations (excluding capital projects). Their model combines:

• Artist studios

• Creative industry workspaces

• Commercial tenants

• Event and festival programming

• Heritage building regeneration
  

Many of their properties are historic buildings, allowing access to heritage funding streams. Commercial tenancies operate alongside artist studios, helping to create financial resilience.

Wasps works closely with Glasgow City Council and other stakeholders to regenerate vacant buildings and city areas.

Key learnings: Long-term building ownership, structured governance, diversified tenants, and strong civic partnerships are central to sustaining their large-scale studio provision.

Glasgow: Many Studios

Many Studios was founded in 2019 and operates from a long-term (25+ year) lease in a former market building near Glasgow city centre.

Organisational profile:

• Established: 2012 (incorporated 2014)

• Supports approx. 60 artists and creative practitioners

• Small core team with strong design/architecture leadership

• Mixed-use creative industries focus

• Long-term lease agreement

• The organisation blends artist studios with commercial creative workspaces and hireable public-facing spaces. Many Studios has embedded itself in the local neighbourhood and contributes to regeneration through partnership working and community engagement.
  

Key learnings: The value of long-term leasing security at mid-scale; integration of commercial and creative practices and neighbourhood-based development work.

Glasgow: Agile City

Agile City runs Civic House and the Glue Factory in Glasgow. Their model combines:

• Artist studios

• Commercial hot-desking

• Meeting and event spaces

• A strong environmental sustainability focus
  

Key Learnings: They have accessed green funding streams to improve building performance and have developed partnerships with universities and local organisations. Their approach emphasises collaboration, environmental responsibility and cross-sector connections.

Lessons for Belfast

The organisations we visited operate at considerably larger scale than Creative Exchange and have developed over decades. In generl their 'below market rate' is still expensive and at the time exceeded rental rate equivilents in Belfast. While the policy and property landscape in England and Scotland differs from Northern Ireland, our visits highlighted several lessons that are still relevant to the Belfast context.

1. Long-Term Building Security Is Transformational Organisations with ownership or long leases are better positioned to plan strategically, invest in improvements, and build financial resilience. Temporary or short-term arrangements can support growth, but they do not replace the stability of permanent space.

2. Studio Rent Alone Is Not Enough All of the organisations visited rely on diversified income streams beyond studio rental. These include commercial tenancies, event hire, hospitality, public programming, capital funding, and access to heritage or environmental funding streams. A blended model strengthens sustainability but does required more resources, skills and expertise.

3. Growth Requires Professional Capacity As studio organisations grow, governance and operational structures inevitably become more formalised. Paid leadership and staff capacity are central to managing buildings, for compliance, fundraising and partnership work.

4. Cross-Subsidy Has Benefits and Complexities Mixing artists with commercial tenants can provide financial stability and broaden networks. However, this approach requires careful balancing to maintain affordability and clarity of purpose for the organisation.

5. Temporary Space Has Limits Meanwhile spaces can offer important opportunities, particularly for emerging artists and for activating vacant buildings. However, short notice periods, hidden costs and uncertainty can create instability if relied upon too heavily.

6. Civic Relationships Matter Strong, long-term relationships with councils and other stratigic stakeholders play a significant role in securing buildings, unlocking funding, and contributing to regeneration.

7. Shared Sector Challenges Across all cities visited, organisations were navigating rising utility costs, property pressures, affordability concerns and the ongoing impacts of post-pandemic recovery. These are sector-wide infrastructural challenges rather than location-specific issues.

Why share this now?

Although this research was undertaken back in 2024, we are publishing this summary now in light of the continually growing pressures facing the studio sector here in Belfast.

We believe open discussion, shared learning and strategic thinking are essential to sustaining creative infrastructure in our city. We hope these insights can be helpful to our peers and colleagues navigating building moves and insecure tenancy.

Acknowledgements

We extend sincere thanks to East Street Arts, Wasps Studios, Many Studios, Agile City - and all the various staff members, artists and freelance professionals who met with us on our visits! Their generosity in sharing their time, experience and insight was most welcome. We are also greatful for the support of Belfast City Council who enabled this research.

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This page provides a public summary of a more detailed internal research report written by Sinead O’Neil Nichol (former Studio Manager at CEx). Anyone in the sector interested in discussing the full findings further is warmly invited to get in touch with Creative Exchange by emailing us at info@creativeexchangestudio.co.uk

(PS. Finally - as the report was written some time ago, if any of the organisational details listed are no longer accurate we will happily make amendments, just let us know!)