If you are an artist or organisation interested in collaboration, we’d love to meet and explore ways of working together.
In the summer of 2021, Exeter MakeTank and Arts Lab partnered up to work towards their shared vision of making art accessible to everyone. Combining their resources, Arts Lab set up camp in the Paris Street venue as the ‘resident social enterprise’. An 18 month experiment, the plan is to contribute to a dynamic programme of public events, workshops and artist residencies. Both organisations are bound by collaboration, inclusivity and a culture of continuous creative learning and development. This promises to be an exciting and fruitful partnership, and we look forward to welcoming wide-ranging audiences to the MakeTank/ Arts Lab experience.
HM Prison Dartmoor is a Category C men’s prison located in the heart of Dartmoor National Park in rural Devon. Since 2018, Arts Lab has been working with the prison running art workshops for safer custody prisoners. Our Great Prison Art Exchange and Prisoners Sharing the Light projects have been funded by the National Lottery Community Fund and Covid-response fund respectively.
We’ve been in partnership with Kevicc from the start, supplementing the school’s visual arts provision. We run annual enrichment days, offer support for portfolio building and provide opportunities for 16+ artist volunteers to get involved with the Lab. Our arm also extends to the Art Foundation students at Kennicott.
Imagine this …Torbay is a National Lottery funded partnership programme looking at ways to improve lives for children growing up in Torbay. Led by Torbay Community Development Trust, the overall purpose of the partnership is to work together to create solutions that improve the health and wellbeing of children and young people. Arts Lab is one of the working partners, specifically in the area of public health, helping to develop provision for 0-19 year olds through visual art.
The Dartington Hall Trust in rural South Devon supported the Lab’s early development, situating the arts alongside social justice. From 2016-2020, we were based in the heart of the estate in a 109-square metre studio, an ideal place from which to run our programme and residencies and to experiment for future projects. The combined impact of a changing Dartington and Covid, led us to the decision in June 2020, to leave the Trust and to run our services from a virtual platform whilst also establishing a new live venue at Exeter MakeTank.
Plymouth College of Art – ‘a beacon of hope that still values the individual human being – the artist and the maker’ – were other active partners up until Covid. A vital resource for graduates and postgraduates, we provided opportunities for professional practice development, placement mentoring and internships and residencies, including the annual Graduate Arts Lab prize.