Empty Shops
Our plan is to take over suitable retail or commercial properties in each of Sunderland’s five council areas – North, East and West Sunderland, Coalfields and Washington – from where programmes of activity will be delivered.
Project Coordinator Emma Biggins explains: “By placing ourselves physically in communities we can produce workshops, art sessions, talks, exhibitions and other activity in people’s neighbourhoods, while the shops or community hubs could also be used as platforms for creatives, arts, culture and heritage organisations and existing groups already based within these communities. It’s expected that we’ll have each premises for about a month and the overall project will last about a year.”
“We’ll also use the shops to find out what sort of arts activities local neighbourhoods would like to see more of, as well as spreading the word about The Cultural Spring’s wider programme. This will also be an opportunity for existing groups to promote themselves and hopefully increase their own members.”
“We’re confident the takeover idea will work as we successfully delivered a similar project – a pop-up shop in the Bridges – in 2017."
If you know of a venue that you think The Cultural Spring would be interested in, or would like to be considered for the programming at one or more of the venues, please email Emma Biggins at emma.biggins@theculturalspring.org.uk.
Landlord Call Out
The Cultural Spring is reimagining how to use our high streets to engage local communities into cultural activities by utlilising vacant properties across the Sunderland areas (these include: North, West, East, Washington & Coalfields). The Empty Shop project aims to engage local creatives, community partners and arts or heritage organisations and support them to generate a programme of cultural activities that reflects local communities interests and encourages more people to visit local high streets.
We are committed to drive positive social impact and change within our local communities utilising vacant properties. We aim to achieve this by working with councils, architects, developers, shopping centres managers, warehouse owners and commercial landlords across the region.
The appeal for landlords to work with us stems from our public programme, which offers opportunities to trail new ways to engage your local communities to visit your high streets and shops. To do this we are working closely with local community partners to build a programme of activities that they know will appeal to local people. This will help to generate new footfall to support existing businesses, whilst reducing management, security and insurance costs. Our selected carefully programmed activities deliver quality events for your local community whilst we look after your property.
Our model is unique and we work with the support of local authorities, community partners and stakeholders. We work with the most in need, providing space for free to local creatives, community groups and creative or heritage organisations to support them to establish their future and give them a space to celebrate their achievements to date.
We operate on very flexible terms, so you can be rest assured that if you find a paying tenant for the space you can have it back when you need it. We manage all aspects of the relationship including insurances, contracts and work with experts to ensure operations are of the highest calibre.
Through this project we aim to find creatives, community groups and arts or heritage organisations that can develop a legacy for this project. We will encourage and support partners to use the space as a more permanent studio or incubation space for a creative start up to find their feet, perhaps ending up as a paying tenant
Get in touch to discuss your specific requirements or find out how we can work together to support the creative economy and generate social value: emma.biggins@theculturalspring.org.uk
Or alternatively fill our Landlord Enquiry Form by clicking HERE!