Test Space

Test Space is Sue Loughlin and Corinne Kilvington who have been working together since meeting at UNION 23, a year long course for artists and creatives provided by UNION Arts: The Northern School for Creativity and Activism. Corinne’s is the founder and artistic director of Theatre Space North East.

This collaborative partnership organises Speak Up for Grassroots Arts Sunderland and has received funding from an Arts Council England Project Grant, seed funded by UNION Arts.

Test Space will use event-based strategies to pose questions around the democratisation of the arts, the role of arts spaces in supporting creative community cohesion and methods for sustaining local creative ecosystems in the Sunderland area.

Findings will be made available in printed and digital formats and will be used to support the case for artist-led initiatives in Sunderland.

This project aims to add to the current localised information to support the cause for artist-led.

Test Space is funded by:

Test Space aims to:

• Explore methods of initiating and sustaining artist led initiatives in Sunderland

• Give voice to underrepresented artists, creative practitioners & community members within Sunderland & it’s surrounding areas

• Explore ways of serving local artists & the wider Sunderland community better

The project will investigate:

• Ways art hierarchies can be destabilised to help level the playing field for local practitioners

• What the artistic and wider community need from an evolving cultural scene

• Methods for building artist led/grass roots projects via collective working methods, which are none exploitative & caring

Activities are designed to elicit understanding, knowledge & evidence for dissemination, and include:

• A sequence of learning conversations between local stakeholders

• Speak Up for Grassroots Arts - two in person community debate events

• A period of evaluation & documentation

• The sharing of findings