🎈Artspace Lifespace November 2025 Newsletter 🎈

Post date Thursday 6 November, 2025
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TEXT AND MOVEMENT WORKSHOP

Join Dust Ensemble for this energetic, playful and creative workshop, an opportunity to increase your creative flow through an embodied practice. Aimed at creatives: storytellers, movers, dancers, musicians, and visual artists, to foster collaboration and openness to the creative process.

Through individual, pair-work and ensemble-based improvisation scores in response to themes of place, identity and belonging. You will explore the everyday and the strange as a starting point to expand imagination beyond the known.

Cost is £10.80, book via Headfirst. Wear loose clothing and avoid wearing outdoor shoes. Bring notebooks and plenty of water!

9th November, 10 – 1pm
The Island Dance Studio, Bridewell Street, BS1 2QD.

RECLAIMING TOMORROW

Reclaiming Tomorrow brings together artworks by people currently in prison and those rebuilding their lives after release.
It invites reflection on growth, change, and the courage to imagine new possibilities—whether personal, environmental, or social. Through a wide range of mediums, artists working with charity Prodigal Arts offer powerful and individual visions of hope, resilience, and what the future might hold.

Fri 7th Nov & Sat 8th Nov 12-7pm, Sunday 9th Nov 10-4pm

The Island Gallery, Bridewell Street, BS1 2QD.

TATTOOING BRISTOL

Through unseen photographs and interviews, step back in time to the glory days of Bristols world famous tattoo scene of the 1950s and 1960s. The gathering of like minded strangers, centred around one tattoo shop, would later define an era in British tattooing and be influential to people all around the world.
This book launch and exhibition explores the untold memories and lives of the local tattooed people, each sharing their personal experiences on their journey through young adulthood.

See artspace.uk for full details.

Friday 21st November 6pm-9.30pm, Saturday 10-6pm and Sunday 10-5pm

The Island Gallery, Bridewell Street, BS1 2QD.

NIGHTS AT THE MANSION

2025 has filled Arts Mansion with music, dancing and performance. The last events of the year promise to keep the spirit of community and togetherness alive.

The Fifth – The people who brought you Midsommar Mansion Festival, Community Jam Collective and Below The Belt present “THE FIFTH” – A night full of music and spectacle to remember…
5th November, tickets via Headfirst.

Detriti Core – This event blends theatre, performance art, and underground music into a single night. Installations create pockets of magic, and the club floor becomes a site of transformation, decomposition, and rebirth…
All fantastical interpretations of decay are welcome: dress up and get involved!
7th November, tickets via Headfirst.

Bassquerade NYE – Feel the pulse of live performances by Omega Nebula and Dr Meaker move you through the mansion. Let the music guide you into the night, exploring the opulent, magical surroundings as the earth completes it’s journey around the sun. With Ashton Court set to start a new era of custodianship this is likely to be the last New Year’s Eve event at the mansion.

31st December, tickets via Headfirst.

see artspace.uk for full details.

Arts Mansion, Ashton Court, Long Ashton, Bristol. BS41 9JN.

INDIE AUTHOR BOOK FAIR

The @sugarpages_author_events book fair will be packed with over 30 independent authors ready for banter, book signings, giveaways and fun.⁠
⁠This is a free event, book via eventbrite, the first 100 tickets get a free welcome gift!
⁠
All events at Sparks Bristol are on the Sparks Bristol website

8th November, 11 – 4pm

Sparks Bristol, 78 Broadmead, Bristol. BS1 3DS

CLUB NIGHTS

Located in the basement of a former police station in Broadmead, The Island Venue is accessed through and alley down past abandoned cells and a prison exercise yard – a descent that’s become a rite of passage for generations of ravers. With just a 300-person capacity, no phone cameras and a zero-tolerance harassment policy, it’s one of the last remaining venues where music is the main event.

The Island is now led by an all-female management team and pushes for inclusiveness at every level – from booking women and non-binary DJs to using the bar to fund social impact.

“The Island is about music, yes, but it’s really about community, resistance and reclaiming nightlife as a space for joy and freedom,” said Marina Bastos, co-venue manager. “When you dance here, you’re supporting artists, local causes and a creative space that belongs to the people.”

See our website for November/ December events.
The Island Venue, Bridewell Street, BS1 2QD.

ART OF THE PALESTINIAN POSTER

An evocative exhibition showcasing the resurgence of Palestinian political posters as powerful works of art during the war on Gaza.

Explore the history of Palestinian political posters, from their golden age (1960s–1982) to today’s “subvertising” art in public spaces. The exhibition includes a research/resource table, videos, and digital poster presentations, with select works available for purchase to benefit the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

Featuring both iconic founders of Palestine’s modern art movement and a new generation of poster-makers, this collection captures the struggles for justice, resilience, and resistance in the face of human rights violations. Curated by Malu Halasa, a writer, editor, and curator dedicated to amplifying voices of resistance, this exhibition reflects her. With assistance from Sara Bashiti and Valeria Berghinz

See artspace.uk for full details.

Free and open to the public from the 26th November to 13th December, 12 – 6pm.
The Island Gallery, Bridewell Street, BS1 2QD.

VESTIBULES CLOSURE

After 8 years of running these two unique exhibition spaces either side of City Hall we have decided to close The Vestibules due to rising operational and security costs.

“We’re incredibly proud of what The Vestibules has achieved,” said Kathryn Chiswell Jones, CEO at Artspace Lifespace. “It’s been a platform for experimental, community-led and socially engaged art – unfortunately something that’s not easily supported by private investment models. We’re grateful to the Bristol City Council Arts & Events team for their efforts to help secure a sustainable future for the space.”

Despite the farewell, The Vestibules’ creative legacy will continue. Artspace Lifespace is delighted that @coegallery will maintain a seasonal exhibition programme in the space, while the Pride Hub will remain based at The Vestibules with ongoing support from Bristol City Council.