News

Baumkuchen, beats and longer leases in our Artspace Lifespace February newsletter.

February half term is coming fast. With the unpredictable weather it’s always a daunting week to fill with affordable kids entertainment so here’s some tips for creative days out around Bristol, including good picnic and toilet spots! As a venue who recently held a 90’s crisp buffet night we can’t help but love Zion Space […]

The old Marks & Spencers building in Broadmead saw massive changes in 2023. Now renamed Sparks Bristol, the four-storey department store was taken on by charities Artspace Lifespace and Global Goals Centre. Since opening in May 2023, Sparks Bristol has welcomed over 350,000 visitors. They recently announced that all their hard work has paid off […]

Here are our highlights for January 2024 including Tango, Floorwork and some generational electricity. artspace-lifespace-january-newsletter

Our December newsletter delivers festive family dance classes, glass workshops and our AGM.

The theme of the Kill the Bill movement was very relevant to the overall objectives of the project, as this is a protest in defence of the right to protest freely in the future.

We’re giving you Love Bites 🫦, Fire Ceremonies and art from Desert Communities across our venues this month.

From Santa’s grotto to a secret festival venue we all love a creative ‘pop-up’ event but what happens to the scenery once the lights go down? Due to its temporary nature the events industry is notoriously wasteful. While there’s a lot of work going on to reduce the majority of waste generated by food and […]

October brings a Tango festival to Arts Mansion, an exhibition by UWE’s Unconventional Computing Lab and a 💩 load of electronica to The Island Venue.

Artist Alaric Hobbs is interested in how politics affects our built environment and surroundings. Following his residency at The Vestibules, and subsequent exhibition at Centrespace Gallery, Artspace Lifespace caught up with him to chat about his work and the experience of holding a solo exhibition. ASLS: Hi Alaric, your recent exhibition explores themes of hostile […]

Sparks Bristol – Putting the Art back in Department Stores On the 13th May, in partnership with Global Goals Centre, we launched Sparks Bristol, the groundbreaking project that merges art, education, shopping, and sustainability. Revitalising the old Marks and Spencers building in the heart of Broadmead. The grand opening witnessed an incredible turnout of over […]

On the 10th and 11th March 2023 2nd year fine art students from The Bristol School of Art will present their exhibition inspired by the history of The Island. We caught up with contributing artist Jeanette Read to find out more… Q, How did the idea of an exhibition based around The Island building come […]

Along with our partner Global Goals Centre we’ve been busy at our new project, Sparks Bristol, getting our heads around all the things that come with taking on a new building such intruder alarms, access keys and codes, plumbing and some urgent repairs. We were delighted that the community champions came to take a look […]

Artspace Lifespace to work with Global Goals Centre to create exciting new art and sustainability hub in Broadmead – Sparks Bristol.

Words and Photography by Caroline Thake. What are the stories we tell about ourselves? Who has permission to write them? What does it mean to recover forgotten histories from historically marginalised perspectives? The evening of 29th September brought together Global Majority & Queer writers, artists, filmmakers and performers in a magical evening of poetry, performance […]

September sees The Venue nightclub returning to The Island. Following a successful Spring season while we bedded in a new team, found our feet and had to throw away a lot of out of date drinks stock (😫) following a nearly two year Covid closure, we are now formally re-launching. Our Venue Managers Clara McDermott […]

In July the Vestibules was proud to host The Coe Gallery’s stunning exhibition featuring paintings by Aboriginal artists, focusing on land and the natural world. The Coe gallery is the UK’s first Aboriginal owned and artist led gallery, founded and curated by Jasmine Coe, a Wiradjuri-British artist and daughter of Paul Coe.  Paul Coe is […]

We’re delighted to have finally installed spotlights to our Gallery ceiling and are extremely grateful to the generous donation from artist Luke Jerram who kindly funded the work. Luke came along to the recent ‘Fragile’ exhibition by Ben Anthony to view the paintings and see the spotlights in action. Following the restoration work on the […]