Real Estate

About

Real Estate is our long term live/work artist residency scheme taking place in Blackpool and Wyre. The residencies were developed and shaped by our experiences working across Blackpool and Wyre over the last six years and are one of our longest interventions to date. They are a direct response to opportunities that have presented themselves, a wide range of partnerships and the potential to become pioneers for change in the area.

They are a response to the question we often get asked when a project finishes ‘what happens next’? They are also an experiment into what happens when artists become part of a community rather than visiting a place.

The residencies are in partnership with our two housing association partners Blackpool Coastal Housing and Regenda, who are as interested in the role of an artist in reframing the conversation as we are.

They know that their interventions reach only a certain percentage of their tenants and that their very position as ‘landlords’ acts as a barrier for them to have a more transformative relationship with some tenants.

The artists that undertake these residencies have socially engaged practices and are interested in how art can be used as a tool for discussion, observation, and activism.

Our Artists

In 2018-2020 the resident artists were:

Alongside the main residencies, we also host micro, or ‘third bedroom’, residencies which help to support, challenge, experiment or play with the main residency artists.

The micro residencies are also an opportunity for us to work with socially engaged artists to R&D ideas that might have come from the resident artists, neighbours or one of our partners. They offer the opportunity to provide support for the main resident artist and to bring a different artist practice into the area.