The issue of artists’ studios

Unlike our neighbouring countries, there was no proper studio policy in Flanders until 2001. However, many artists encounter problems when looking for a good place to work. Artists are usually in a fairly precarious financial situation: their income is not only modest, it is also irregular. In addition, renting both a home and a workspace is a serious financial burden. Which is why many artists by necessity work at home. This creates situations that are not at all safe, as for example when dangerous products are used, and certainly when there are small children around.
Many of these studio problems can be traced back to the lack of a management structure that takes responsibility for issues that specifically involve facilities for artists. NUCLEO tries to fill some of this gap by creating affordable and good-quality studios and offering them to artists in a whole range of disciplines, both established and beginners. This is not an unnecessary luxury, because there is a great need for such studios, and for the provision of water, electricity, heating and toilets: NUCLEO receives applications every week.

Goals

Nurture: a workspace for artists

NUCLEO develops and manages affordable, good-quality studio spaces in Ghent and the surrounding area. With an outlook based on ‘process’, we offer artists the freedom to work with no pressure to produce results. Recently graduated artists can in this way be encouraged to remain living and working in Ghent after their studies.
Ghent City Council is itself an important partner in shaping this studio policy and in the search for suitable premises for re-allocation – temporary or otherwise – as studio spaces.

Springboard: artistic network

NUCLEO is committed to creating a stimulating working environment for its artists. We give them the opportunity to come into contact with the broader arts field.
We organise biennial Open Studios and group exhibitions, promote the resident artists on our website and occasionally invite curators for studio visits.

Workshop: production facilities

Artists not only need a workspace, but also require the necessary production facilities, ranging from a silkscreen press to a ceramics kiln. NUCLEO examines how this need can be met by the arts sector in Ghent.

Integration into society

NUCLEO pursues a studio policy that concerns itself with the studios’ social setting. Most of the studios are after all embedded in an urban context.
NUCLEO not only stimulates contact between the artists themselves, but also with the neighbourhood where the studios are located. This is done in a wide variety of events.

Knowledge centre and laboratory

NUCLEO constantly questions its own activities and the studio policy it follows. Our expertise as an organization is after all continually expanding. Through our networks at Flemish and international levels, we are constantly abreast of new developments in studio policy and management. On the basis of our knowledge and expertise, we aim to advise other organisations, develop a well-considered concept of studio operations and play an active role in Flemish studio policy.

Target group

The NUCLEO target group consists of professional artists: people whose intention is to perform their artistic activities in a professional capacity, in other words to build up an artistic career and if possible to derive their main income from it.
NUCLEO’s intention is to focus especially on artists just starting out. It is from recently graduated artists that the greatest demand for workspaces comes, since after their training they lose the studio they have been used to at school. What is more, their financial position at the start of their artistic career is particularly precarious. But for the synergy it creates and their exemplary role it is important that a building also accommodates more experienced artists.
Other disciplines may be accepted when a building or a site has infrastructural features that specifically lend themselves to it.
Nucleo also offers places to collectives engaged in mutual collaboration in terms of artistic production, reflection and/or presentations and hybrid art forms.
Creative entrepreneurs can only be accommodated in NUCLEO’s studios if they work on artistic foundations and not purely commercially. In this regard we are particularly interested in hybrid art forms in the border regions of the fine and applied arts.
Cultural organisations can also apply to NUCLEO if their work is related to NUCLEO’s outlook and is able to offer added value for the artists in residence. Organisations with mainly commercial objectives do not qualify.

Structure

NUCLEO is a non-profit organisation with its registered office at 231 Lange Violettestraat, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.

Click here for an overview of the staff and board.