Empty shops could be studios for next Bacon or Hirst, says leading curator
Britain’s empty high street shops and derelict department stores should be transformed into artists’ studios and galleries to bring life back to city centres, according to the outgoing director of one of the country’s leading art spaces.
With artists being pushed out of city centres by soaring rents and living costs, galleries under financial pressure and high streets struggling, Iwona Blazwick, who has led Whitechapel Gallery for more than 20 years, called on local authorities to offer the spaces at reduced rents to artists. This comes as the London gallery prepares to launch an exhibition dedicated to the subject of the artist’s studio – Blazwick’s last as director.
“It’s an interesting moment because it’s a question of whether people will want to go back to working in the city; we’ve seen one high street shop after another not surviving. High streets are struggling, whole department stores have disappeared. So what is the future for those spaces?” she said.
“And to me, there is an immediate tenancy standing right there, which is the artists’. They’re guaranteed, they’re going to bring with them a whole way of life, which brings a neighbourhood back into viability and into being a great place to live and work.”
Department stores have taken a big hit in recent years, while the move to online shopping has left many high street stalwarts struggling.
In 2016 British Home Stores closed all its UK branches; two years later, House of Fraser went into administration; Debenhams closed 118 stores after Covid hit, and John Lewis announced several closures too.
Rather than turning empty buildings into luxury apartments, Blazwick said, there is an opportunity to take inspiration from Damien Hirst, who in 1988, along with 15 other art
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