Over the summer, Creative Cardiff and Hypha Studios announced an opportunity for collectives of artists to have access to two empty retail units on Cardiff’s Queen Street. After receiving a number of high-quality applications, Future Arts Collective Cymru and PWSH and Neurospicy Play Date were selected and have since taken up residence in the units, activating them for production, exhibition and public engagement.
Hypha Studios is a registered charity that works as a mediator between landlords and artists to match artists and creatives with empty spaces on the high street and break down barriers to collaboration. Since launching in 2019, Hypha have supported the cultural sector with over £2.2M of free space, helping regenerate high streets and transform urban centres into thriving cultural hubs with free community-led events.
Hypha Studios and Creative Cardiff have partnered to promote Hypha’s first space-activation opportunity in Wales.
PWSH artists have created joyful, radical murals and public art projects, celebrating difference and re-imagining public spaces across Cardiff. Neurospicy Playdates is a creative wellness session run by an emerging neurodiverse arts collective. At the heart of bringing these two projects together for a co-residency is meaningful inclusion to widen access to the arts and creative wellness for historically excluded people.
Their public programme includes residencies, creative wellness sessions, art workshops, takeovers, exhibitions and body doubling sessions, as well as hosting a space for conversations with the community.
They have partnered with Benthyg (@benthyg) to create a weekly pop-up art library and will also collaborate with Our Visual World (@our.visual.world) to host weekly art clubs for Deaf people. Other upcoming events include Spicy Desk Sessions (tiny gigs), Puppet Clwb with PWSH artist Ren Wolfe, weekly Thursday evening art socials, community mural making and Gwaith will come to the space for a chat and to co-host a social in November.
Find out more about PWSH / Neurospicy Playdate and their plans for the space on their Instagram accounts (@pwshcdf / @neurospicyplaydatecdf) or visit the PWSH website.
Future Arts Collective Cymru (FACC) are here to support and promote an alternative future. One that centres community, care and joy as well as empowerment to collectively build a future from a place of hope and justice.
As a collective, they are community arts facilitators, musicians, performance artists, educators, filmmakers and craft-makers. They are formed of Kate Woodward, Reb Sutton, Neo Ukandu, Cliodhna Ryan, Sereen Al Khutubi, Trishna Jaikara and Skye Kimber.
FACC’s space on 117 Queen St is a micro-community centre where community members and groups can use the space to build the futures we want to see. This could be through attending or running their own socials, workshops, events and exhibitions.
Find out more about Future Arts Collective Cymru and their plans for the space by following their Instagram (@future_arts_collective_cymru)