ARTISTS in Belfast are currently facing an accommodation crisis – an emergency which could see the city’s studio collectives end up out in the street.

Vault Artist Studios just off the Newtownards Road in East Belfast faces an uncertain future when its tenancy ends a few months into 2023. As the biggest artist collective in the North, with over 100 artists using their building, it could spell cultural disaster for Belfast’s vibrant and growing art scene.

Neal Campbell, an artist and  building manager at Vault said uncertainty and anxiety is gripping Belfast’s art community as uncertain tenancies, rising rents and the current cost-of-living crisis are impacting the local art community.

Neal said there are currently 17 studio collectives in Belfast – and none of them has a secure tenancy. That’s compounded in a lot of cases by the fact they’re in often sprawling older premises which are damp, cold and unsuited to manual labour. 

“A lot of artist collectives are working under these tenancies and others are currently coming to the end of longer leases and it’s not looking positive for those to be renewed. So there’s a great deal of uncertainty." he said.

MUSIC: Vault is home to musicians, actors & artists
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MUSIC: Vault is home to musicians, actors & artists

Neal believes Belfast has the potential to become a world class centre for art, but the lack of a stable and secure place in which to work puts pressure on artists – and impacts adversely on the cultural life of the city.

“I really believe that Belfast has the potential to be a global benchmark city for the arts. I know the level of talent is out there in this city but at the moment the infrastructure isn’t there to support that. Artists provide so many benefits to a city, from improving how a city looks, to developing its cultural scene, to bringing in tourism.

“If for example the MAC or the Lyric every two to three years were having to fight for their place to be, people would be talking about it. But that’s the situation grassroots studio groups are finding themselves in.

“Artists who come together to produce work are in a situation where they just constantly have to fight for survival, for a space to exist. It gets in the way of an artist’s ability to be creative and to produce work. It’s a big barrier to artists working effectively. I really believe if Belfast had the infrastructure to be able to provide for artists there is the potential to make Belfast a global hot spot for art.”

Vault started out six years ago in the old Ulster Bank by the Holywood Arches, and went on to establish themselves as a charity with the governance and structure to support the organisation. Vault’s approach was to create a space which wasn’t just focused on visual arts but to also provide a space for musicians, writers, actors and DJs.

ART: Vault is a home to over 100 artists
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ART: Vault is a home to over 100 artists

Neal said when the tenancy at the bank ended, they felt like the sky was going to fall in, but they found themselves a new home just off the Newtownards Road, with enough space to suit all of their multi-disciplinary needs and also with enough room for Vault to grow.

Vault’s current building is owned by Choice Housing, whose long-term plan for the building is to turn it into social housing. 

“We have actors, circus artists, comedians, theatre designers, visual artists, bio artists, sculptors," said Neal. "We have a really diverse and eclectic mix of artists in this building. With regards to our public-facing approach, we’ve had markets, festivals, gigs, culinary events, book launches and tap rooms for breweries, so we’ve tried to be very involved with the local community as well as producing our own art.

“We’re passionate about engaging with the communities which our buildings are in, we’ve got really strong relationships with the local community here in Ballymacarrett, which is one of the most deprived electoral wards in the country, but we’ve opened our doors to local residents and held a festival in August where a lot of residents came in to see our work and have a dance with us and that community-building through art is really important to what we do."

Neal says his ambition is for Belfast to match cities like Amsterdam and Berlin which are globally renowned for their art scene.

ART: An artist at work in Vault
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ART: An artist at work in Vault

He adds:  “I don’t believe we need to attach an economic value to everything that happens, but in general terms arts and culture are always a net contributor to the economy. Art exists to improve the city, to challenge how people look at things and bring joy to people, to fill places with vibrancy and life.

“I think we need to ask, why is Belfast as a city constantly granting more planning permission for more offices? Why is the city going to speculative developers when there’s already an oversupply of space available? I think with people working from home and the death of the high street, we should be looking at how arts and culture can be really central to how we look at planning and developing our city.”