One Thoresby Street

28/09/2022

After a much needed rest and adjustment to life post closure of the studio at One Thoresby Street, we are finally able to share documentation from 'Not Happy' the final show in the E28 building. The studios may have closed their doors, but we are still here, quietly working on what we are and what we might be, and how we might best support artists in Nottingham. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy these inages of work made by the last inhabitants and the fun and beautiful send off we gave to OTS. This is the first post of several attempting to record the show floor by floor, more to come in weeks to follow... 🥀

23/06/2022

Our closing party is right around the corner, taking place this Saturday from 8pm until we’re all too tired to stand up any more!

The space is shaping up, the bar is ready to burst and the sound system is in place. Get yourself acquainted with our DJs, and we’ll see you on the dance floor 😎



feminem

live

21/06/2022

Party Alert - A reminder that the One Thoresby Street closing party will take place on the 25th of June from 8pm until late. There will be DJ sets from One Thoresby Street residents Sean Cummins and Leomi Sadler followed by Ben Wood, Feminem, Paul Bryan (train strike depending) and Kay Fabe & Multimodal.

Join us for one last dance, one last reel around the block, a ceremonial jive…you get the jist. This will be a celebration of 14 years, of an artist-led community and our wonderful dusty obelisk of a building. 
Finally a big thank you to everyone who came to ‘Not Happy’ our last ever Thoresby Street exhibition - if you missed it you missed out!

There is still time to grab one of our screen print or riso print editions, see previous posts for details!

07/06/2022

We’re counting down the days to ‘Not Happy’, and hope to see you this Friday!

To get you excited for it here’s a preview of limited edition commemorative screenprint and risograph series created by for the show.

Screenprints are A2 and limited to 30, each being totally unique, on hand collaged paper. Risos are A3, with a slightly bigger edition of 80. Both of these will be available for sale at the opening, closing party, and online!

A2 Screenprint: £30 (image 1,2,4)
A3 Riso: £5 (image 3)
+p&p

Drop us a message or an email to [email protected] if you’d like to claim one before they all disappear!

‘Not Happy’ opens Friday 10th June ⏰

02/06/2022

Work is well underway for ‘Not Happy’, opening next Friday! Things are getting very pink 💖🌸

The exhibition will span three floors of our gorgeous building, with spaces opened up that haven’t been accessible to audiences in years ⭐️🔨

Sneak preview on the third slide for ’s new light box print 👀

See you Friday 10th, 6-9pm! The exhibition then continues until the 19th, open Saturdays & Sundays 11-5pm, or by appointment on weekdays.

25/05/2022

For ‘Not Happy’, our closing exhibition, has been busy designing a series of posters and flyers! Keep your eyes peeled for posters going up around the city!

Leomi has also collaged and screen printed an A2 edition of the poster, each print is completely unique, and will be available to purchase throughout our closing events!

Big thanks go to our friends over at .ink for printing and screen exposing, as well as all of their help and support.

‘Not Happy’ opens June 10th, 6-9pm.

10/05/2022

‘Not Happy’

Opening: June 10th, 6-9pm
Exhibition Continues: June 11th - June 19th

One Thoresby Street presents ‘Not Happy’ an all encompassing* group exhibition commiserating our final moments in the E28 building, which has been our home since 2008.

Our space itself is a crumbling edifice, too complex and costly to maintain, and we can only hope the roof stays up until after the show closes. Despite this; the leaks, the cracks and the cold; the building has acted as a buffer against reality to generations of artists, allowing our community to flourish.

To give the building a proper send off *Almost all current studio holders are contributing to the exhibition in some way: expect the complete spectrum of artistic disciplines, presented throughout OTS.

We look forward to welcoming you to the opening on June 10th, and have plenty of other events taking place over the course of our final month, soon to be announced.

Poster by

26/04/2022

‘Refresh’ by paintParty, opening at One Thoresby Street this Thursday!

An exhibition of six painters that refreshes the paintParty conversations started before the pandemic.

Geoff Litherland / Yelena Popova
Sarah Poots / Louisa Chambers
Daniel Sean Kelly / Seán Cummins

PV Thursday 28th April 6-8pm
Open Friday 29th and Saturday 30th April 12-5pm

Saturday 30th April 4-5pm Closing event - a conversation between Geoff, Louisa and Seán connecting with the previous conversations.

14/04/2022

Thank you to all who came out last month for Release Room, a collaboration between bursary recipients & . The trio shared an improvised AV performance, bringing together aspects of their recent independent work and research!

Photos: .grngr

12/04/2022

🏠 Building Updates ⏰

The attentive amongst you will have noticed that One Thoresby Street has outlived the 31st of March ending we had previously announced. Things have moved slower than we expected, giving us a short extension to our time at ‘E28’. We now have a final exit date of the 1st of July.

We are looking for new ways to support artists in Nottingham and want to build a future separate from E28. As such we are not attempting to extend our occupancy beyond the 1st of July. It remains our goal to secure new viable premises from which to operate as soon as we can. We will continue to build on the conversations we have had in the city to make this a reality.

A certain level of stability is required to run a studio community successfully. Which is why we need to give our studio holders a firm timeline for the coming months.

These last months at OTS are sure to be frenetic. We are determined to celebrate 14 years of artist led activity on this site. Keep a look out for our events programme in June which will be announced shortly.

We don’t think it needs to be said, but in case you had any doubts, we will be having a closing party!

Photo: .grngr

07/04/2022

We’re glad to announce we were recently awarded funding from the Emergency Resource Support Fund, thanks to . After a period of many changes and developments, this funding is enabling us to create a stable, sustainable structure for the organisation post-Covid. 

It helps give us the support needed to move forward as an organisation, and to continue to support artists in Nottingham after we depart from our E28 site. At the same time, the fund will help to ensure we are able to continue programming for our remaining time in the building. All of this means an active few months both inwardly and outwardly here at OTS.  We look forward to you joining us over this period, as visitors, collaborators and supporters.

06/04/2022

🗣Spaces for Hire💭

Throughout April we have availability in our two project spaces at OTS, and are offering them out for use by creatives across disciplines.

Looking to document some work, test out an installation, or host an event? (Perhaps you can think of other things?) Get in touch at [email protected] for more info and prices!

17/03/2022

Join us next Friday, 25th March, 6 – 8pm for Release Room. NMG R&D Bursary recipients Seema Mattu (), Tom Harris () & Sean Roy Parker () will meet in person for the first time for an improvised audio-visual performance, collating elements of their independent work made over the winter. This informal affair will marry Seema’s rendered animations of fanciful landscapes (which are set inside her developing narrative), with Tom’s generative approach to music-making, and a selection of excerpts from Sean Roy’s journal. Herbal drinks will be provided.

Informal welcome and herbal drinks from 6 – 6.30pm. Performance to begin at 6.30pm.

Release Room has been developed with the support of an NMG Development Programme R&D Bursary scheme, looking to support Midlands-based artists to be ambitious in developing their practice. Event supported by One Thoresby Street.

Sean Roy Parker is a visual artist, fermentation enthusiast and food writer based at DARP artist community in Shipley, Derbyshire. His work examines the lifecycle of materials, complexities of multi-species responsibility, and problem-solving through collaborative action.

Tom Harris received a research bursary to put together two ‘listening events’ at  and One Thoresby Street, inviting people to explore their senses in a mindful environment, becoming conscious of the way we listen as opposed to hearing alone.

Seema Mattu is a gender-expansive Valmiki artist, whose practice is framed as a theme park – known as SEEMAWORLD. Within SEEMAWORLD, vessels and portals are built and evolved – giving viewers access to the realms she constructs.

Images courtesy the artists: 1 , 2 , 3

10/03/2022

Have you had a chance to read ’s recent article about OTS and it’s future yet?

Recently we spoke to LeftLion about what we’ve been working on in the building over the past few months, the life of the studio, and of course, what the future looks like for us. You can give the article a read in this months issue and online, link in bio.

A big thank you to for taking the time to write the article!

Image: Opening of ‘Sticking Ground’ featuring Hannah Dinsdale, Sophie Giller & Sophie Goodchild, by .griffiths

09/03/2022

💥 Studio Available 💥

We have a studio coming available from the start of April here at OTS!

Situated on our first floor, the space has a gorgeous high ceiling, with windows on both outward facing walls letting in plenty of natural light throughout the day. At 7.4m2 this is one of our smaller spaces, yet it still feels open and airy: great for somebody with a compact practice looking for a welcoming space.

Rent is £112.50pcm, including Wi-fi, 24 Hour Secure Access, all utilities & bills, and access to the adjacent kitchen and other communal spaces.

Given our current building insecurity, studios are available on a rolling short term basis and cannot be guaranteed for long term occupation. Ideal for people looking to have a focused few months, or wanting to complete a specific project!

Deadline for applications: 11:59pm (Midnight) Monday 21st March, Applicants informed by Wednesday 30th March.
For more information and to submit an application please contact [email protected]

OTS is an co-operative, collaborative community of creatives, as such we seek applications which respond to this ethos. We particularly welcome applications from creatives underrepresented in the sector.

05/03/2022

‘Sticking Ground’ continues today only, 1-4pm!

Come and take a look at & ’s fab group of works, and perhaps take some time out on the beanbag!

03/03/2022

Late last year we announced that our time at the ‘E28’ building on Thoresby Street was coming to an end on 1st April 2022. Since then we’ve been working closely with Nottingham City Council alongside other key partners and supporters to explore new possibilities for our community.

While our future is still uncertain, we now know that we will not be expected to vacate the building on the 1st of April and anticipate being able to continue to operate from E28 over the Spring and the Summer months.

Our ultimate departure from this building is still an inevitability and our search for a new home for the community continues. The initial outpouring of love and support towards this search has been both humbling and affirming, and continues to be a great source of inspiration through times that are anything but straightforward. We continue to welcome advice from our networks and community and recognise this system of mutual support is how artist led spaces such as ours continue to survive through times of difficulty.

We are looking forward to making the most of the time we have left. During the Autumn and Winter we had a consistently active programme that was made possible by our studio community, friends of OTS and partner organisations. We intend to be even more present in the extra time that has been afforded us, and the building will continue to be an active location for art and community. We hope you will join us.

02/03/2022

Big congratulations to & on the opening of their show ‘Sticking Ground’!

We had a great turn out alongside the show at and it was great to see everyone together and engaging with the works.

‘Sticking Ground’ continues this weekend only, make sure not to miss it!

24/02/2022

’Sticking Ground’ opens tomorrow 7-9pm at OTS, featuring &

Get to know the artists involved before heading down:

Hannah Dinsdale’s work spans across sculpture, textiles and installation, often incorporating soft objects such as cushions, heavy weighted blankets and forms of seating. With an ongoing interest in embodiment, she aims to explore an interconnectivity and energy between body and mind and how textures and visuals can guide impulse and feelings.

In Sophie Goodchild’s work, the physicality of the body in the making of structures take centre stage: craft, repetition, trust, territory and rhythm. There is a pollination of information that infects and spans from work to work, in the fusing and preserving act of making.

Goodchild’s making is embedded in the roots of materiality; saturation and sensation as translation. Embellishing layers as screens as cracks, through texture and density, the making is tidal in structure, embodying natural peaks and valleys in both stitch, weave and pixels combined. An entangled order.

Sophie Giller is an artist working mostly with textiles, collecting and working with discarded items—remnants, leftovers, seconds, offcuts—to emphasise process, labour, craft, and the social history of everyday materials.

‘Sticking Ground’ opens alongside ‘Speak Your Story Into Life’, an exhibition by at . See you there!

22/02/2022

is a consortium of three artist-led organisations located in Nottingham. , and work together to foster the profile & sustainability of contemporary visual arts in the Midlands. We are nearing the end of an funded 18-month pilot programme looking to provide routes into contemporary art and better understand and articulate the value of artist development.

The programme centres around a group of 15 associates from across the Midlands who meet regularly, shape the programme and are offered a slate of activity including mentoring and building confidence. The project also includes bursary opportunities and an expansive public programme of free discussions, workshops, exhibitions and events, taking place both online and across partner venues, with lots more still to come!

To find out more about NMG, upcoming events & our partners please visit newmidlandgroup.co.uk where you can also engage with resources including recorded artists talks and discussions.

NMG associates are: Aisling Ward (), Becky Greensides (), Clare West (), Faye Rita Robinson (), Hannah Sarah Day (), Jas Lucas (), Ismail Khokon (), Melaine Wheeler (), Millie Quick (), Miffy Ryan (), Rhiannon May Rees (), Roo Dhissou (), Ryan Heath (), & Shadia Houssein ().

NMG bursary artists are: Tom Harris (), Seema Mattu (), Sean Roy Parker (), Lisa Selby (), Dudley (), Roo Dhissou (), , Matt Woodham (), Benjamin Shirley-Quirk, Gabriella Davis (.divvies), Charlie Dean () & Rebecca Jarman ().

📸 Writing Workshops with Sally O’Reilly, NMG Development Programme, Primary, 2021. Photos by .griffiths.

📸 Artist Statement Writing: The Art Of Becoming That Which One Is Not & That Which One Already Is, with Ellen Angus, Nottingham Contemporary, 2021. Photos by .grngr.

17/02/2022

💥We’re excited for tomorrow’s opening of (ASTRAL VILLAGE) slooooowwww, by artists Roo Dhissou () & over at Riverlights in Derby, part of ’s Collaborative Project Bursaries. More below!

PV: Friday 18 Feb, 6pm
Exhibition: 19 Feb - 12 March, Tues – Sat, 12-5pm
Info & Tickets: Link in bio🔗
Location: Riverlights, Morledge, Derby, DE1 2AY

Roo Dhissou and Sahjan Kooner have created a dreamlike exhibition that weaves narratives through the lens of North India. The work travels from a cyborg in Punjab through to a black hole at the centre of the galaxy. Recurrent ideas of the celestial, community and migratory are transformed through craft based practices and digital environments.

West Midlands-based artists Roo Dhissou & Sahjan Kooner were selected for one of three NMG Development Programme Collaborative Project Bursaries, in partnership with , Derby, aimed at pairs looking to work collaboratively to develop and deliver a project together.



NMG () is a consortium of three artist-led organisations located in Nottingham. , and Primary work together to foster the profile and sustainability of contemporary visual arts in the Midlands, through research, activity and development opportunities for artists and creatives.

15/02/2022

‘Sticking Ground’ opening February 25th - 7-9pm - &

‘Sticking Ground’ is a trio exhibition with Hannah Dinsdale, Sophie Giller and Sophie Goodchild at One Thoresby Street. The artists have collaborated to create a show which brings together their individual research into sensory awareness, embodiment, craft and processes of making. The exhibition will feature a commemorative quilt of One Thoresby Street and its members from the last fourteen years. A large bean bag will invite audiences to lie or sit within its malleable soft cushion. Felted works signal to the ritualistic methods of making and construct imagery through the process of layering. 

Through sculpture, sound, textiles, and installation, these works are grounded in systems of connectivity and circadian rhythms: circuits, sounds, pathways, structures, circles, loops that move between, interlock and weave through textures, materials and forms. Fibres are dyed, felted, and hand- and machine-sewn to create new soft combinations of materials and networks.

Private view: Friday 25th Feb 7-9pm & open Sat 26th & Sat 5th March 12-6pm. 1 Thoresby St, Nottingham, NG1 1AJ. Poster by with image by  

27/01/2022

OTS Studio holder recently opened her solo exhibition ‘Mantle’ over at in Manchester, make sure to check it out if you’re in the area!

‘Mantle is the first major solo exhibition of work by Jocelyn McGregor. McGregor’s work involves sculpture, installation and animation. Taking inspiration from folklore, surrealism and supernatural fiction, she dismantles the ways in which female identity is associated with nature, the home and the machine. McGregor finds parallels between the treatment of the body in horror films and her everyday lived experience of the female body which is often visually dissected to be valued and judged. In McGregor’s work a monstrous and fragmented body comes back to haunt the viewer.’
(Excerpt from Mantle press release).

Jocelyn joined us at the end of last year as part of our Studio Bursary programme with , and it’s been great to see her putting her time with us to good use!

25/01/2022

Continuing with our associate residencies we have

Melanie Wheeler is an interdisciplinary artist, based in Nottingham. Her practice moves across the mediums of installation, sound, film, research and social practice. Fictions, regional histories and folklore often run through her work and she uses these as a means to explore uncertain territories where different realities might meet and intermingle.

Her time in the space focused on creating costumes, votive objects and rituals and inviting the public into the space to participate in reenactments / reenlivenings of ancient water rituals that were practiced by Pre-Christian Water Cults. 

This work in progress explored; rituals of care, participation, animism and an experiment in thinking about folklore, connections with land and watery bodies, environmental cultures and 'A new mode of posthuman feminist phenomonology that understands our bodies as being fundanmentally part of the natural world and not seperate from or privaleged to it' developed in - Bodies of Water by Astrida Neimanis 2017 

Images by Ismail Khokon

18/01/2022

Join us to celebrate the opening of Rebecca Jarman’s exhibition Bias Cut this Friday 21st January 7-9pm. The exhibition is open 12-6pm Saturday and Sunday until 30th January.

Rebecca Jarman is recipient of the production bursary given in partnership by New Midland Group and University of Lincolncoln. Offered exclusively to undergraduates from University of Lincoln’s BA (Hons) Fine Art who graduated in 2020, this opportunity was for an emerging artist affected by the Covid-19 pandemic providing them with the tools and resources to produce and exhibit work within a NMG partner venue.

Working in a variety of media including drawing, installation, and sound, Jarman’s practice centers on how art can act as a conduit for social change.

Jarman often takes a analytic and research based approach and has taken Caroline Criado-Perez’s ‘One-Size-Fits-Men’* discussion as a starting point for this project. Perez notes that 'women have, on average, smaller hands than men’ but very few manufacturers cater to this. Similarly, women’s clothes often have significantly smaller pockets or lack pockets completely. This means that women are often encumbered more significantly than men and thus have to change their behavior to fit their surroundings rather than the design of their surroundings adapting to them. This is highlighted in Jarman’s denim-tapestry work, where we are able to see the significant difference in size of a man's jean pocket to a woman’s. Often, design marginalises women’s bodies, meaning that both literally and figuratively, women don't fit in. The unconscious biases that lie behind these misogynistic designs, and the effect they have on the everyday experience of women are further emphasised by the abject, grotesque sculptures and the audio installation in the exhibition.

“I met Criado-Perez in October of 2021 and asked her how she imagined her work would translate into art, her response was ‘I don’t know you're the artist, you tell me’. This exhibition is my personal response to not only her ideas, but my experience living as a woman in the modern, man-made world.”
Rebecca Jarman.

*Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men 2019.

11/01/2022

associate invites you to "Egregorial: a testament engine": ritual, reflection and revelation in her memory shrine. One Thoresby Street in Sneinton is the perfect place to pause, look back and reach forward.
Open daily until the 15th, book via link in bio to visit.

"Egregorial: Ignition night" - Saturday 15th 6-8pm- Last chance to view the memory shrine installation, discuss the power of memory for community building, and take part in the shaping of the egregore: a reflection of people and power. Bring your own bottle. Please Covid test beforehand, thank you!

05/01/2022

For the next few weeks we’ve got the associates with us at OTS, taking part in a range of residencies in our project space. First up is activating the space with the Lone Ones Collective, exploring Art Activism, questioning if society can self organise, and thinking about P***e Nielsen's 'The Model - A Model for a Qualitative Society’ (In 1968 P***e Nielsen approached the Moderna Museet in Stockholm with a proposal for turning the museum into an adventure playground).

The collective have been looking at themes of Q***r Reproduction and the connections between supernatural, folklore and liminal land in a q***r context. Check out what they have been up to on Tonight, 5 January, 5 - 7pm. Contact to book.

There will be lots of red tents and pink balls and sponges. Dress code is red or pink.

28/12/2021

We hope everyone has been having a great Christmas, with plenty of food and frivolity. It feels like a good time to look back on our own recent festivities, with some documentation of FEAST the closing event for SOBJECTS, an exhibition by .o.p.p, & , invited by .grngr & .angus.

We had everything you need for a true celebration: a table full of friends, enough (grey) drink for everyone, and celebration for the light and joy in the world.

We look forward to inviting you back to One Thoresby Street in the New Year for more!

Photos: .grngr

16/12/2021

https://newcritique.co.uk/2021/12/16/review-one-thoresby-street-late-harvest-2-october-2021-paul-paschal/

“One Thoresby Street supports not only a diversity of practices – with different economies, values, and processes – but also that which resists sitting neatly within established disciplinary …

16/12/2021

Great to see ’s typically generous and insightful review of late harvest up over at , check out some excerpts here.

From New Critique:
“A structure that can sustain difference”

reviews LATE HARVEST and reflects on the legacy and future of and other artist-led spaces and communities in the East Midlands.

Read in full—link in bio ⭐️