Many Studios

Many Studios is a women and LGBT+ led arts organisation and Community Interest Company, founded in 2012. The organisation is led by three founding directors - Becca Thomas, Marc Cairns and Natalia Palombo, and operated by Building Manager Esther Hesketh, Kate Holford (on Maternity Leave) and Natalia Palombo in her role as Executive Director, alongside sessional duty managers. The organisation has made an incredible contribution to the creative sector in Glasgow, providing affordable, quality workspace in the city centre and producing locally rooted, internationally reaching projects that showcase arts and culture in Glasgow and across the world.

The organisation has been formative for my practice, honing experience in organisational development - demonstrating the viability of an independent, value-led arts organisation in Scotland, and as a vehicle for developing a unique, international arts programme through The Gallow Gate. From 2013-15, we led the retrofit of an underused market building in The Barras, introducing a busy creative hub, now hosting 70 creative practitioners, an open-source venue, artist-led gallery (Market Gallery) and two street-facing shop units - Rip It Up (vintage store) and The Glaziers Arms, a glassmakers. The organisation has generating income through workspace, venue hire, projects and consultancy on creative network development and business modelling - working with organisations in Scotland, England, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and South Africa. The organisation continues to grow and provide an invaluable resource to creative communities in Glasgow and beyond.




The building…

  • Interior of a modern workspace with brick stairs, pink walls, and signage directing to different studio spaces.

    Workspaces

    Many Studios hosts 70 creatives across 45 industrial workspaces, from artists, designers and makers, to engineers, writers, architects and more. Our priority has always been to create quality, long-term and affordable workspaces for creatives in the city, ensuring the building is warm, secure, friendly, with really good wifi, alongside the bigger things - gallery space, showers and cycle facitilies, meetings rooms. The organisation applies a slow growth model, ensuring the organisation can respond to the needs of the sector whilst maintaining accessible services.

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  • Modern coworking space with people working at tables, exposed brick wall, and indoor plants.

    Venue

    Originally an international project space (The Gallow Gate, 2015-21), our largest public-facing unit is now an open-source vneue for a wide range of events, projects and exhibitions. Many Studios provides a really affordable room to hire for other people to realise their projects, with support from our team, and within a unique creative environment. Over the years, we’ve hosted workshops, lectures, film screenings, exhibitions, pop-up shops, radio shows, away days, and much more.

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Projects

  • A community garden with orange planter boxes and people working and sitting. Background includes buildings, a sign, and parked vehicles. Overcast sky.

    Pocket Park

    Pocket Park is a community greenspace and meeting place on Ross Street. It is a collaborative public city garden project developed with architects New Practice and composed of a series of raised block planters, offering a pocket of green within an otherwise urban environment. The project addresses the importance of having access to safe, green, outdoor sites for community wellbeing and increasing biodiversity in the city.

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  • Sepia-toned image of an old stone building with arched windows and doors, adjacent to a bridge structure. A vintage car is parked nearby.

    Cumberland Street Station

    Many Studios is working on the transformation of a vacant and near derelict train station in the Gorbals into a multi-arts venue with residency accommodation and F&B offer. With a 5-year timeline for full capital works, Many Studios will produce a ‘meanwhile programme’ at the former Cumberland Street Station site to build engagement and pilot future use of the main buildings. 

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From 2015-2021, I curated an international public programme at Many Studios called The Gallow Gate. The Gallow Gate provides a platform for the development, presentation, and discussion of contemporary visual art and culture, commissioning new work by artists including Larry Achiampong, Januario Jano, Ndidi Dike, Camara Taylor, Arpita Shah, Imani Mason Jordon and many more.