The Art House

1992-1995

In 1992 I was invited by several artists, notably Margaret Higginson, Gillian Best-Powell and Richard Langford, to join The Art House, an organisation set up with the assistance of Lewisham Council to provide studio space for local artists, who in turn would provide arts-based activities for the community.

By 1993 we’d moved into the Hilly Fields School, had over sixty members and were maintaining a busy schedule of events.

At the end of 1993 we achieved charitable status and I became a trustee, a position I held until 1995.

Coming out of the intense two-year period in which we made A State of Being, and another two years of itinerant travelling, during which time I wrote The Journey of the Flower Man, this was an opportunity to ground myself, have a large studio surrounded by stimulating artists (my neighbour at Hilly Fields was one of my favourite contemporary painters, Jonathan Huxley) and make whatever came to mind, the first of which was Flight One.

There were the group shows, which included The Art House Open, The Lewisham Open: Origin and an invitation to participate in The Woodlands Open. The summer school video/drama workshops began with The Throne, and I staged Thirty-Three and a Third. It was a very stimulating and formative time, which culminated in LondonStrasbourg (3-7 April 1995), a group show of fifteen Art House artists at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.