Spike Island Associates is a professional development network for artists, curators, designers, writers and producers at all stages of their careers. Members span multiple disciplines and share a common interest in collaboration, experimentation and a desire to learn new skills.
Our Summer 2026 Associates programme, The Texture of Dreams, draws on the themes that underpin the exhibitions by Tohé Commaret and Nancy Lupo, currently on view in Spike Island’s galleries. This season, the programme explores the porous boundaries between fiction, art and the everyday, magic, and the way dreams and desires are embedded within culture. Questions and discourses surrounding sculpture and filmmaking will also be prominent in this programme of events, which includes talks, workshops, one-to-one sessions and away-days.
Alongside our core offer of professional development, the thematic programme will activate research questions and rehearse ideas and methodologies inspired by our exhibition programme. We see Spike Island Associates as a site for collective knowledge production where artists, curators and creatives come together to explore contemporary critical debates and artistic practices.
Events include:
Recent guests include: Pio Abad, Larry Achiampong, Olivia Aherne, Linnéa Bake, Simeon Barclay, Amrita Dhallu, Deborah-Joyce Holman, Taylor Le Melle, Maggie Matić, Jade Monserrat, Harold Offeh, Shy Bairns, Lucy Stein, Eliel Jones, Sim Panaser, Rianna Jade Parker, Angela YT Chan, Alice Theobald, Adham Faramawy, Melanie Manchot, Alberta Whittle, Abbas Zahedi, Paul Purgas, Michael Simpson, and Ashley Holmes.
Associates will also take advantage of events organised through our membership to the Kaleidoscope Network – a collaboration with Eastside Projects, Birmingham; Primary, Nottingham; The NewBridge Project, Newcastle; and BLOC Projects, Sheffield.
Become a member to take advantage of this program
Spike Island Associates is supported by UWE Bristol. Spike Island and UWE Bristol work in partnership to deliver sector-leading support, facilities and opportunities for early-career artists and arts professionals to develop their skills and knowledge. The partnership incudes the provision of resources, arts research, joined-up learning opportunities for creative students, as well as shared public events.
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