Spike Island Associates

Spike Island Associates

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.

We programme a year-round calendar of events for Associates, including:  

  • One-to-one meetings and group crits with artists, curators, writers and critics from across the world 
  • Reading and discussion groups 
  • Skills workshops: pricing and selling your work, fundraising, bookkeeping and finances, digital and practical skills 
  • Talks and study sessions related to contemporary art practice 
  • Away days to galleries and artist-led spaces  

Join a wider creative network

Associates members learn from experts in the creative industries. Recent guests include:

Marwa Arsanios, Pio Abad, Larry Achiampong, Amy Budd, Lucrezia Calabrò Visconti, Leah Capaldi, Cairo Clarke, Eoin Dara, Amrita Dhallu, Sean Edwards, Seán Elder, Leyla Fakhr,  Ceri Hand, Louise Hobson, Kabir Jhala, Taylor Le Melle, Kim McAleese, Jade Monserrat, Harold Offeh, Shy Bairns, Lucy Stein, Lillian Wilkie, Eliel Jones, Rianna Jade Parker, John Eng Kiet Bloomfield, Angela YT Chan, Alice Theobald, Clara Jo, Adham Faramawy, Hannah Wallis, Tako Taal, Alice Channer, Olivia Sterling and Alberta Whittle.

Associates can also connect with communities outside of Bristol through our membership of the Kaleidoscope Networka collaboration with Eastside Projects, Birmingham; Primary, Nottingham; and The NewBridge Project, Newcastle. 

Join today

Join today

What's on for Spike Island Associates

Become a member to take advantage of this program

Date
Location
A photograph of a man sat on a chair in his artist studio.

Open Sandwich: Cliff Andrade

Join us for the first Open Sandwich of 2025, where artist, Spike Island studio holder and Associate Cliff Andrade shares his long-term, research driven project, no place like home.
30 January 2025
1–2pm
Location: Spike Island

The art of GETTING STARTED

Join Make Happen for a workshop designed to kickstart your creative journey. Learn to overcome inertia, embrace discomfort, and take meaningful action.
29 January 2025
12–1.30pm
Location: Spike Island

Kaleidoscope Network | Fundraising as Storytelling

Led by artist and arts worker, Daniel Sean Kelly, this workshop session will focus on grant applications for visual art projects, and consider how we can use storytelling strategies to improve our chances of success.
10 January 2025
6–7.30pm
Location: Online
A selection of photographs taken overhead of a range of colourful food dishes, a pink juice drink with a flower floating on the top, blue plates filled with colourful salads, a bowl of red and orange tomatoes and a stack of brown cookies.

Conversations with Baldwin: The Welcome Table

Inspired by writer James Baldwin, The Welcome Table invites artists to rest, reflect, and consider ways of working that centre grassroots practices, decolonisation, and collectivity, facilitated by artist and curator, Heather Marks.
12 December 2024
3–6pm
Location: Spike Island

Bristol Away Day & Festive Social

Join us for a group visit to see a selection of exhibitions featured in the recent Bristol Photo Festival, followed by a festive social at a nearby pub.
10 December 2024
1.30–6pm
Location: Bristol
Kaleidoscope Network Logo 2024

Kaleidoscope Network | DIY Digital: Design It Like You Mean It

This hands-on workshop, led by the NewBridge Project and Textbook Studio, explores the basics of DIY graphic design using open-source and accessible resources. 
10 December 2024
5.45–8pm
Location: Online

Open Sandwich: Roux – Radical Joy and Resistance

In this Open Sandwich, multi-disciplinary storyteller and Spike Island Associate, Roux (AKA Gender Criminal), will be exploring play, anti-perfectionism and curiosity as tools of resistance.
28 November 2024
1–2pm
Location: Spike Island

SKILLS LAB: PROCESS MUSIC AND TEXT SCORES

Join sound artist Owen Lloyd for a skills lab exploring approaches to sound that create form, structure and material through the composition process.
27 November 2024
2–5pm
Location: Associates Space

Current Spike Island Associates

Join an active network of 300 creative practitioners

“Spike Island Associates is a great opportunity to be part of a large diverse dynamic group giving me the chance to meet and expand my network of contacts ”

“It gives me sense of belonging and the opportunity to interact with likeminded people in the art world… there’s a good varied lot of speakers [that help] expand ones view of art”

“The Associates programme has been essential in helping me ‘find my feet’ after relocating to Bristol from a very rural area. And the one-to-ones are invaluable in terms of Continuing Professional Development”

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.