Opening hours Gallery closed Café: Tuesday to Saturday: 10am–5pm, Sunday: 10am–4pm

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
Installation view of Ofelia Rodriguez's exhibition, Talking in Dreams, at Spike Island

ASSOCIATES EXHIBITION TOURS AND SOCIAL

Associates members are invited to a special out-of-hours tour of the new Spike Island exhibitions.
10 January 2024
11am–12pm
Location: Spike Island Gallery
Close-up of woman filling out forms

KALEIDOSCOPE NETWORK | FINANCIAL RECORDING, TAX AND SELF-ASSESSMENT

Join Primary and bookkeeper Neisa Reid for a session on financial recording, tax, and self-assessment.
12 December 2023
5.30–7pm
Location: Online

Screen Space: a workshop on aspect ratios in artist moving image

A workshop led by artist and filmmaker Sam Smith, thinking about aspect ratios and three dimensional screens in artist moving image work.
07 December 2023
10.30am–12.30pm
Location: Associates Space

THE ART WORKING PARENTS ALLIANCE WITH JO HARRISON AND HETTIE JUDAH

Join The Art Working Parents Alliance to discuss and share ideas on how to improve working conditions for parents in the artworld.
02 December 2023
2–4pm
Location: Associates Space

OPEN SANDWICH: ESTHER HESKETH

This month we're joined by Esther Hesketh, a multi-disciplinary artist based at Spike Island.
30 November 2023
1–2pm
Location: Associates Space

BUILDING A VIRTUAL EXHIBTION | SESSION 2: WORKING IN VIRTUAL REALITY

Session 2 of this series will cover reformatting digital work ready to go into a Virtual Reality world.
27 November 2023
10am–12.30pm
Location: Associates Space

ONE-TO-ONES: SIM PANASER

Sim Panaser is Curator at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff, Wales, working on exhibitions, commissions, public programmes and publications.
24 November to 01 December 2023
11am–7pm
Location: Online
Installation view of the LOOP exhibition at Eastside Projects gallery space

GO WEST GATHERINGS: BIRMINGHAM AWAY DAY

Join a collective Away Day to Birmingham this October, in partnership with Eastside Projects and G39.
23 November 2023
11am–7pm
Location: Birmingham

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.