Open Up
Sheffield’s Visual Arts and Fine Crafts Open Studio Event

Hidden in the crevices of the weird and wonderful buildings of the Sheffield’s past and present, lurks many a creative mind, tinkering away with brushes and paints, hammer and nails, clay and wood.  I’m talking about the secret world of Sheffield’s hidden artists.  These strange and interesting people and their work are normally invisible to us, but once a year they open their studio doors to the world…

The Open Up studio event takes place in Sheffield every year.  The idea is that artists and makers open up their studios to people like me and you, so that we may gain an insight into the worlds of our local artists.  Some artists even sell their work and you can pick up a bargain!

Open Up runs at the end of April into early May for a few weekends, so it’s easier for people with busy lives to visit.  I spent one fine Saturday visiting a selection of the open studios in Sheffield city centre and talked to artists and the event organiser Sharon Gill for a Cube Magazine radio piece.

The Garden Rooms
The first studio I visited was the Garden Rooms. As soon as I walked into this interesting old building, I knew I’d like it.  This place, perhaps an old factory or warehouse from Sheffield’s forgotten past, is now alive with some of Sheffield’s hidden artists and makers.  The yard area was scattered with flowers, paintings, sculptures, and plastic windmills!  The artists here were really welcoming and their beautiful studio rooms were fascinating.

On arrival I interviewed Open Up organiser, Sharon Gill in the studio of Mary Sewell, a painter and photographer.  It was an amazing room.  Mary’s work was scattered everywhere, a real curious mix of oil paintings and photographs.  I was surprised to learn from Sharon that there are more artists in Sheffield than anywhere outside of London, so clearly Open Up is an important event! This year at least 140 artists in South Yorkshire have taken part in 67 locations, (so there’s sure to be an artist secretly working somewhere near you!)

Yorkshire ArtSpace
Yorkshire ArtSpace was the biggest studio I visited and a completely different building, custom made for artist’s studios.  It looked like a prison with little ‘cells’ packed with strange artists and ever stranger artwork! You could say the artists here are prisoners of there own work because the ones I talked to were clearly dedicated to their craft! The work in here was varied from woodwork, painting and sculpture to photography, metalwork and jewellery.

BLOC Studios
The last big studio I visited was called BLOC Studios; just 5 minutes from the moor shopping area.  They had a little gallery room exhibiting sculptures and there was a book stall were artists had left their books to sell (I bought a good one!) 

Of all the artists I met, my favourite was a guy called Peep, who makes incredible work in his Aladdin’s cave studio.   His pieces of strange mechanical sculpture move or light up, using all the weird things he finds.  Most of his stuff uses doll parts and dogs heads! The ‘dog dolls’ intrigued me, so I asked what drove him to make his strange work. He told me “5 years ago I got really ill and thought I was going to die so since then I’ve been researching the big questions….power, men and women, god and things like that”
I asked if he sold much of his work (I would definitely buy some!), but he didn’t seem interested in money and told me:  “A girl approached me and she wanted one (a dog doll), so I said she had to walk on her hands and knees from that gallery to here, and then she could have which ever one she wanted… but she didn’t”  Peep was really funny and interesting and said he keeps an open studio all year round, so you should go and see his wonderful work yourself!

These are just a few of the studio spaces that are open to the public during open up and there are many more outside the city centre. Make sure you look out for the Open Up booklet next spring or got to www.openupsheffield.co.uk  and experience the underground world of Sheffield’s artists for yourself!

Thanks to Sharon Gill and the Open Up artists who let me interview them.
To hear my Open Up interviews, go to Cube’s Radio Station at www.radiowaves.co.uk

Feature by Editor Paige Brooks