Creator Spaces Report (2025)

In spring 2024 I was asked to consult on a piece of research about "Creator Spaces" - originally defined as workspaces for content creators and media practitioners, but adapted to include a wider range of occupations including artists, authors, writers, translators, broadcasters etc.

The research conducted by Dr Jon Swords and Dr Errol Salamon from the University of York and University of Stirling looks at the difficulty in finding suitable space to establish and grow businesses in the creative economy, using York as a case study for a peripheral region outside of a major global city.

After sharing the insights I'd learned from a decade of running York Creatives I was asked to help with the public engagement. I organised an open call for artists to respond with artworks that brought to life the issues around a lack of creative workspaces, and we hosted an exhibition of the selected works in July 2024.

At the exhibition launch we held a panel discussion chaired by Owen Turner, featuring Dawn Wood, Phil Bixby, Emily Stubbs and Emma Coffield, looking at the various efforts that had previously been made in the city of York. We discussed where we could seek to improve upon them, and the audience was invited to submit responses.

Large amounts of audience feedback was gathered through mapping exercises, questionnaires and surveys, which was analysed and then condensed into the report, which can be viewing using the link below.