In February, Upper Space opened its doors as the first street art gallery in the North-West. CREATIVE Times spoke to Sketch City’s Jon Winstanley and Barney Francis to find out more.

For art/music outfit Sketch City, opening a gallery was a dream kept firmly on the back burner. They’d often thought that the range of work created at their monthly event at Contact Theatre could easily fill a gallery, but it wasn’t until September last year when they arranged a viewing of potential office space that they were able to seize the opportunity.

What they saw was an entire floor of 16,000 sq. ft – a space fit for both a base and a gallery. “We heard about this space and out of curiosity we took a look. We decided there and then. It was like ‘yeah we like the space – it’s a complete wreck – but if we invest a lot of time and energy then we might just be able to turn it into something’,” explained Jon. Energy is certainly in abundance at Sketch City, however, they lacked those all important funds.

“We built it all ourselves. We even constructed the walls, so everything went very slowly. When it came to painting we could only paint a third of the walls the first time round so we had to wait to earn the money to do the rest!” Jon laughed.

The ethos of Sketch City is inclusivity, offering space for artists to develop and work alongside more established artists. “Street art is not a passing fad. It’s a huge scene, a culture, but, still there are no legal spaces for it,” Jon explained. “You could say that now it’s at it’s peak within the public eye – it’s moved into different mediums – fashion, media, illustration – and now is the time for a space to be created for it within a professional gallery context,” he continued.

The launch event was a huge success. “People were queuing down the street in the rain. We had to turn some people away!” commented Barney. The first exhibitions saw work by street art legends such as Jon Burgerman and Belin alongside local artists such as Hammo.

“We want to mix it up, show high-profile international artists with local ones. If we can pair them up ultimately we can bring more exposure to the up and coming talent,” Barney explained.

Sketch City has big plans for Upperspace. There’s a student photography exhibition coming up as well as a retrospective of work by Chris Drury of Fingathing and John Kaye from Fat City Records. Creating a café and performance space is on the cards. Sketch City is also offering advertising and brand consultancy for projects that are entering street art and other sub-culture markets. In addition, they are hoping to set up a scholarship programme for kids who show a lot of potential or enthusiasm. “We’ll throw sketch books at them. Not literally! But, we’ll provide them with the materials they need” said Jon. “If we can take care of the cost of the materials hopefully parents will be more inclined to take art more seriously and see it is as a viable option for their children”, Barney concluded.

W: www.sketchcity.co.uk