Written By Alicia Masse
Every Tuesday night, the Open House pub next to London Road station is filled with artists of all levels. Professional illustrators, art students, those who enjoy drawing in their free time and those who want to try something new, all gather for free into one of the pub’s cozy rooms. At 6:30 PM, all the seats are full by people holding a pint in one hand and a sharpened pencil in the other while two volunteers are sitting in the centre of the room. A ten-minute timer starts and the chatter quiets down to leave room for the sound of pencil leads scratching on paper, the room turning into a relaxing bubble of concentration. For two hours, the Draw Brighton organisation’s event offers a space dedicated to exploring a skill without the pressure of being perfect at it or making money from it.
There is no judgement of skills, simply a space given to encourage artistic expression and socialisation. Halfway through the event, the room next to us has to be opened up in order to welcome more artists, lmost 60 are now present – this event is undeniably popular, and for good reasons. Upon talking with the event’s art tutor and member of the Draw organisation, Lance, it became evident that accessible artistic spaces and communities are, in his own words, in “tremendous jeopardy” even in a town like Brighton in which art is a massive part of the city’s identity.
The organisation responsible for this event, Draw Brighton, used to do most of these events online both due to covid and the lack of useable spaces. One of these spaces used to be New England House, a building of creative studios which was shut down recently due to the council’s lack of upkeeping in terms of fire safety and wiring. The disappearance of this space means that over forty artists and organisations are losing the rooms that allowed them to develop creatively, some of which were regularly opened up to others in search of creative discovery and expression.
Lance adds that there is apparently no help from the council in sight for most of the artists and organisation who used to occupy this building which is why, without the help of the Open House who agrees to host it for free, this event would have no way of happening in person. This growing difficulty to organise events due to the negligence of dedicated artistic spaces is synonymous to a drop in income for organisations like Draw. And yet, amongst some of their usual courses, they choose to run events like this one for free to fight against the effects of this abandonment, and allowing artists to network, discuss, and take up space. A part of their revenue comes from their Patreon, therefore from those who choose to invest in them after seeing what communities like this one can bring to people.
According to Lance, the popularity of the Tuesday life drawing session “really shows how much appetite there is for community activities.” He adds that, with independent pubs also struggling today, these creative nights are truly a mutually beneficial relationship.
Those who think they might be interested in joining the creative communal movement are highly encouraged to learn more on their website, draw-brighton.co.uk or their Instagram, @draw_brighton, as the need for active creative communities encouraging self-expression, development and passion-based socialisation will not disappear, but the support they receive can sometimes grow fragile.
