ABUELOS

Different approaches to hosting and hospitality can influence and shape our experience of a place. What would it look like if our city invested in the infrastructure behind culture, festivals and artists?

In 2016, after years of thinking about sustainable infrastructure and protecting Black-led spaces, we established a vision for an Art Hotel, one that would take the cultural sector’s hospitality spend and reinvest it back into community, grassroots groups and independent artists. But there is an additional need to create a safer space, where communities who are marginalised by institutions could come to gather, make, experiment, play and share. We knew we couldn’t recreate a traditional arts space, so sought the spaces that offer us freedom, wellness and creativity without limitations or barriers.

ABUELOS [‘grandparents’ in Spanish] is a celebration of ancestry, joy and culture, wrapped up in a £2.5m world-class capital project, which will create a destination for those interested in immersing themselves in the city’s rich cultural landscape.

‘Hotel' is a moniker used to represent civic infrastructure, designed to be regenerative in multiple ways, from how it recirculates revenue, to how it employs people and invests in local, national and international creative practice.

We are currently fundraising for this project. If you can connect us with resources, please get in touch. If you’d like to follow the journey, join the mailer.