• Share on Facebook
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Linkedin
  • Share by email
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Linkedin
  • Share by email

Persistence Works provides studio space in Sheffield city centre for seventy-four of the artists of Yorkshire ArtSpace Society (YAS), writes Jacqueline Yallop.
The development of purpose-built studios is the only one of its kind in Europe and, as befits a place where artists work, its opening in October 2001 also saw the unveiling of seven commissions. These included a 35 metre-long floating glass wall made from eighty-four slumped glass panels by Jeff Bell, Jo Fairfax?s lighting scheme for the building, and a project to get the door handles to all the public rooms and workspaces designed by nine selected artists and cast in aluminium.

But the artist who had most input in the building?s design was not involved in any of the commissions. Brett Payne, a designer and jeweller and member of YAS since 1983, was paid a small fee to join the design team with architects Feilden Clegg Bradley from the beginning of the project in 1999.And although he may not be able to point to any tangible artwork which reflects his role, he believes that the building is better suited to its purpose, and better interprets the vision of Yorkshire ArtSpace as an organisation thanks to his input.? My main contribution was getting everyone to fully understand the purpose of the building. It?s a production facility but not a factory; it?s not a gallery, not a shop. So what is it? Without an understanding of this, the finished building couldn?t work. I had to interpret for the team just what it means to be an artist and just what you need to be able to work in a given space.?

Payne had no experience of architectural projects before he took on the Persistence Works scheme. He admits there was a lot to learn, but is enthusiastic about the process.? It was an absolutely fascinating experience? he enthuses, ?but also very frustrating. You realise how little you know of the architectural and building processes as an artist. If you?re not careful you end up being vaguely superfluous, the outsider on the sidelines without any technical knowledge. I had no idea how complicated it all is.?

Payne also sounds a note of warning to those who might forget that artists have to go on earning a living while the architectural design process rumbles along. ?Looking back, my role on the design team was often in conflict with my own work ? I just couldn?t afford the time needed to go to every meeting over the three-year lifetime of the design process. If an artist is going to be successful in having a serious impact on the overall look of a building, it requires quite a bit of technical knowledge and the ability to spend hours and hours, days and days on it ? it?s a full time job.? Despite these reservations, Payne is still committed to the principle of working with architects. He has since been involved with a scheme to redesign one of Sheffield?s city squares working with urban designers, engineers and architects on the initial design concepts. And Yorkshire ArtSpace is delighted with the work Payne put in. Projects Officer Sara Trentham is in no doubt that having an artist on the design team was critical to the success of the project: ?We had to give people a sense of a creative building ? it?s the public manifestation of what we?re about. The architects could do this, of course, but it was Brett?s invisible hand which helped create something really special.?

Jacqueline Yallop is a curator and writer based in Sheffield. t: 0114 273 5025; e: jacqueline.yallop@sheffield.gov.uk