Georgia Scholes wants to make a large-scale textile banner celebrating Rochdale’s radical history. She also wants to challenge an assumption about the place in which she is making it.
“I want to challenge myself, and challenge the idea that Rochdale isn’t an arty place,” she says.
That ambition gives a new artist-development scheme at Richard Street Studios a purpose way beyond the provision of workspace. Supporting an artist can also give a town another way to understand itself: through the histories someone chooses to recover, the materials they work with and the people who encounter the finished piece.
Scholes, a collage and textile artist, is one of three recipients of new support funded by The Haworth Trust. Alongside oil paint and pastel artist Alisha K. and multidisciplinary artist Madison Marcantonatos, she'll receive ten free studio days, with the studio access valued at an estimated £1,200 per artist. Each will also receive a materials budget, technical and marketing support, and the opportunity to take part in a joint exhibition and launch event in early 2027.
Run by (the frankly incredible) Rochdale-based Breaking Barriers, Richard Street Studios offers a professional setting in which the three can develop work, experiment and build relationships with other creatives. The scheme's intended to address a gap in support at the very beginning of an artistic career, when access to space and resources can help determine whether a practice develops at all.
For Alisha K., the opportunity opens up a new working environment.
“This is my first opportunity to work in a professional studio alongside other artists, so I’m really looking forward to experimenting with new mediums and seeing where that exploration takes my work,” she says.
“Having the time and space to create, experiment and develop my ideas is something I’m really excited about. By the end, I hope to have pushed my practice further and created a body of work that reflects what I can do.”
The freedom to experiment is vital. An artist developing a practice needs room for work when direction might be uncertain, as well as the resources to finish something already imagined. Professional space can offer access to other people’s experience, a working routine and the confidence to try a different approach.
Marcantonatos describes another familiar pressure: finding space for personal work while earning a living through commercial commissions.
“Like many creatives, I’ve been caught up in commercial work, which has left little room for my own practice,” she says. “This is a chance to be playful and experimental, to research, and to explore nostalgia and my own experiences. It gives me the space to commit to a period of creative unknown.”
Her words make a useful distinction. Being busy with creative work doesn't necessarily mean having the opportunity to develop the work that's most personally important. This scheme offers a defined period in which exploration can take priority.
For Parvez Qadir, Artistic Director at Breaking Barriers, the investment addresses a question of retention as well as artistic development.
“Rochdale has no shortage of creative talent. What it has lacked is the financial support for artists to take that talent seriously at the start of their careers,” he says.
“Too often, emerging artists either give up or leave the town to find it. This funding is about changing that so artists can build a practice here, be seen here, and help shape how Rochdale sees itself. We’re proud to be supporting Alisha, Madison and Georgia, and we can’t wait to share what they make.”
Richard Street Studios opened in September 2024. It forms part of Rochdale Creates Space, led by Rochdale Development Agency on behalf of Rochdale Borough Council, which turns vacant buildings into spaces for the borough’s creative sector. Its town-centre location, a short walk from the railway station and Metrolink, places creative workspace within the everyday life of the town. It's also a quite-beautiful space.
Ten studio days can't settle every question about sustainable artistic employment. Free access and materials support do, though, remove specific costs. Technical and marketing help can support the passage from making work to sharing it publicly. An exhibition gives audiences a chance to encounter what those conditions have made possible.
For our cultural funders and regional leaders, this is a concrete proposition to pay attention to: provide artists with usable space, resources and professional support, then follow what happens to their work and opportunities afterwards.
For Rochdale’s audiences, the invitation ismore immediate. Three artists will have new work to show, made with the support of a creative community in their own town. One of them is already preparing to put its radical history into cloth.
The joint exhibition is planned for March 2027 at Richard Street Studios. Further details and newsletter sign-up are available HERE
Header image: The Haworth Trust Artists
