A Warm Welcome to Arkade Studios!

For the past 5 years the Nuart team have come together in Aberdeen, some travelling hundreds of miles to join us while others are just up the hill in Rosemount. One of the challenges having such big productions is finding enough space to house everything but in 2018 we met Jim Ewen, founder of The Anatomy Rooms and Arkade Studios.

Housed in the old Anatomy Building located at the back of the prestigious Marischal College (a literal granite castle), the studio’s have been in operation for 5 years, taking on the old medical labs which had lain empty for over a decade. Once home to trainee doctors and a fully operational morgue, the site is now full of life with artistic inhabitants taking up residence across the building. Along with artist studios and gallery, The Anatomy Rooms is also home to City Moves Dance Studio who run regular dance classes for people of all ages along with curating the ‘Dance Live’ festival which is due to return in the Autumn.

The building is abuzz with activity and the recent addition of the Arkade Gallery has welcomed exhibitions from recent Grays graduates, local artist’s and studio residents like Martin Bell who recently curated the fantastic ‘Come Together’ group exhibition.

Jim says “Arkade studios, project space and gallery, managed by All In Ideas SCIO, is a city centre arts centre designed to be artist driven and accessible to all. A space free of the often stuffy arts organisational hierarchies. An arts centre that thrives on the energy of those using it whether as residents, exhibitors or one of the many projects and city festivals that have passed through over the years. It’s fair to say few users match why the site was created more than Nuart. The scale and professionalism of the production, the openness and friendliness of the whole local, national and international team coupled with their focus on the artists which in turn leads directly to audience experience for a city is wholly inspiring. The only downside will be how quickly and efficiently they can pack everything away and say their goodbyes leaving a building with an energetic echo. Hoping some of this rubs of on me and others and we can all add to the growing and wide ranging arts scene Aberdeen deserves’.

The Arkade Studios has been our go to base for operations providing us with space for our production team along with the gallons of paint and all the materials we need to run Nuart Aberdeen. Equped with a wood workshop, a dark room, gallery and project space, Jim and Arkade have been so welcoming and helped Nuart to feel like part of the local art scene.  Although production only runs for a couple of weeks, the team make regular visits to Studios when visiting Aberdeen while some of our Aberdeen team are also based at Arkade throughout the year so we feel a strong connection to the space and what it does for the city.

It’s more important than ever to support grass roots organisations, whether its artists studios or artisan bakers, supporting the development of new skills and DIY cultures is vital. This extends to Nuart Aberdeen and our mission to not only bring artwork to the streets from international talents but to support and empower street artists in Aberdeen like V2k, Airhead, Abz Jawa & MoC83 and . Existing support networks like Throwup Gallery, Kekun Studio and the Sunnybank Legal Wall are great examples of locals taking action to create positive changes in the city whilst also empowering and making space for artists.

With a small run of free workshops happening during this years Nuart Plus we’re working on plans to extend our reach far beyond the Nuart Plus weekend and to engage with the wider city and its communities. There’s still a lot of ground work to be done but we’re dedicated to supporting the growth of street art in the streets and on walls around Aberdeen in all it’s varied and colourful forms through partnerships with people in the city who want to make a difference. With support from Jim and Aberdeen based artists, we can’t wait to get started!