Letter: Sorry, but I think I began the Open Houses

In the Seventies I worked in London (although living in Brighton) for the artists' organisations AIR and SPACE - both founded by world-renowned artist Bridget Riley in the Sixties.

SPACE was a non-profit organisation that existed purely to provide visual artists with working studio space.

Our premises, negotiated through the council, were all disused factories, mainly in dockland - most famously St Katharine's Dock, Rotherhithe, Butler's Wharf and Stepney, Bow and Bethnal Green (now, of course, all rather desirable residential areas).

Knowing a lot of artists in Brighton and Hove, I persuaded Ian Potts, then head of painting, at Brighton's Art College in Grand Parade, to host a meeting in 1973 of 33 professional artists in order to float the idea of them following in the traditions of London's SPACE.

This meant them opening their studios to the public for the next Brighton Festival scheduled for 1974. There was unanimous agreement.

It was a revolutionary idea for the town - but it met with tremendous resistance and suspicion in the early days. Most of the artists worked from within their domestic living space but it became clear that what was needed was a dedicated building to operate as a co-operative of artists' studios.

This, we believed, would help break down some of the mystery of how artists operated and fitted into a greater society.

So, armed with an old 16mm film of the early days of SPACE featuring Bridget Riley and all other artists, together with Greater London Councillors (including the now Minister Nick Raynsford - with long hair!), I asked for a meeting with Brighton Borough Council.

Politely, but with trepidation, a number of relevant officers and elected members attended, watched the film, listened to how it could work in Brighton and then very bravely said, "you find the derelict building and then we'll talk".

Our main ally at the council turned out to be the then planning/ratings officer, Ken Fines (I've seen his letters recently in your columns).

The first building we found was at the top of St James's Street in Brighton. It had been the old Labour Exchange so was pretty familiar to most of the artists.

The thrust of our argument for occupation was that an obviously derelict building was a target for vandalism. Once occupied, we promised, the vandalism would cease.

Within weeks and without any financial help, just goodwill and hard graft, 18 studios were finished. The remaining 15 artists continued to work from their studios in their houses.

We then asked for a meeting with the chairman of the Brighton Festival, Councillor Stanley Theobald, to ask that we should now be included in the Festival diary and programme which was sadly lacking any evidence of the visual arts. He nearly had an apoplectic fit at this suggestion and said we could "go alongside the annual dog show in the listings". Such was the importance attached to the visual arts in Brighton at that time.

We knew what we were doing was ground-breaking stuff so, although furious, we were not going to be beaten and produced our own illustrated Brighton Open Studios 1974 Festival brochure. It was our first of many and was an enormous success, giving people who were too daunted by galleries the experience of meeting artists and seeing for the first time how they worked and indeed why they did it.

Brighton Council are to be congratulated for their faith in us. The platform we had created and continued to build upon for many years was the forerunner and trail-blazer for Red Herring Studios, Phoenix Galleries/Studios, and, of course, the renamed Brighton Open Houses.

I, more than anyone, am thrilled and proud that our grassroots efforts (and they were monumental at the time) have survived to make the success of Brighton Open Houses what it is today. Ned's input and drive is certainly admirable but has only been made possible because of the foundations that were laid by many Brighton and Hove artists before him.

-Norma W Binnie, Hove