Thomas Allison, Rolina Blok, Alex Schady, Elizabeth Wright & others

15-17 February 2024

‘You know you want to’, 2024, installation view

“Come in and join us, we want to make it better. You’re going to like it, it’s going to feel so good. Let us take the weight, relax, enjoy it. We’re here for you, don’t be shy, we want to help. Together we could make such wonderful things. Go on, join us... you know you want to.”

‘You know you want to’ transforms the gallery into a public studio. Visitors to the space are invited to make with us on a series of public artworks displayed for the duration of the exhibition. A process of collective making in which everyone is welcome to take part. All materials are provided and no previous experience is needed, simply a requirement that you commit to action. A series of drop-in workshops will run within the space introducing a wide range of skills that combine traditional analogue processes with digital technologies. You can join in for just five minutes or make with us all day. The works will evolve over the course of the exhibition with every visitor contributing to the show and named as co-author. The gallery not as a space for contemplation, but rather as a social space of production.

We deserve equal access to the arts yet in recent years there has been a systematic assault on arts funding and education in the UK. It is in this cultural climate that we want to reimagine the gallery as a public studio. A site for collective making, to promote an ethics of care and to make available the tools of cultural production. One in which authorship is shared and the distinction between artists and audience is challenged. When we make with others, we multiply the number of chance discoveries made and the range of skills and experiences to draw from. We make better by harnessing the power of the collective mind.

The exhibition is a collaborative project between Northumbria University and Central Saint Martins. Rolina Block, Alex Schady, and Elizabeth Wright all work within the Art Programme at Central Saint Martins, an art and design college, part of University of the Arts London. They have worked with Northumbria University students from the BA Fine Art programme and Abdullah Qureshi, lecturer in Fine Art at the university.

The exhibition is part of ‘Assemblage III: Community and Care’, a series of gatherings on contemporary art organised by the Fine Art team at Northumbria University. This iteration is supported by the Department of Arts research funds and EDI team at Northumbria University and organised in collaboration with the Finnish Institute UK + Ireland, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London and Vane.