Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
The Barbican Arts Group (BAG, now renamed Hertford Road Studios) was established in 1972 as a self-managed artists' collective. The group consists of around 19 to 22 members including painters, sculptors, photographers, printmakers, ceramicists and mosaicists. In addition to artists' own work, the group has been involved with a number of community projects, notably educational work carried out by members in their local boroughs.
Hertford Road Studios is administered by the Barbican Arts Trust. The Trust became a registered charity in 1984 and oversaw both the management of artists' studios and co-ordination of the Groups community outreach programme, the Art Works Project. This was in keeping with the Trusts aims of developing and increasing an understanding of the visual arts outside the studio space and providing the greatest opportunity to the largest number of people to explore their creative potential. The Trust's status as a registered charity was a real strength providing a number of tax concessions and allowing it to remain almost entirely self-financed.
The Barbican Arts Group was originally housed in studios at number 2 Sycamore Street but in 1989 this building was officially reclassified from light industrial to offices and the Group was forced out. A media campaign was embarked upon with the result that a suitable building was found elsewhere. A company was identified that wished to sub-let the first floor of their premises in Hertford Road and the Group moved to these new studios in 1989 with a 15 year lease. To enable the move the Group received financial support from the then Greater London Arts. However the cost of converting the space, some 7,000 sq. ft. into 22 studio units was shared by the artists themselves. The studios varied in size from 150 to 400 sq. ft. with rent costing somewhere between £70 and £120 per month. The Barbican Arts Group, now renamed Hertford Road Studios, continued with the full range of their activities from their new location.