residence, community/cultural, event
Apparata, 2020
36 Linton Rd, Barking, IG11 8SE
A House for Artists (AHFA) is an experiment in communal living and working, that seeks to embed artists very directly into the local community in a meaningful way. The model combines 12 rented flats, occupied by artists and their families/flatmates, with a ground floor community/work space. Each artist in the house volunteers their time to shape different strands of a growing public programme.
Barking
Barking
5, 238
A House for Artists is less than 10 minutes walk from Barking Station.
The apartments are accessed via level ground, then a choice of either stairs or lift.
Seating will be provided in our downstairs space where visitors will be hosted for the workshop and talk.
11:00–13:00
Tours of apartments by led by residents of A House for Artists.
Talk
14:00–16:00
A combined workshop and talk with Kin Structures, alongside the selected 2026 Artist in Residence as part of the Rehearsal Spaces Fellowship
How to book
Bookings will open at midday on 19 August. You won't be able to book a ticket before then.
A House for Artists was commissioned to provide flexible living space for artists and their families, with ground-floor shared workspaces and a public programming space.
This combination of public-facing spaces and artist studios is a first in the UK as a housing model. Almost five years on the artists living in AHFA are focussed on maintaining the long term sustainability of this approach to being embedded in the local community.
A House for Artists was co-commissioned by Create London and London Borough of Barking & Dagenham, and designed by APPARATA, an architecture, design and research practice based in East London.
So far our free arts programme has grown to include:
- an intergenerational family arts club
- still life and life drawing classes
- a ceramics studio offering workshops and long term courses
- a community cinema and community darkroom for processing super8 and 16mm film
- a book club
- photography workshops
Each resident works on a strand of the programme, drawing on the expertise of their artistic practice and collaborations with other artists/cultural organisations.
Rehearsal Spaces Fellowship is a programme by Kin Structures, funding artist fellowship placements in summer/autumn 2026. A House for Artists will be working with Kin Structures this year to host our first external artist in residence, providing an opportunity to explore ideas around place-based, spatial justice issues that connect to our work as an artist-led space in London.
As we continue to develop a sustainable working model and governance structure for AHFA we're inviting the artist to explore and dream alongside us as we question:
● What our role can/should be as artists working in the community in this way
● What it could look like to base an artistic practice around being of ‘use’ to a neighbourhood
● How our thinking might shift from the hyper-local to a wider community of artists and artists-led spaces?
● How we translate experimental and process driven ways of creating to organising within AHFA?
