Reflecting on 2023 and sharing what’s to come in 2024

As this year draws to a close, we proudly reflect on a year of achievements, community support, and exciting new ventures for the future!

Firstly, we’re overjoyed to announce that St Anne’s House will continue as a community and creative hub as we’ve secured a five-year lease extension until Autumn 2028. Additionally, gaining planning permission for this same period marks a significant step in our journey and future decision-making. 

You can read more about this process and the story so far here. 

We extend our mahoosive gratitude and thanks to those who supported our planning application for SAH. Your kind support, with around 200 positive letters advocating for us, really touched our team – thank you.

This year has seen lots of incredible activities, events, collaborations, artworks and more.

Read on for some highlighted moments.

Artist Projects: from Fat Rascal’s by Jessica Akerman, RE:COLLECTION by Ellie Shipman, to OOPARTs by Ben Hartley & Buoys Buoys Buoys – our new gallery space in the Pulp Room has seen lots of creativity, workshops, tours, and lively opening events.

Community Projects: Climate Action Group sessions have been vibrant and ongoing this year, with lots of great discussions and ideas being shared, Morning Meet-up and Shared Reading celebrate their one year anniversary this year, and keep being positive and friendly groups – open to all, as well as community-led sessions such as Mini-Milk and Birth Collective. We also invited you into the building for a family fun weekend event of St Anne’s Open House.

Collaborative Research: This year saw the start of Hydroponics – new ways of growing together with artist Katy Connor, where a selected group of individuals meet up to grow, learn and develop together. Working the Workshop in a collaboration with UWE Bristol, saw artist-led workshops with Harold Offeh, Rita Evans, Grace Gelder & Frances Bossom exploring movement, sound and archive, framed by two collective group discussions.

Booked Rooms: This year we hosted lots of great ideas, projects and events at SAH. Including, BS4’s first ever Arts Trail with lots of great stalls and pieces showcased, Control Shift – Feel Machines Weekender an arts programme, Bristol’s Biggest Bike Jumble, Paraorchestra, Ad Infinitum, Vinyasa Flow Yoga and many, many, many more!

Youth Activities: We’ve been developing a youth programme this year with our new Youth Programme Producer – Jack Young. We saw Creative Summer Sessions with guest artist facilitators, St Anne’s Young People the ongoing regular weekly youth sessions begin, and we are hosting Creative Winter Sessions over the week before Christmas – find out more here.

Tenant news: Mayking Space has been vibrant and energetic this year, with lots rehearsing in their beautiful upstairs room, EBC Day School saw a new year group begin, and continued to hold brilliant day classes, Bristol Cooperative Gym has grown and grown in members after their fantastic renovations in the space.

Community Publishing: This year two issues of BRIZ were created and distributed to the houses and hubs in Brislington, Podcast Episodes such as ‘Something Close To Nothing’ by Tim Ryan was released, and we built two new websites across the organisation, www.stanneshouse.org and www.bricksbristol.org.

Building Improvements: We have invested in the building this year, including; ground floor carpets being replaced with screed flooring making the space brighter and cleaner, new LED lighting fitted which has massively improved our light and reduce energy usage, a new kitchen donated by Bell Group, and way-finding throughout designed by Studio Mothership. View our rooms info pack here.

As we prepare to embrace the winter holidays, we wanted to share the exciting new opportunities and jobs for 2024. 

We’re currently looking for new roles to join our team:  

We currently have a major commission opportunity for artists: 

Welcome Building, Public Art Commission (deadline 05 Jan 2023) – In public art, we have a live brief for Welcome Building, where we have a £100K plus budget for Southwest artists to develop artwork for a new building in Temple Quarter. We have some forthcoming site visits and welcome conversations for potential artists. 

Find out more here.

What to expect for 2024: More to be announced in early 2024, sign up to our newsletter (in the footer below) to be the first in the loop.

• Community Cafe Tender Opportunity:

We will be announcing the launch of a tender opportunity for a community cafe in our ground floor kitchen space. This initiative comes from the wants of local residents and we hope it will transform into an open space to share ideas and build connections over a cup of coffee or a hot meal. We’re hoping for proposals from individuals or teams who share our vision of creating a welcoming and inclusive space within St Anne’s House. The selected proposal will have the space and opportunity to bring their concept to life, and become an integral part of our journey and community. 

• Social Impact and Evaluation Consultant:

We will be looking for a social impact and evaluation consultant to come and work with us to develop an impact framework and help us make sense of the work we do – so if that’s your thing, get in touch and we can send the brief. 

• Inviting views on long-term plans for St Anne’s House:

A big part of our approach at St Anne’s House is to learn and hear from community members about their wants and needs. Since 2020 St Anne’s Action Group have helped direct the way for the community space, and we’ll be extending the invitation further, and inviting more people to join in helping us move forward to share their views on our long-term plans.  

Our programming at St Anne’s House is going to continue to bloom in the upcoming year. 

You can anticipate new art projects, workshops, youth theatre sessions in collaboration with Bristol Old Vic, and community-led activities alongside the continuation of BRIZ and podcast episodes! 

Our spaces remain open for hire, inviting individuals to experiment with ideas and host events. Additionally, you can join our coworking community in 2024 by renting a desk.

Bring on 2024! – but until then, we hope everyone has a rejuvenating, fun, and well deserved break!

A huge thank you goes out to all who have supported our mission this year; to supporters, funders, collaborators, partners, community members, or visitors.