Studios for Artists: Concepts and Concrete, a collaboration between Acme Studios and Central Saint Martins.

Presenting ongoing dialogue between affordable studio provider Acme Studios and London art and design college Central Saint Martins, takes a detailed look into the changing form and function of the artist’s studio in relation to contemporary art practice, as revealed through an extensive program of research, studio visits and interviews.

The form, function and future of the artist’s studio is the central focus of the collaboration and of this publication. The subject of studio provision is approached from the partners’ different but entirely complementary roles and perspectives, as is their shared commitment to creating new models of support for students after graduation.

Studios for Artists presents, through a series of written and visual essays, how the partners formalized and intensified their work, resulting in amongst other initiatives, the design and construction of an award-winning studio building and the establishment of a sustainable graduate studio program.

Including a photo–essay by Hugo Glendinning, the book provides a remarkable insight into the world of art education and the artist in London at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It reveals not just the ongoing challenges faced by art education, but also the threat to affordable studio provision where spiraling property prices threaten this vital, but generally unacknowledged, part of the contemporary visual arts ecology.