Founded by Huma Kabakcı, Open space is a small, itinerant organisation that supports emerging creative practice, promoting dialogue in the arts through an annually recurring programme of dynamic projects in unexpected spaces.
Open Space aims to work with international, emerging, and mid-career artists from all backgrounds to provide a diverse, collaborative, accessible programme.
Building on its work over the last five years as a platform for experimental initiatives and creative commissions, Open Space Contemporary relaunched as Open Space in 2019, now featuring its third year of ambitious multidisciplinary projects.
Each digital and physical project responds to current critical issues to highlight and support the work of practitioners from various creative backgrounds – from emerging artists to curators and writers.
Writing Space
An experimental digital platform where four writers with multidisciplinary backgrounds – from artists to curators and poets, are commissioned to contribute texts, published on Open Space’s website.
Forum
An emerging guest curator is invited to develop a series of discursive events in London.
Edible Goods
Founding Director Huma Kabakcı invites an artist to co-curate an exhibition, exploring food as a medium in contemporary art.
Curatorial Residency
Open Space’s two month residency in Istanbul gives young curators the opportunity to engage with the Huma Kabakcı Collection, whilst facilitating encounters with a network of institutions and practitioners. The curator in residence then has the opportunity to present an outcome in London (This project is on hold due to Covid-19).
10 Minute Interviews
Since July 2020 Open Space has been highlighting the multidisciplinary practice of a diverse range of multidisciplinary artists through 10 minute interviews on our digital platform and social media. These informal conversations conducted by Huma Kabakcı will focus on their work and open up discussion around current issues.
Un / Learning Space
Un/Learning Space is a newly initiated project by Open Space to create a system between emerging art creatives. By both learning and unlearning, the workshops that will be available between April-September 2021 will aim to decolonize the classical institutional teaching. By inviting various both nationally and internationally acclaimed, multidisciplinary art practitioners, Un/Learning Space will include workshops around CV and Portfolio building, Informal crit sessions, motivational, creative coaching and more. Come join us and become a part of our community and further your creative networking skills. More information coming soon.
PARTNERS AND
COLLABORATORS
Selected Partners & Collaborators
AMP Gallery
Block Universe Performance Festival
Delfina Foundation
Fishers Gin
German Kraft Brewery
IKSV (Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts)
Old Spike Roastery
Platform Southwark
Rare Tea Co.
Royal College of Art
SAHA Foundation
The Ned
Ugly Duck
About Huma
Huma Kabakcı (b. London, 1990) is a second-generation collector, independent curator, and founding director of Open Space, living and working between London and Istanbul. Kabakcı recently joined the Drawing Room as a Development Manager. She studied at the London College of Communication and completed an MA in Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art. Kabakcı completed a curatorial fellowship at the 2018 Liverpool Biennial, supported by ICF (International Curators Forum). She has worked at commercial galleries, museums, and auction houses, both in the UK and Turkey, including Sotheby’s (London), The Albion Gallery (London), and Pera Museum (Istanbul). Kabakcı’s curatorial interests lie in subjects such as diaspora, cultural identity, memory, and cross-cultural discourse.
Kabakcı’s curatorial interest lies in creating immersive experiences and a wider dialogue in collaboration with multidisciplinary practitioners. She is also interested in theories and topics around diaspora, collective memory, and hospitality.
Huma Kabakcı
Founding Director
humakabakci@
About Lara
Lara Monro is a freelance Creative Project Producer, Cultural & Exhibition Programmer, Freelance Arts Journalist, Content Writer, and Arts Funding Consultant with experience in both the contemporary arts and the larger cultural fields. She has worked for both commercial galleries, non-profit arts organisations, and institutions on long/short and fixed-term contracts.
Lara Monro
Project Manager | Copywriter
Ergin Çavuşoğlu
Contemporary artist and academic based in London
İrem Günay
Founder of Good Life Consulting and art patron
Cliff Lauson
Senior Curator at Hayward Gallery
Julie Lomax
Chief Executive Officer at The Artists Information Company