For many start ups and hobbists, taking the next step in business means looking to sell on a market or an occasional event stall, a major injection of funding and commitment to taking on a lengthy lease can put many off.
There are Landlords out there who have an empty space crying out to be used, particularly in our town centres, and could well capitalise on increased marketing activity through encouraging ‘Pop up’ businesses or playing venue host.
A new scheme underway has been successful in attracting crowd funding support through Crowdfund Lancashire, run by Lancashire County Council, with the intention of creating a CiC, to bring those seeking empty spaces together with Landlords with empty spaces.
The Crowfunding will allow the team to
- Run 3 workshop events in 3 locations in Fylde, Blackpool and Preston which are currently underutilized.
- Offer Free pottery, decoupage, sewing, upcycling, pyrography and growing plants workshops
- Create a website that links hosts to creatives to provide cultural events for local communities
In order for this scheme to come to fruition a sum of £5, 852 needs to be raised. The pot so far (1st March) stands at £1,037.
Helen Pemberton created the scheme, she is an expereinced business woman and a professional artist. She attained her Masters in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art, and runs Lytham Ceramics, pottery workshops and events for artists and crafters.
“I am personally and painfully aware that small scale creatives lack both space and routes to market. Happily I am also aware that some business owners can benefit greatly from having creatives use their underutilized spaces. I would like to tackle this by linking organisations and business that have underutilized space with creatives.
I set up a pilot project in the very large and underutilized car park of a local public house, the landlord feels that the value added to his business is invaluable. It has also encouraged 16 small scale, spare room, creatives to sell thier work and I hope this goes from strength to strength.
I have recently been asked by another business, that has an unused function room, to run an indoor market and workshops for the community. The room comes free of charge as they have seen the benefits created at the first site. It became clear that there is a need to link similar business to other event organisers and creatives”.
If you can assist Helen and all our local artists and crafters then more informaiton can be found on the Space Hive website alternatively contact the Fylde Ecomonic Development Team on the form below and we can put you in touch with Helen.
