Supporting Artists: Acmes First Decade 1972 -1982

Small exhibition in the library of the Whitechapel Gallery looking at the work of Acme, an artists’ initiative which buys houses for artists to live and work in in the East End and ran a cutting edge gallery.

This was a really impressive archive of an organisation with gallery event lists, posters, letters and much more.  As well as the information in the displays there were also books of material such as all the tenants newsletters for certain dates.

I so wanted to go to the gallery and see some of the fascinating shows and installations they had. I loved the idea of man who took a derelict boat and reworked an represented it in the gallery in real time.

The organisation still exists and supports over 600 artists and manages 546 studios in 14 buildings in Greater London. I had not known about them before but will now look out for Acme supported artists.

 

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