Ron’s Place has been written about more than nearly any visual art project in Merseyside for as long as I can remember, but it all focusses on history. It’s the future of Ron’s Place that’s going to change things.
If you’ve missed the swathes of articles in national and international press, Ron’s Place was the rented the home of Ron Gittins. The house became a shrine to Roman, Grecian and ancient Egyptian art, with murals on every surface and sculptural fire surrounds in every room.
The global appeal of the house is that it reflects a freedom of self-expression that is nearly universally subdued by rental contracts. Ron bucked that trend, and now the value of that has been recognised with Grade II heritage listings, thanks to support from Historic England, and the passion of a group led by his niece, Jan Williams, and Chris Teasdale both well known for their long-running project The Caravan Gallery.
You’re caught up.
last week, I was given a tour of Ron’s Place by Alison Bailey-Smith, Paul Kelly and Laura Davis. The three are part of the team leading a new Community Land Trust (CLT) called Wirral Arts & Culture CLT.
Obviously, the building itself is jaw dropping, but it is more marmite than the glowing reviews its received. Personally, I thought the whole thing was a bit claustrophobic, and posed more questions than it answered. But it doesn’t matter, because it wasn’t for me, or anyone else who’s had the pleasure of a tour. It was Ron’s home, and he made it that way.
The action of having control over your own space has now inspired the future of the CLT, set up to deliver long-term housing and creative studio space for artists in the Wirral. Artists who have, traditionally, been housed in rented studios, with little control over their pricing, and with surprising limitations over what they can actually do with the space.
The nature of the CLT, which offers membership for a one-off payment of £1, is that artists won’t be applying for an existing space, they will be part of the process that leads to its creation, and part of the ongoing effort to establish the end result.
Ron’s Place itself will be the foundation of this new project, with three flats for artists where they will live and make work in a space whose rent is defined by their collective success.
Like Homebaked CLT and Granby4Streets CLT before it, the purpose of the cooperative trust is to make the space reflect its tenants. Tenants will have a say in everything about it, and rents will rise and fall with their income levels.
As the project moves further into the future, there is scope for more buildings, more public spaces, and more residential space for artists.
Also important is the name of the CLT, Wirral Arts and Culture CLT. It is the first CLT in the country to define art as its core purpose. Not culture, not community engagement, but art. Everything else will happen organically, but only if the artists at the heart of Ron’s Place and the CLT are in the right place.
The first three flats, in the upper floors of Ron’s old home, are planned to be in use by spring 2025. If you are interested, you can join the CLT for £1 and join the conversation about how these flats need to be developed to suit your needs, or the needs of other artists.
And yes, this is limited to the Wirral and artists who live there, but the potential impact of this CLT model on the future sustainability of artist studios across the UK could be stratospheric. So many of us have had studio buildings pulled from under our feet by landlords. And more have seen our rents increase as the areas we inhabit become more desirable.
CLTs mitigate that risk, by linking the price of buildings and their rents to the circumstances of the residents, not the value of the area.
As we’ve seen in the Baltic Triangle, and around the Shankly Hotel (former ROAD Studios, The Cave, A Small Cinema, Crown Building Studios, etc.) without the protection of community ownership, artists are always at risk.
Imagine a world where that wasn’t the case. Ron’s Place is doing that.
I’m not saying we should stop talking about the minitour in the front room, or the hieroglyphics in the hall, but its probably worth stepping back and thinking more seriously about what Ron’s Place might actually do for us as artists.
Stay up to date with Ron’s Place and Wirral Arts & Culture CLT via their website and if you’re interested in being involved then get involved now, not later.
Find out more about Ron’s Place at www.ronsplace.co.uk
And follow the CLT’s development at www.wirralartsandculture.org
Words, Patrick Kirk-Smith