The building at 58-64 Corporation Street described as “underused” in a recent local news article is in fact home to Meter Room: a non-for-profit arts organisation hosting a project space and adjoining studios.
A planning application has been submitted to extend and convert the property into 15 residential apartments with commercial units on the ground floor.
Founded by artist Daniel Pryde-Jarman in 2011, Meter Room has operated at 58-64 Corporation Street for over 13 years, supporting artists in the city through the provision of studio space and presenting curatorial projects featuring artists of international significance in the project space.
Invited artists at Meter Room have included American conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner (1942-2021), whose work ‘When the Stars Stand Still the Sky Moves’ (2012) remains on display at Corporation Street. Created by Weiner for Meter Room in 2012, ‘When the Stars Stand Still the Sky Moves’ marked a significant moment in Meter Room’s fledgling history, whereby a large-scale work by a highly influential conceptual artist was added to the ‘Curatorial Studio’, viewable inside and out, and lit up at night when the artist studios are activated when the artists are ‘home’.
Meter Room currently has 10 studio members, a small but thriving community of artists that is active locally but is also well respected nationally and internationally.
Duncan Whitley, Coventry resident and Meter Room studio holder, said….
“The studio complex provides us with vital space to think, research, experiment, produce work and collaborate, as well as to store materials, equipment and artworks.
“As one of Coventry’s few affordable, long-term studio provisions, Meter Room has up until now afforded us with the stability to produce work and exhibit locally, nationally and internationally, both surviving and thriving throughout a period of economic austerity and drastic cuts to arts funding.
“For me personally, my studio at Meter Room has been a film and sound recording studio for work on several projects and collaborations, including Phoenix City 2021 which was experienced by over 23,000 people during UK City of Culture.
“It is the city centre space from which I am currently developing a major film project with Inini, who provide mental health support services for asylum seekers in Coventry.
“The proposed development at Corporation Street will leave us with no premises to work from, and looks likely to end our identity as a community. Coventry already suffers from poor provision of affordable, long-term studio space with 24-hour access, and present provision cannot absorb the homelessness of 10 working artists.
“As an artistic community we are broadly supportive of the growth and development of our city, but we feel abused by a regeneration programme which has used our success to market Coventry as a thriving creative hub, whilst depriving us of the essential resources we need to work. The proposed planning development now leaves us faced with great uncertainty about our future both as creatives and as small businesses in the city.”
The Coventry Society has objected to the planning application. We are disappointed that the city is allowing its City of Culture legacy to decline further. With the LTB Showroom also due to close shortly, we cannot afford to lose more cultural space in our city.