SET Centre CIO

Organisation Overview

Founded in 2016, SET is a multifaceted arts and community organisation and registered charity. SET currently has 14 centres across London. In 12 we house affordable artists workspace: Woolwich, Farringdon, Ealing, Lewisham Retail Park, Lewisham High Street, North Greenwich, Tower Gateway, Lombard Street, Throgmorton Avenue, Hosier Lane, Titchfield House & Tabernacle Street. In three of these centres, Woolwich, Ealing, Lewisham Retail Park, we have project spaces, which are home to our arts programme. Our aim, as an organisation, is the advancement of the arts as a public benefit.

We do this through creating arts communities, where those who hold studios become Associate Members of SET and help to develop our arts programme, especially through our Members’ Programme. Members pay workspace fees for their workspaces – a price which includes studio rent, internet, utilities, access to project space and so forth. Our aim is to be as inclusive as possible with a focus on the community local to each SET Centre. Therefore, we offer some of the most affordable studios in London and at all sites we aim for a minimum of 50% of our membership to either live or work in the local borough. SET’s studios are currently home to around 1,000 artists, and we have a former membership of over 1,000. SET’s membership is made up artists working in a variety of practices and disciplines from text, performance and installation to music, sound, print, textiles and more.

Our arts programme is divided into: SET Projects & our Members Programme. The programme includes: performances, exhibitions, live music, talks, workshops and screenings, and seeks to provide a platform for new and collaborative projects. With an inclusive ethos always, SET is a community which aims to bridge gaps between disciplines and demographics, creating a platform for collaboration and multidisciplinary experimentation.

Each SET Centre is housed in otherwise vacant property, some temporary and some long term. SET brings disused space back into positive use in the interim period.

SET’s Goals

To create communities of artists at SET centres making and presenting work: this means curating an exciting, high-quality and collaborative arts programme, as well as providing good quality, genuinely affordable artists workspace, supporting our Associate Membership to grow.

To expand our meanwhile use provision and to create permanent centres: SET’s aim is to continue to provide meanwhile use workspace because it is the best way to provide genuinely affordable workspace now for artists in London. SET also wishes to secure its and artists in London’s future in the capital by purchasing freeholds or leaseholds.

To make our programme as brilliant as it can be: SET’s programme is very broad and focuses on the Members’ Programme, our own curated visual programme, an innovative music programme, a broad cross-disciplinary programme which focuses on literature and community-oriented events and creating social space for people to meet.

To be a place for communities to gather: SET centres are arts centres but through various initiatives, we also endeavour to make the centres places for all parts of the community to meet, be this through workshops, offering space to community groups, having over 50% of our Associate Membership at each site be local residents or running our recent food bank.