The Arts Lab was an alternative arts centre, founded in 1967 by Jim Haynes at 182 Drury Lane, London. Although only active for two years, it was influential in inspiring many similar centres in the UK, continental Europe and Australia, including the expanded Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London, the Milky Way/Melkweg in Amsterdam (where Jack Henry Moore was one of the founders),[ Jack Henry Moore obituary, The Guardian, 23 April 2014.] the Entrepôt in Paris and the Yellow House Artist Collective founded by Martin Sharp in Sydney.
Drury Lane Arts Lab
The Lab contained a 'soft floor' cinema in the basement designed and run by David Curtis. In the entrance there was a gallery space co-curated by Biddy Peppin (Curtis's partner) and
Pamela Zoline. In a separate (but connected) warehouse was the theatre, designed by Jack Henry Moore, who initially co-directed the activities there. Both the cinema and theatre were constructed by David Jeffrey, whose partner, Philippa James, was closely involved in the Lab's day-to-day running. Upstairs, the space in front initially housed a film workshop put together by Malcolm Le Grice and students from St. Martin's School of Art and the London School of Film Technique, and subsequently a restaurant run by
Sue Miles.
[ Sue Miles obituary, The Guardian, 13 October 2010.] Haynes lived in the back above the storage and dressing rooms. A number of other people lived in various corners of the building, and the all-night cinema was often seen as a cheap crash-pad.
Such amenities made it perfect for live events and "
happenings", and helped establish it as a centre of the London counterculture.
Arts Lab movement
One of the most significant features of the Arts Lab was that it encouraged similar establishments to create other independent centres, many of which outlived Haynes' original, which closed in the autumn of 1969. On 18 December 1968 the
Bagism benefit for the Arts Lab and BIT alternative information centre took place at the Royal Albert Hall, and following it, on 25–26 January 1969, the Arts Lab Conference in
Cambridge emphasized the strength of the Arts Lab movement, listing 50 such centres across the whole country, including the Birmingham Arts Lab, Brighton Combination
[ Noel Greig obituary, The Guardian, 23 September 2009.] and centres in
Exeter,
Farnham,
Guildford,
Huddersfield,
Loughborough,
Manchester,
Southampton, Bath and
Swindon.
[ "Summer of love: psychedelic art, social crisis and counterculture in the 1960s" By Christoph Grunenberg, Jonathan Harris, Tate Gallery Liverpool]
Notable people
Yoko Ono and
John Lennon's first joint artwork
Build Around was exhibited at the Drury Lane Arts Lab in May 1968.
[Philip Norman (2008), John Lennon: The Life, p. 542.]
David Bowie, who used to rehearse (and perform mime) at the Drury Lane Arts Lab, co-founded a Beckenham Arts Lab, which organised a one-day free festival, but was disillusioned by the lack of interest of other performers/artists taking an active role in the continuation of the centre.[Kerry Juby, In Other Words...David Bowie, Omnibus Press, 1987.]
Dave Cousins of The Strawbs organized the Hounslow Arts Lab.[ Arts Lab Newsletter, 1969.]
Wheeler Winston Dixon worked at the Arts Lab in the summer of 1968, writing for the Lab's newsletter, as well as making and screening his own films.
The Havering Arts Lab, run by future Stuckism founder Charles Thomson (at the time aged 16) resulted in the headline "Sex Orgy Tale—Group Banned" in the local newspaper.[ The Art History Archive - Stuckism.]
The Bath Arts Workshop which was founded in 1969 by ex Drury Lane workers continues to this day (2014) as parent body for the Natural Theatre Company.
The Worthing Workshop, an Arts Lab formed in 1968,[ Was Worthing the birthplace of punk? - Dan Thompson] included Leo Sayer,
Alan Moore, writer of comic books including Watchmen and V for Vendetta, regarded as "one of the most important British writers of the last fifty years".[ The Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore By George Khoury]
Influence
An
Arts Lab Newsletter was produced by
Nicholas Albery of BIT in 1968 and updated in various editions of
Bitman in later years.
The first multi-day free festival in the UK, the Cambridge Free Festival, was organised by the Cambridge Arts Lab in 1969.[ Cambridge Free Festival]
An intentional community inspired by the Arts Lab was founded in 2014 on Merseyside.[ New Brighton Arts Lab]
Successors
In London, a New Arts Lab (also titled 'Institute for Research in Art and Technology') was founded by a breakaway group of original members and others, including the London Film-Makers' Co-op.
Housed between 1969 and 1971 in a short-life factory building in Robert Street, London NW1, it contained a cinema run by David Curtis, theatre and gallery spaces, the London Film Makers' Co-op workshop, John Hopkins's TVX, and a printing workshop run by John Collins. The full-width opening doors at ground floor level enabled J. G. Ballard's
Crashed Cars exhibition to be held there.
[ J. G. Ballard's 'Crashed Cars' Exhibition of 1970.]
After a 'Day of Counter-Culture' meeting,[ Should artists be reared in laboratories? By Steve Scoles - Northampton Herald & Post]
Further reading
External links
