Spike Print Studio

Students from Room 13 have been making prints with two of our members in preparation for a show.

Room 13 students are having a show at the Royal Bristol Hospital for Children opening on Wed 30 April, 4.30-6pm. Some of the students have been making screenprints with printmakers Simon Tozer and Chitra Merchant based on the theme of camouflage.

Room 13 is an independent artists’ studio, based within the grounds of Hareclive Primary School. The studio employs a professional artist-in-residence who helps facilitate the work of younger artists, providing an exchange of ideas, skills and experience across the ages. Children can go to the studio to draw, paint, collage, sculpt, take photographs, make films, research, read and work on the computer. In Room 13, they are free to follow their own ideas and work on their own creative projects.
The studio is democratically run by the young people that use it. Every year a team of students aged 9 - 11 is elected onto a management committee. Working as equal team members alongside adults, they make decisions about the studio, run a shop, raise their own funds for materials, sign all cheques, pay the artist’s salary and develop Room 13 and its work outside of the school. Senior Room 13ers now at secondary school also come back to use and help the studio.

Room 13 has an open door policy to all children, of whatever age or ability. Students can come to the studio during lunch and break times on the days it is open and, importantly,
students can also use the studio in class times. The only criteria are that children must want to come, must negotiate any time off with their teacher and must ensure that all class work is up to date.
Together, these things mean that in Room 13, children are given the freedom and space to be creative, the incentive to be responsible and to work hard, and the opportunity to learn about running a project and a business.