Flax Art Studios

Flax Art studios have a rather serious, mature, industrial atmosphere. Indeed they originally came into being in 1989 via a group of art school graduates, seeking space big enough to allow for the creation of large installations and sculptures.
Flax’s website describes the studio space as: «An area of 1,320 square metres provides ample room to house an industrial scale workshop, 7 large studio spaces, 11 smaller studio spaces, an international residency space and a communal fabrication area. A large mezzanine area accommodates the organisation’s office and IT facilities.»
By the time I arrived at Flax it was the end of a walking tour of Belfast Art Studios and I’d been on my feet for over 3 hours walking, climbing stairs and wandering about without break. Thus I wasn’t pleased to arrive at Flax and find their industrial lift out of order. Lift door probably not closed properly on the top floor and hence could not be called down to ground floor level, or so I was advised by the lovely Ladies who greeted us at the entrance doors. After 3 flights of stairs I arrived at Flax but was probably too tired to appreciate it fully. Despite this I was amazed at this warehouse sized space which was walled off into individual studios. The large fabrication area was pretty impressive too.
I grabbed my third Suki tea of the day and had an amble around amiring work by Barbara Freeman, Sinead O’Donnell and Shiro Masuyama and chatted to the artists. I definitely want to return to Flax on the next Belfast Open Studios day in 2016, but will probably start with Flax so I’m not too tired to fully appreciate it. However, if you want to see an art studio big and well equipped enough to allow for the creation of large scale works such as public art pieces then this is the studio to visit. It’s basically a huge warehouse with plenty of windows letting in natural light.
If you’re an artist looking for such a studio you can apply to rent a workspace in Flax by submitting a covering letter, up-​to-​date CV and up to ten images of artwork by post to:
STUDIO APPLICATION
Flax Art Studios
United Optical Building
44 – 46 Corporation Street
Belfast
BT1 3DE

this place is brilliant i have been here a few times and enjoy it everytime.