Cell Project Space and Cell Studios

An artist-run organisation in Bethnal Green, East London, that runs a contemporary art gallery and affordable artists' studios across East London.

About Cell Project Space and Cell Studios

Cell Project Space is an artist-run gallery and studio provider in East London. It shows contemporary art in its gallery at 258 Cambridge Heath Road, Bethnal Green, and its sister arm, Cell Studios, runs six studio sites across East London, including work at Wallis Road in Hackney Wick. It is a company limited by guarantee, and its charity arm is the Cell Foundation, a registered charity. Over its first two decades it worked with more than 300 artists.

It was founded in 1999 by the artists Milika Muritu and Richard Priestley, who are still its senior directors. It began in a run-down former Victorian furniture factory in Tyssen Street, Dalston, with twelve artists' studios and a small artist-run project space, created as a place where artists could take creative risks. It later moved to Ideal House, Arcola Street, Dalston, and in 2003 to its Bethnal Green site next to a green space it helped build. Its pages say it aims to challenge conventional exhibition formats, to support artists who have not yet had wide critical or commercial attention, and to stay financially independent.

All of its work is in London. It collaborates with the Creative Land Trust, which works to protect affordable artists' workspace, and Richard Priestley has negotiated with local authorities and the Greater London Authority about regeneration and affordable workspace. Wallis Road Studios in Hackney Wick are among the buildings it runs. It has worked with the Serpentine Gallery in London, MAMA Showroom in Rotterdam, Cooper Gallery in Dundee and Blank Projects in Cape Town, and took part in a commission for the Sharjah Biennial.

On people and culture, its history page shows a small team: Richard Priestley as founder and director, Milika Muritu as director and programme curator, and a series of associate curators and gallery managers over the years. Its programmes include Cyclorama, year-long solo projects at turning points in artists' careers, a public programme of talks and workshops, and Cellular, an experimental multimedia platform and residency programme. It also posted a role for a Head of Studios Operations. Those are the organisation's own descriptions.

In practice the work includes curators and programme managers, gallery managers, studio managers who look after buildings and artists' tenancies, fundraisers, communications staff and technicians who install exhibitions. It shows a route into the art world through running spaces as well as making art, and it is useful if you want to understand how affordable studios for artists are kept going in an expensive city. The Cell Project Space website lists its current exhibitions and any vacancies.

What they do

• {'desc': 'Exhibitions, talks, readings and performances at the Bethnal Green gallery.', 'title': 'Gallery and public programme'}
• {'desc': 'Affordable studios for artists across six East London sites.', 'title': 'Cell Studios'}
• {'desc': 'Programmes like Cyclorama and Cellular supporting artists at key points.', 'title': 'Residencies and commissions'}

Key facts

• Founded in 1999 by Milika Muritu and Richard Priestley
• Gallery at 258 Cambridge Heath Road, Bethnal Green, since 2003
• Cell Studios runs six sites across East London
• Worked with more than 300 artists in its first two decades

Website: www.cellprojects.org