Art being displayed in empty town centre units

A recent exhibition of tea towels bearing "subversive" messages was held at The Carriage Works in Swindon

A group of artists is turning empty business units in a town centre into exhibition spaces.

Swindon-based community group Artsite is hoping to catch the attention of peole who may not normally think of visiting an arts venue.

The group has been running for 26 years and in recent years has organised two art festivals in Swindon – a town that has faced issues around anti-social behaviour and empty shops.

"This is our mission, it's about giving a different offer, a different reason to come into the town centre," said organiser Sue Bardwell.

She said she hopes to showcase "the amount of creativity and interesting things that happen in Swindon".

"People need a reminder of that sometimes," she added.

Sue Bardwell, from Artsite, said Swindon is not as "dismal" as it is made out to be

Some of the empty spaces found by Artsite hosted exhibitions for its textile art festival, Threads.

This year's Threads included an exhibition at the town's Carriage Works by an artist who showcased tea towels featuring "subversive" messages on topics from climate change to mental health.

Artsite also runs street art festival Swindon Paint Fest.

But Ms Bardwell and her sister Jackie Bardwell say it has become much harder to use public spaces for art in recent years, for a range of bureaucratic, financial and social reasons.

Ms Bardwell, who lives in the town centre, said: "Swindon's very personal and close to me, definitely improvements could be made, but I don't think it's as dismal as people make out."

She said buildings in areas that are "really run down" were mostly privately owned.

"So I would be championing for legislation where landlords aren't able to just hold onto buildings and let them go to ruin," she said.

'Vast crowds'

Jackie Bardwell is no stranger to bringing art to Swindon town centre having pioneered the idea decades earlier with her performance group Les Bicyclettes.

She recently held an exhibition in the town centre telling stories of dance, theatre and circus performances in Swindon through the 1970s and 1980s.

Photos show vast crowds gathering to watch around the Brunel shopping centre.

Jackie Bardwell's exhibition features items used in performances in Swindon decades ago

She recalled: "There were some amazing shops in Swindon at that time: McIlroys where bands used to come and play, we had the Savoy, which was a cinema, the shopping centres were full of interesting shops and chain shops as well that really brought people into town.

"But now there are a lot of empty shop fronts and that buzz has gone, and it would be fantastic to bring it back into the town centre."