And so!

The Brighton 'property mafia' (as I've heard it described during my investigations) are particularly elusive. I still walk around the city and see many sadly empty buildings, and the numbers seem to be increasing. However, an opportunity to hold the CAA in an empty shop outside of Brighton has arisen, and hopefully this is what will go down.

Workshop 1A is run by the Empty Shops Network, wonderful people spearheading the empty shops movement. Located just off Shoreham High Street, it was once an empty shop like many others.

But after much hard work and cleverness it has now become 'a temporary, flexible and informal space' available for use by the community.

(image from http://workshop1a.tumblr.com/post/2684238499/new-year-new-team-new-name-new-logo)

This is the kind of thing I really want to get involved in and perhaps have a hand in crating more of in the future. At the moment I feel like I don't quite have the experience to set up an empty shop project from scratch all by myself in Brighton, but hopefully if the CAA can find its first nesting space in Shoreham then it will be wonderful and there will be more wonderful things to follow.

Watch this space...

(Also take a look at Workshop 1a, artistsandmakers.com, Empty Shops Network and Meanwhile.)