A huge new arts and sustainability hub set to open in the old Marks & Spencer building in Bristol city centre is appealing for local, sustainable food producers to get involved.
Sparks Bristol is billed as a “department store with a difference – from food and fashion to education and energy”. Co-created by Global Goals Centre and Artspace Lifespace, Sparks Bristol will be “a vibrant, positive venue where visitors can explore what a greener, fairer and more creative future looks like.”
Opening this spring, the venue will have a “front garden” with live plants and a well-being pod “offering an oasis of calm amidst Bristol’s busy shopping district.”
The creators of the UK’s Sustainable Fashion Week will focus on preloved and reworked clothing. There will be a clothes swap and a repair centre.
Affordable office, studio, rehearsal and workshop spaces for creatives will fill the three upper floors of the building. At the same time, an education workshop space can be used for training, school workshops, events and talks.
Re-use will be a key focus, with hundreds of items saved from landfill available in a shopping space where visitors can pick up a preloved bargain. Repair workshops, staffed by volunteers, will fix your broken items.
MILA Stores will head up the Department of Food and promises to be a one-stop shop selling food and drink made in and around Bristol. The organisers promise, “It will be a showcase of all the good and the great produce found right on our very doorstep!”
They are keen to hear from local producers. A spokesperson said: “If you are a local, sustainable food producer, we want to hear from you! Get in touch to find out how you could be a part of Sparks.”
The organisers hope the combination of artist spaces, sustainable retail, education and re-use in this pilot project will be replicated in more empty buildings in high streets across the UK.
For more details, go to sparksbristol.co.uk.
