LAASN working with the Red Frock team to advocate for genuinely affordable workspace for London’s artists and makers.
Baroness Thangam Debbonaire
Red Frock Ltd and LAASN
We are really excited to be working with LAASN for 2026. Red Frock Ltd is an advisory firm dedicated to working with organisations in the arts and culture sector, advising strategically and passionately on how to engage at the highest level, staffed by people with expertise as well as love of arts and culture. We know first hand the value of art, whether it be to our health, happiness, or the wider economy, and we understand the difficulties that artists in the UK are facing. Great art is central to our lives, and we want to be part of the efforts to ensure it thrives. We're working with LAASN because we believe in its purpose and value.
What we are hoping to achieve
Our objective is to help make the case to policymakers and decision makers for genuinely affordable studio spaces in London. Our task is to build up the toolkit to influence those in public life and to demonstrate to them how valuable what you provide is; and importantly, what we all stand to lose if it disappears. We are working on innovative and coherent ways to convey to politicians, as well as the general public, how affordable studio space is central to the brilliant visual art that the UK as a whole produces, and how it feeds into the wider economic and cultural vibrancy of our capital city.
What we are doing
As part of this, we are seeking to bring together in one coherent strategy your work, your footprint, and your value, and ensure that this finds its way to the right people in government, both national and local. There will always be a member of the Red Frock team attending your network meetings, in case any ideas are discussed that would be useful for us to explore. We are using our experience of politics and government to design a communications and engagement strategy to make the right arguments in the right places, to make sure that policymakers fully understand the pressures you are facing, and what our arts sector as a whole stands to lose without tailored support and sector-sensitive policymaking.
What we need from you - As Studio Providers
The basis of all of this is the work that you do. We know Nichole is circulating a survey, the data from which will be very useful and we would encourage you all to participate. We also need as many examples from the network that can be deployed to demonstrate exactly what you do and what your value is. This includes any examples of successful artists, in any field, that have made use of your spaces, or any examples where tenants have needed something that only you could provide. This is to help build the argument to the right people that what you do is essential, necessary, and irreplaceable. We also are putting out a call for any studios that would be happy for us to visit, to see first hand your space and what you provide.
We are really excited to be working with you, because we know that you matter and that making this argument to policymakers matters.
The Red Frock team
March 2026