Artist-led: Alma Art Space
An ongoing series profiling artist-led groups in the South West. This month we are celebrating ALMA Artspace.
Can you tell us about ALMA Artspace, who you are and what you do?
ALMA is a community arts organisation and artist-led project space in Newquay, Cornwall. We present exhibitions by invited artists and host community events, creative workshops, live music and pop-up projects throughout the year.
We are currently campaigning for Newquay to have a publicly funded multi-use arts space - which is a work in progress.
Can you tell us why you set up ALMA Artspace, and why it is important in the context that you are working in?
Established in 2019 by photographer Ingrid Pop and artist consultant Lucy Ward, ALMA was born from a mutual love of art and contemporary culture across all disciplines - and a frustration that there wasn’t really anywhere to see or interact with the things we wanted to engage with in Newquay.
With our small babies in tow (and a pandemic swirling around us) we set out to make a space for the ideas, objects and conversations we were interested in exploring creatively. Initially this manifested as an online space, followed by a three-month funded pop-up in Newquay town centre and a series of exhibitions, residencies and projects working with partners across the town.
In 2025 we opened our own not-for-profit project space, which has enabled us to curate exhibitions and work in collaboration with artists from Cornwall and beyond, to realise projects and present installations without the pressure and restrictions of a strictly commercial enterprise.
As well as being a project space for artists to explore new ideas, we provide an affordable flexible space for a number of local creative groups and organisations to use for workshops, events and meet-ups. The summer months are dedicated to emerging artists who can rent the space for affordable week-long residencies.
Can you describe your context - what sort of space you run out of, where you run your project from, and how you operate and are funded?
ALMA is a CIC based in Newquay on Cornwall’s north coast. Whilst it’s not currently renowned for its varied creative scene, Newquay has an incredible community and the most amazing backdrop of the Atlantic ocean on three sides. The town doesn’t currently have a dedicated public art space so we work with our limited resources (and small but perfectly formed space) to bring artists and projects to the town for people to engage with.
As well as projects in our space, we have hosted gigs at the community orchard and local church, we have installed sculptural installations in the fly cellars (an old space on the harbour for storing pilchards) and created a sound installation to play from the Huers Hut - one of the towns oldest (and most loved) landmarks.
In 2024 we received funding to develop a public sculpture commission and we worked with artist Robin Sullivan to create the Newquay Monoliths, a two-mile sculpture trail from the oldest part of Newquay (the bronze-age burial grounds at The Barrowfields) over to the newest part of town at Nansledan, via Newquay Orchard.
We have received funding for specific projects via local organisations such as FEAST, Cornwall Community Fund and Boardmasters, and we generate additional revenue by renting the space out for workshops, events and artist residencies.
Can you tell us about what you are currently working on and if you have any projects coming up you’d like to share with our network?
We are in the midst of our spring programme of exhibitions and events. We have just closed a two person show by Melanie Stidolph and Rachael Coward called Anchorhold. The artists transformed the space in response to the idea of an Anchorhold - a space of voluntary confinement used by an anchoress (or anchorite) who would answer questions or give advice. In the context of the space at ALMA, the artists reflected on the Anchorhold as a kind of sanctuary, where Coward’s ceramic hardware and Stidolph’s slippery fabric could interact and interweave.
Currently showing, we have a solo show by Chloe Bonfield which is a continuation of her Strange Dreams project - presenting an exhibition of paintings, drawings, sculptural pieces and sound. During the course of the installation at ALMA, Chloe will put out a call for fragments of text from anyone who wants to share their dreams about their connection to the Cornish landscape. There will be a workshop in the space that will explore connections between drawing and dreams. Together thinking about how collective dreaming can bring into being shared physical experiences.
Find out more:
