The Spike in the City programme attempts to broker long-term relationships between Spike Island and the wider communities of Bristol by commissioning artists, sensitive to working within neighbourhoods and other social contexts, who act as animateurs, activists and/or creative interventionists.

The Spike in the City strand of off-site commissioning began in 2004 with VANiSH - a mobile art space developed by Ashley McCormick.

Challenging Relationships: Artists & Institutions was the culmination of a series of events that emerged from a year long period of activity by 12 artists and arts professionals working with Spike Island to develop research that scrutinised the roles that artists and audiences play in relation to the art institution.

As part of the Cube programme and a follow-up to Spike Island’s VANiSH commission artists Heath Bunting and Kayle Brandon invited you to join them on a ride round the streets of Bristol, inside a camera obscura.

ART TEA was an afternoon event where Annabel gave away tea and cakes to exhausted shoppers as they waited in line to catch their buses home.  The tea cups were designed in a limited edition by the artist and all those participating were be able to keep one and take it home.

For a year, a group of 12 artists and others working within the contemporary visual arts in Bristol researched and developed a series of projects at Spike Island. Three members of that group, Nemia Brooks, Rachel Connelly and Amy Feneck went on to form an editorial team to establish Journal.