Our current director is mixed-media artist Freya Harwood Bond. Originally from West Yorkshire, Bond works predominantly with oil paint and collage using materials found on the street.
She met previous director Liz Clough at Novelty Automation where they both previously worked together. Freya immediately fell in love with Red Door Studios just as Liz had. When Liz moved out of London in 2021 to focus on her own work and family Freya took over as director with an intention to preserve the atmosphere and community that Clough had worked so hard to establish.
Now, just as it has since the beginning, Red Door provides studios to resident artists and welcomes artists and musicians from all over the country to come and showcase their work to visitors. All musicians and artists who perform in the space have been discovered naturally and we feel this adds to the homely feeling of Red Door and the expanding spiders web of creatives we aim to cultivate here, deviating from the mass of commercially motivated spaces taking over the city. We pay our performers fairly and we aim to keep prices as low as they can be (and free where possible) in order to keep the arts accessible to everyone.
Bond is also a workshop facilitator so we provide free and affordable art workshops for all ages for the community. These often encourage creative freedom, providing materials so that individuals can explore and find their own way rather than process-lead step by step workshops. Exploration is an essential part of Bond’s own practise which is solely used as a tool to outlet personal emotions and thoughts.