Getting settled in at the Fish Factory - Creative Centre with our official orientation this morning. This place used to literally be a fish factory and was the main employer in town. Over a decade ago it was bought by a large company who then moved the fishing operation to Aukeryi (a much larger town in north Iceland) and let the factory decay into disrepair. The village population dropped off dramatically with the primary employer leaving town. The building got to the point that the government was planning to just bulldoze it into the fjörd. To the rescue came a group of local creatives who banded together, bought the building, and began turning it into a refuge of creativity and inspiration. A supreme example of creative placemaking.
My fellow resident artists hail from Australia, Ireland, and northern Iceland plus 2 other Americans, one from Portland, the other from New York. And then there is Tumi, our new furry friend for the next few weeks. Our collective skill sets and artistic mediums span music, performance art, video, stone sculpting, writing, ceramics, painting, theater, and more.
There is a large open shared studio with a space dedicated to ceramics and another space dedicated to music production / recording. The facility also offers a kitchen + lounge area, metal and wood shops that are primarily for staff / construction use, an in-progress stone sculpting studio, an in-progress print shop, and additional open format shared work spaces. There is a coffee roasting business onsite. My photos so far don’t do this place justice.
