Fabrica: Contemporary Visual Arts Exhibitions and Programmes

If you're wandering through the historic Lanes, you've probably walked past Fabrica on Duke Street. This visual arts organization, which has been around since March 1996, is housed in a truly striking building: the former Holy Trinity Church, a Grade II listed Regency church. It’s a registered charity based right here in Brighton & Hove. Their main goal is to bring high-quality art and craft to a wide audience, focusing on creative participation and showing how transformative art and culture can be. They even received a Commended mention in the Small Visitor Attraction category at the Beautiful South Awards back in December 2022.

Fabrica is best known for commissioning and presenting those huge, immersive, site-specific contemporary visual art installations that really use the scale of the church space. Historically, they used to run three major exhibitions a year—spring, summer, and autumn—featuring both emerging and international artists. However, things have shifted recently. Following a funding cut, they are currently reevaluating their exhibition schedule until March 2024. It's worth noting that even with this change, the space isn't closed; it stays open all year round for events, rentals, and artist residencies. If you plan to visit during one of their exhibition periods (like April-May, July-August, or October-November), they typically open Wednesday to Sunday, 12:00 to 18:00. Income from hiring the space for weddings or events, plus sales from the café/shop, helps sustain their community and artist work.

What often gets overlooked is the depth of their community work. Fabrica runs crucial programs focused on wellbeing, especially for men's mental health in the area, given the high rate of male suicide locally. They run Men in Sheds Kemptown (since 2017), offering creative activities, and Men Who Make (since 2020), which provides structured creative courses like stone carving or ceramics. They are also big on youth engagement, pioneering the Fresh Perspectives scheme for young film programmers, which includes their annual pop-up cinema program, Film at Fabrica. Looking ahead, they were selected for the ARMA 2025 commission. This means they are working on a major participatory art project called Three Tenses: The Whitehawk Great Map. This collaboration will explore Whitehawk through the eyes of its young people, culminating in a giant multimedia Mappa Mundi and a touring exhibition planned for late 2025 and early 2026.