April 17, 2012 1.30 pm This story is over 143 months old

Derelict Lincoln building turned into art space

New life: The Greyfriars on Saltergate has been given a new lease of life as a contemporary art gallery.

A derelict building in Lincoln’s city centre has been transformed into a new contemporary art space and artist studios.

The Greyfriars on Saltergate, between Free School Lane and Broadgate, was originally a working friary in the mid 1200s and since used as a wool factory, school, prison and mechanics institute.

The site has been empty since the County Council vacated it in 2004, and now it’s being used by the Mistaken Presence project on an initially temporary basis for one year, with funding from the Arts Council England.

Encompassing 14 artist studio spaces, Greyfriars aims to provide affordable and secure space for visual artists to continue their practice in the city.

The first floor of Greyfriars provides a new opportunity for both recent regional graduates and established visual arts practitioners to work, develop and grow within the building.

Inside Greyfriars on Saltergate

The ground floor of the friary will play host to Mistaken Presence, a 12-month curated project that will bring a number of international artists to Lincoln.

Mistaken Presence explores and responds to the history of Greyfriars and it’s surrounding province, and looks at how the notion of time alters historical accuracies and human accounts of past events through a series of new commissioned works.

The collection opens with Provenance, a visual archival display that brings together a body of research, archival findings and locally donated material on historical events that have taken place within the Greyfriars province since 1230.

The gallery is open Thursday to Saturday.

Also showing at Greyfriars from April 28 to June 10: Mind your Heads consisting of two performances led by artist Marcia Farqhaur.