About
Knowle West Media Centre (KWMC) is a community hub, digital manufacturing space, and neighbourhood living lab rooted in Knowle West, Bristol.
At KWMC, we use arts, technology, and making for people to create positive change in their lives and communities. We’re motivated by social purpose. We believe arts can change lives, bring communities together, build agency for people experiencing systemic injustices, and drive positive social change. We think everyone should have the opportunity to make and participate in arts, culture and creative change making.
Care underpins our creative practice, showing up in everything we do. Our facilitators are trained in how to design and support spaces where everyone is valued, able to participate, imagine and make the changes they want to see. Great care is given to how people are invited and welcomed at all stages of co-creation.
Since 1996, we’ve been a key part of a strong neighbourhood ecosystem. Our work is rooted in community priorities by working closely with residents including through the Knowle West Alliance. We share our practices worldwide as part of the European Network of Living Labs and beyond.
Our programmes range from regular after-school social action, music and digital fabrication sessions for young people to public art commissions, adult digital skills and employability, neighbourhood science projects, international research projects and more.
Through our work we aim to model a systems approach to thinking about communities, empowerment and social innovation – shaping the way we live in the future through experimentation and sharing ideas with people.
We have four strands to our work:
EMPOWERING CREATIVITY +LEARNING
Supporting people to become creative changemakers and sharing our practices of arts-led co-creation.
MAKING FOR REAL
Experimenting and innovating together to discover and make new ways of being for the future.
COMMUNITY STORYMAKING
Ensuring everyone has access to the skills and tools they need to tell their own story.
TECH FOR ALL
Supporting people to become the makers and shapers of tech for community power.
To find out more about our practice, visit our ‘Foundations for the Future’ exhibition which celebrates nearly three decades of KWMC’s key practices, projects and reflections. The exhibition is generally open 9:30-5pm Monday-Friday. Whilst we welcome walk-ins, our Main Studio is also used for events so the space is not always open to the public. Feel free to give us a quick call/email beforehand to check when the space is available: enquiries@kwmc.org.uk / 0117 903 0444.
Our Spaces
We have two sites: Knowle West Media Centre, a purpose-built eco-building community tech hub on Leinster Avenue, and The Factory, a neighbourhood digital maker space at Filwood Green Business Park. We also work across Knowle West’s green spaces, streets and homes.
Find out more in Visit and Hire Our Spaces.
Our Collaborators
KWMC are founding members of the Knowle West Alliance, an alliance made up of residents and local organisations working together to build and support positive action in Knowle West. We collaborate closely with WeCanMake, a neighbourhood community land trust and housing initiative based at The Factory, that grew from a KWMC artist residency. Get in touch to find out how you can join our network of changemakers!