Help open Bright Door Studios

Aim

Help transform an empty space into a bright creative hub in the heart of the community.

Bright Door Studios started with a simple idea: what if we could bring creativity right in the heart of our community?

We’re Emma, Lucca and Toots, the team behind Bright Door Studios, and after a lot of dreaming, planning, paperwork and persistence, we finally have the keys to our new creative space in Newmains.

Now we need your help to bring it to life.

What is Bright Door Studios?

Bright Door Studios will be a colourful, welcoming creative hub where people can make, learn, exhibit, sell, experiment and connect.

We want to bring opportunities that people often have to travel into Glasgow or further afield to access, right here into our local community.

Behind our (soon to be very bright!) door, we’re creating:

- Artist and maker studio spaces

- A gallery showcasing local and emerging artists

- Creative workshops and masterclasses

- After-school art classes for young people

- Adult classes and opportunities to try new creative skills

- Space for visiting artists and tutors to share their skills

- A shop championing independent makers

- Community events, exhibitions and creative get-togethers

- A home for community-led creative and wellbeing projects

From printmaking and jewellery to painting, recycled art, street art and much more, we want this to be somewhere you can try something new without feeling like you need to already be an “artist”.

Creativity is for everyone.

Bright Door Studios will also become a base for The RE:ROOT Collective, our community-led project bringing together creativity, nature, sustainability and wellbeing. Having a permanent home will give RE:ROOT somewhere to grow, develop partnerships and provide more consistent support within our community rather than constantly searching for somewhere to deliver each project.

Why Newmains?

This part really matters to us.

Our local communities have an incredible industrial and making heritage, but access to arts and cultural opportunities on our doorstep can be limited. We want to change that.

Bright Door isn’t about parachuting creativity into a community. It’s about building something with and for the people already here, while giving local artists, makers and creative practitioners somewhere to grow too.

We want someone to be able to walk through our door because they fancy trying a workshop, come back for another, discover something they’re brilliant at, meet new people or simply find somewhere they feel comfortable being creative.

Sometimes opening one door really can lead to another.

Who are we?

Emma is a multidisciplinary artist, community arts practitioner and founder of Referlished, a creative reuse practice transforming discarded materials into art and jewellery while starting conversations around waste and sustainability. She has spent many years delivering creative workshops with children, young people, families and adults across Scotland.

Lucca brings a passion for community, wellbeing and creating spaces where people can connect. His work within RE:ROOT particularly focuses on the relationship between nature, mindfulness and wellbeing.

And Toots is a multidisciplinary artist and creative practitioner bringing her own distinctive creativity, experience and ideas to the studio and RE:ROOT.

Between us, we bring different skills, experiences and creative practices  but we share the same belief:

Creativity can make a genuine difference to people and places.

Bright Door gives us the opportunity to put that belief into practice.

We’ve got the keys. Now comes the fun bit.

We’ve taken on a former gym, so while we can already see the colourful, bustling creative space it could become… right now there’s quite a bit of work between what it is and what we know it can be!

That’s where this Crowdfunder comes in.

The money raised will help us turn an empty building into a working creative hub: decorating and preparing the spaces, creating the gallery and workshop areas, improving storage, purchasing equipment and furniture, installing displays for local makers and adding all those practical things you suddenly realise you need when you open the door to a very big, very empty space!

We’re prepared to roll up our sleeves and do as much as we possibly can ourselves. We’ll paint, build, reuse, upcycle and get creative with what we have, because naturally, we’re not very good at throwing useful things away!

But there are some things that enthusiasm and a paintbrush alone can’t pay for.

Every contribution will help us get another little bit closer to opening those doors.

And if we raise more than we need?

Every penny left after our setup costs will go directly into our Pay It Forward scheme.

This will help fund free and subsidised places at Bright Door workshops for people within our community who might otherwise be unable to take part.

So if we smash our target, that extra money won't disappear into the general running of the studio, it will help someone else walk through the Bright Door.

A wee thank you from us

We also want to say thank you to everyone who gets behind us.

Everyone who contributes to our Crowdfunder will be entered into a draw to win a FREE Bright Door workshop session, with 5 workshop places up for grabs!

It’s our way of giving a little something back to the people who help us get that door open.

More than just a studio

Our bigger vision is for Bright Door to become somewhere that belongs to the community.

A place where a child can discover that art is their thing.

Where an unpaid carer can have a couple of hours that are just for them.

Where someone who hasn’t made anything since school can pick up a paintbrush without worrying whether they’re “good enough”.

Where someone feeling isolated can walk through the door and find connection.

Where an emerging artist can exhibit their work for the first time.

Where independent makers can sell what they create.

And where creativity, nature, sustainability and wellbeing can come together under one roof.

We also want to develop our Pay It Forward opportunities, helping us offer free or subsidised creative places so that cost doesn’t always have to be the reason someone misses out.

We have huge plans for this space, but first, we need to get that bright door open.

Whether you pledge, choose a reward, share our Crowdfunder or simply tell someone about what we’re doing, you’re helping us build something new for Newmains and the surrounding communities.

Come through the Bright Door. We can’t wait to show you what’s on the other side.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 28th September 2026 at 10:20am