We are a small studio of makers, with an equipped workshop, and proven relationships with manufacturing partners, that enable us to not just conceive ideas, but to also craft elements large and small that are site specific and beautifully integrated into their environment.
Having been built around the artist Stephen Broadbent, our studio demonstrates a role where artists can be radically engaged in the community, finding solutions, selecting and interpreting themes. Over 40 years, the studio has had the privilege of being invited into the heart of many different communities and organisations, tasked with the role of crafting a story, evoking a memory, or creating a sense of place.
THE TEAM
CANON DR STEPHEN BROADBENT
In response to the increasing demands for integrated artwork commissions within the built environment, the sculptor Stephen Broadbent established in 1997 a limited company called Broadbent Studio.
Stephen’s background is as a sculptor and maker, having been trained by Sculptor Arthur Dooley. As well as enjoying exhibitions and undertaking private commissions, his passion lies in the public realm and the challenge of finding ways to respond imaginatively to place and people. A creative enabler, Stephen believes the ultimate success of any public artwork will be its ability to endure beyond those that participated in its making.
PETER DAVIDSON
Peter was born in Denmark. After a formative period working with Arthur Dooley and Stephen Broadbent in the early 1980s, he went on to explore ideas and acquire craft skills in a variety of disciplines, becoming jeweller, art restorer, garden designer, writer, film-maker and teacher. Later, he returned to sculpture and resumed his creative partnership with Stephen again.
He brings a wide frame of reference together with a conceptual focus to the task of developing a design. Peter collaborates on projects from initial concept development onwards, bringing with him a particular emphasis on research, detail and time.
LUCY GANNON SFHEA MA
Lucy is a designer and maker that shares her time between Broadbent studio and Manchester School of Art where she works as a Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader in BA(Hons) Interior Design. Lucy’s practice by nature is cross-disciplinary, and she takes on a range a roles from facilitator, listener, mentor and researcher to designer, visualiser, communicator and maker.
Lucy adds to our team a strong understanding of spatial design with an emphasis on people and their relation to place and activity. Her ongoing research into memory, and the physical act of remembrance within landscape feeds into the studio’s notion of identity and place.
PROCESS PHOTOS
Ou team regularly expands through a long-standing network of creative practitioners and manufacturing partners, who we value greatly, as any creative success requires understanding and strong relationships.
