Two spaces. One community. Endless possibility.
Artist Membership Information
East Kemptown Village
The Lab — 80 St Georges Road, BN2 1EF
Central Brighton Seafront Arches
The Vault — 42–43 Kings Road Arches, BN1 2LN
Bold Artist Residency @The Lab
Year-round Support Artist Flow Mode @The Vault
Visionary Participation as Collectors & Patrons
We host artist-focused exhibitions, masterclasses, workshops, talks, and collaborative projects that spark social reflection, highlight diverse voices, and leave space for play and experimentation.
Volunteering Opportunities
Join Our Mailing List!
Mid Street Lab, an independent non-profit organisation founded in 2022 by multidisciplinary artist JJ Wachter (MA, MBA), is a bold creative hub rooted in Brighton’s Kemptown and now expanding to the Hove seafront with The Arches Vault.
Our mission is simple yet transformative: to make quality contemporary art accessible, inclusive, and life-enhancing. We believe art should not be a privilege but a right—uplifting, connecting, and belonging to everyone.
Through our Altruistic Art Model, we remove barriers: offering free or affordable exhibition space, production support, festival exposure, training and supervision, and fair sales opportunities for emerging and underrepresented artists.
No gatekeeping, no hidden costs—just radical access and real career pathways.
A little goes a long way. Your £5 keeps our lights shining and creativity thriving.
At the heart of our work is community. We centre joy, wellbeing, and positive imagery, bridging generations, cultures, and voices.
In an era of cultural cuts, we are building a resilient, structured artist-led movement that redefines value: art for change, art for care, art for all.
Keep the lights on — and the art alive. A fiver this month makes all the difference.
Kudos to our partners:
Afrori Books
Artist Open House
Black at Sussex
Brighton Fringe Festival
Brighton City Council
Dipol Print
Harwood Kings Printmakers
Photo Fringe Festival
The Querry
University of Sussex
The Upside Down House Brighton
The Seahorse Restaurant Brighton
Brighton Gin
The Sussex Peasant
Artist Returning, Artist Continuing
This season at Mid Street Lab and The Vault, two exhibitions invite us to reflect on an important question: what does it take for artists to keep making work over time?
At Mid Street Lab, experiential practitioner Helena Bryant Taylor presents Body of Play, a research-led residency marking her return to performance after a 15-year pause. The project explores play, embodiment and creative presence, with the studio window acting as a living interface between the artist and the street.
At The Vault, the exhibition Still Making, curated by Rachel Benjamin-Haque, brings together artists who are also educators. Many art teachers continue producing work alongside their teaching careers, often outside the visibility of traditional galleries.
Together these projects highlight a reality many artists recognise: creative practice is rarely linear. It expands, pauses, adapts and returns.
Through Mid Street Lab and The Vault, Wach’Art is developing what we call Altruistic Art: a curatorial practice based on watching, curating, collecting and writing about artists’ work over time.
The aim is simple: to build a cultural ecosystem where artists can continue to experiment, exhibit and grow, while contributing positively to the life of the city.Brighton has long been a place where artists come to think, test and create.
Our ambition is to help ensure they can stay and keep making.Join us for exhibitions, conversations, workshops and open studio moments throughout the season.Art lives through participation.
£5 this month will keep the lights on at The Lab and The Vault, and the doors open to everyone.
Thanks for your support.
