
Fish Factory – Creative Centre
The Creative Centre is located in Stöðvarfjörður, a remote village in the East fjords of Iceland. It was established in 2011 when a group of people acquired the abandoned Fish Factory of the village. The group funded a non-profit cooperation which owns the building and manages the daily operations and business of the Centre. The Centre is an independent initiative and all team members are volunteers still today. The Creative Centre is an ongoing collaborative and community project. They want to regenerate and sustain the small village by making it into a possible and desirable place to settle – a place where you can have engaging jobs, enjoy culture, and the influx of new ideas and creative people. With this project they want to demonstrate the possibility of strengthening small, remote communities with creative initiatives and to be a source of inspiration for others alike. The Centre is meant to be a platform offering many different workshops and facilities where small initiatives can thrive.
They run an all year around art residency for most creative fields and frequently host cultural events and concerts. Currently they are starting up workshops and study courses at the Centre and also host a small fish processing company run by a local family and it is easy to get very fresh fish.
The Residency is multi-disciplinary and open for most creative directions: Visual Art, New Media, Printmaking, Sculpture, Dance, Performing Arts, Land Art, Textile Art, Music, Literature, Sustainable Design, Engineering & Photography. The purpose of the program is to provide emerging and established artists, creatives, designers and progressive thinkers a port for free expression and a place to meet with other creative people in a small collaborative community. It is worth to mention that two dogs, Tumi & Skotta, are “at work” in the Centre Centre most days and follow the Team Members around. Tumi & Skotta are very human friendly dogs and spread love and joy. They are not guest in the Artist Studios unless they are invited by artists.
If an artist wants to lead a workshop, exhibit his/her works, hold a concert/perform or read poetry during their stay it is very welcome but not mandatory.
They offer a shared studio (95 m2) for 6 Artists and one private studio (18.5 m2).
The residency artists stay together in two big houses. The houses are located in the heart of the small village and are about 3-5 min walking distance from the Centre. The houses have garden, spacious bedrooms, large kitchens, living room, bathroom, washroom and internet access. Each artist has their own private bedroom and shares other facilities with his/her housemates. Upon arrival each artist gets 2 towels and bed linen. They also provide toilet paper, cleaning products for housecleaning and washing machine soap.
Artists can invite their partner or a guest for a short stay upon prior arrangement with a team member. The maximum stay is five nights. Volunteers and Interns stay at the house as well.
The Centre has fully equipped wood & metal workshops, ceramic workshop, kitchen, small library, sewing workshop and a Concert hall. Artists have access to the workshops & facilities in the Centre, in consultation with a team member and based on individual skills.
Fish Factory – Creative Centre is a former fish factory located in Stöðvarfjörður, a remote village in the East fjords of Iceland, approximately 650 km from Reykjavík. The village is surrounded by scenery dominated by the mountain Súla, that belongs among the most unique natural wonders in Iceland. The village has about 180 inhabitants, rich fishing tradition, 2 galleries, grocery/snack bar, fitness gym, swimming pool (open only in the summer), and a largest private stone collection in Europe. There are now also growing sustainable tendencies within the community for it is experiencing large scale depopulation as an effect of closure of the local fish factory.