The Blackwater Polytechnic

The Blackwater Polytechnic is an exhibiting collective and informal educational establishment based in North Essex. It began when artists Ben Coode-Adams and Freddie Robins started converting a sixteenth century timber framed barn to live and work in. There was a need to retrain in order to be able to complete the project as envisioned, so the Polytechnic was born. The Polytechnic combines construction, farming, forestry, art, craft and collecting with a strong focus on the local and collaboration. We believe that people are only interesting in conversation with each other.

Blackwater Polytechnic has been self-sufficient and self-sustaining since its inception. We have established our own rigorous theoretical aesthetic framework based on expediency, matter-of-factness, substance and a gung-ho ‘let’s get this party started’ attitude. We think it is interesting and new. We equate quality with hard work, attention to detail, very fine sanding and beautiful knitting.

We are strongly rooted in our locale. Essex is a county with a rich Utopian history. People come here to make things better. Successions of pioneers have built their own dreams on the margins of everything. Here people respect fiercely each other’s right to an individual vision. We do our own thing and come together over shared kinship, and dirt, shooting, horses, cars, and bikes, heels, short skirts, fish pedicures, ale, and giant car-boot sales. We may look a bit like you. We are not you.