‘We’re letting the space become what it wants and evolve,’ says artist, designer and advocate of the ‘slow living revolution’ Nathan Slate of his new creative venture SL-ATE in Bridgwater. Concept store is a perhaps limiting misnomer, SL-ATE fuses fashion and curated homewares, coffee shop and open studio in a light and airy space on the corner of Clare Street.
Nathan, who has dressed Rihanna and Lady Gaga but modestly makes no reference to them, is making Somerset his permanent home after several years travelling to and from the county to Madeira, where he enjoyed the unhurried pace of life. ‘People need to slow down, at SL-ATE people can come in and read their books,’ he explains, drawing attention to a selection of second-hand books from The Book Nook.
He has made a point of switching hard chairs for upholstered ones at a table favoured by customers. People are encouraged to wander around with a coffee in hand to look at the ceramics, fashion lines, dried bouquets, jewellery or Nathan’s diverse work. A founder of Skewer House restaurant in Taunton, hospitality is in Nathan’s bones and he is more than happy to stop making to chat to visitors.
Bridgwater, Nathan believes, is on the cusp of an artistic explosion. Bridgwater Arts Centre, the first public arts centre in England to open with Arts Council funding, was recently awarded a £700K cash injection which will include updating the exhibition spaces. ‘We’re just on the edge of something really great happening to this town,’ says Nathan understatedly, but with a touch of steel in his voice.
The resident makers at SL-ATE include Somerset-based creatives jewellery designer Julia Thompson and ceramist Barbara Boylan as well as sustainable tea, matcha and coffee from Brew Planet, which is blended in the Quantocks. Since opening in June 2024, SL-ATE has hosted evening workshops and Nathan is keen to blur the lines between art and food, with the coffee shop merging seamlessly into a bar.
‘I’m hoping the space grows organically,’ reflects Nathan. Recognising the vibrant arts scene elsewhere in the county, such as in Frome and Bruton, he is passionate about maintaining a ‘gritty and earthy vibe’ in Bridgwater as its creative personality blossoms. ‘If I live in Bridgwater and want a place like this, there must be others like me,’ he says simply. ‘I want more people to open places like mine.’
A collaborative approach is obvious not only across the curated collections at SL-ATE, which also have a Portuguese influence linking back to Nathan’s time in Maderia, but in the way he has reached out to local businesses such as boutique hotel The Old Vicarage, run by Candida Leaver. She is as enthusiastic as Nathan about an imminent reimagining for Bridgwater and for support between business owners.
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Fresh from her imposing installation The Meddling Fiend engaging with the statue of Sir Joshua Reynolds in the Annenberg Courtyard at the Royal Academy of Arts for the Summer Exhibition 2024, Bath-based artist Nicola Turner brings her work to the Somerset Rural Life Museum in Glastonbury where she will be exhibiting alongside filmmaker Trevor Pitt.
Known for her large-scale compositions in wool and horsehair, Nicola’s installation in the Abbey Barn will form part of the Museum’s project Spinning a Yarn: Telling the Story of Wool in Somerset and will explore human connections with the material. Nicola manipulated unprocessed fleeces and salvaged horsehair to create The Meddling Fiend and her works invite us to consider what agency dead matter retains.
Trevor Pitt’s film Somerset Yarning tells the personal stories of sheep farmers and artists who work with their fleeces. Trevor and Nicola's joint exhibition at the Museum runs until 2 November complementing wider activities for Somerset Art Weeks. Spinning a Yarn: Telling the Story of Wool in Somerset will continue until 30 November.
Based from FORM-ica, an industrial building in Oldfield Park, Bath, which she recently converted into seven artists’ studios, Nicola is a founder and director of Bath Art Depot (BAD), a collective of artists, architects and artist-educators living and working in Bath. BAD is leading a campaign for an arts and cultural hub in the city.
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