Dave Smith is on a lifelong mission to bring people together. As well as running the cultural advertising firm Micromedia since he was in college, Dave has been responsible for a number of major projects alongside the day job.
In the mid-2000s, he was instrumental in securing funding for skate parks to be built in the city. This turned into an urban arts and sports festival – Kings Of Concrete – that ran for seven years. Then there was Mabos, a multi-purpose arts and events space that ran for a number of years in the docklands.
Dave’s latest project, which opened in September last year, is The Space Between on Fenian Street in Dublin 2. On the face of it, it’s a yoga studio but as he explains, there’s a lot more to it than that.
"It sits between a number of different elements,” he says. “Its primary function is around the personal journey, and that's activated through yoga, meditation and movement, which is anything from breath work, jiu jitsu – anything on the outer reaches.”
The space is also home to talks, art and photography exhibitions, swap shops, a food co-op and community outreach programmes that enable local kids to come in and learn about yoga and meditation.
Dave is upfront about the fact that The Space Between has to be commercially viable to survive, but he believes passionately in providing a space for people to come together – particularly in the face of rampant development in areas like this one over recent years.
“The way cities develop, it tends to be quite siloed,” he says. “With the development on our doorstep, which is really significant, everything is effectively its own entity and there's not a great deal of things that drive cohesion; to tie things together.
“If our space can facilitate conversations, contemplation and maybe some action around this, that would be it achieving its greatest goal.”
Founded during the recession, Mabos fell victim to developers as the economy improved and the building ended up becoming Airbnb’s Dublin HQ. After that experience, Dave found that he had the time, energy and inclination to look for a new project.
“I found yoga and meditation as a model that was working for me,” he says. “I could really see the value in it. The trauma of losing our space led into The Space Between.”
Not that this project has been a relaxing experience. From juggling The Space Between and Micromedia to dealing with bureaucracy and planning regulations, it’s been an energy-sapping and expensive endeavour. “A bit of self-care is so important, and I'm learning the hard way,” Dave laughs. “It is ironic how stressful opening a yoga space was!”
Nevertheless, Dave says it was all worth it from the very first day, when the team opened up at 6am having been putting finishing touches to the building until half past two in the morning.
“People who we don't know were coming in, hanging their jackets and populating the space,” he smiles. “It's that moment when it becomes real, that was special.
“Things are going great, but we have a really long way to go. It's an exciting journey ahead – there will be many cul de sacs but as long as we U-turn out of them, it's all good.”
