This about a place. You might think ‘it’s just a cafe with a gallery and some stuff the sell!’ .

Wrong! Sure there is a cafe, there is Art on the walls for sale, there are cabinets of locally made crafts, a preloved clothes boutique.

There’s music and poetry creative groups of so many types, groups for poetry, stories, drawing, crafting, language learning, that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

But these are the framework that supports The Art House. The Art House is a place where people and art meet and thrive. It’s a big family of staff, volunteers, directors, customers, performers, artists, community all meeting up and sharing not only their ‘things’ but their support, their love, their friendship.

And on top of all that the Art House supports, encourages and campaigns for a better, more sustainable, fairer world. Making it a safe place for marginalised people. I have been part of this community for around 8 or 9 years.

It’s taught me so much about other people, from tackling racism to supporting LGBT+ (thankyou everyone). But it’s not cheap. The cafe cannot support everything that happens.

The Art House is not for profit, mainly volunteer run and relies on fundraising. But surviving hand to mouth isn’t enough. To develop for the future needs of it’s community the Art House needs major fundraising.

So please if you value community spaces, if you think we need places for grass roots arts and affordable venues for small group activities, if you think safe, supportive community spaces matter, please dip in your pocket and donate what you can to keep the Art House open and help us do more! Thankyou!

https://thearthousesouthampton.org/donate/