Jani here with a little walk through our beginnings, some of the stops on the way and the big change we are facing in March.
Indulge me in a little nostalgia about this House of ours as we make plans to move out – it seems impossible that we’ll have spent 15 years with this as our home! We intend to fill the space with more memories before we are done, though, and create new ones in new places.
This is what we had to work with when we first took on the building – the day we looked around (see a younger looking Bik!) it was pouring with rain, the building had no electricity, the previous tenants had left a load of junk and things had been ripped off the walls. There were some boxes of rotting veg, which we promptly composted, of course.
We moved in on 25 March 2009 and the first thing through the door was our piano – which now will need a new home, if anyone is interested!
Next up was three weeks of frantic work to get us open – we had fundraised around £10K to do the move and all of the refurbishment, and had to be open and trading quickly to make sure the money did not run out!
It would be impossible to go through all the years we have been here in one post. It has been so full of lovely people, inspiring interactions and art … we wish we’d documented it better at the time, but we were quite busy! Our Facebook page tracks so much of what has gone on here.
In early 2020 we had hit a difficult time and, as our fixed term lease was coming to an end, it was decision time. Southampton has changed so much during the 10 years we had been here and we weren’t sure if we were needed anymore.
So, we decided to ask our community – in the form of (Not) The Last Fundraiser:
Amazingly and with a last minute anonymous donation to take us to our target, we managed to raise £25000 to secure our future!
We celebrated our success with a grand weekend of performance – you can see snippets of it here:
At the end of February 2020 we were all set to transform our model to a more sustainable one, focus on the events and move forward. Like a lot of people (pretty much every human on earth), Covid 19 had other plans!
Within 3 weeks, we were closed with an uncertain future and lockdown was upon us. Lockdown was eerie, after such a busy time – our space was silent and empty. But we never had any doubt that closing was the right thing to do, to keep our crew and customers safe. On 17 March, we secured the building and went home.
Once it became clear that lockdown wasn’t going to be just a few weeks, we started to make plans to repurpose our space to be useful. We got some live events going on Zoom to keep everyone connected and sane.
Next up, we started ‘The Art House To Go’ food deliveries – tiered priced meals delivered by our trusty crew each week.
We also started to clear our space, once it was allowed, and prepare to reopen with a space that would allow for social distancing. It’s the work of another blog post to go through Bik’s creation of ‘Bunker178’ – our downstairs performance space, so I’ll skim over that here.
Once restrictions started to lift, we were eventually able to do very small, well ventilated gigs with our masks on.
We kept streaming to Zoom for those who were not ready to come out, and we still do!
During summer 2020 we were also able to realise a long held ambition of mine for the space when we opened a community pantry, which is still going strong and which we are planning to move to a new location when we leave here (watch this space for updates!).
We reopened slowly as restrictions lifted and the vaccination programme rolled out, here is a little walkthrough of the early days of our current form:
I often feel that we kept going these past few years, since that crisis in early 2020 when it all looked very bleak for us, so that we could be here for those who needed us during the pandemic. It was such an intense time, such a sad and dangerous time, but there were so many moments of beauty in it, too. I am so grateful that we’ve been able to do it.
I refuse to feel sad about the imminent change. We are more than a building, and we’ve got so much more to offer – just not in this space!
The Art House has been incredibly hard work, personally challenging me every single day. Often I think people see this side of it:
…. and even the harder craft sides of it…
But what isn’t recorded are the more serious sides, the difficult moments – and there were so many – where we didn’t think we’d be able to keep doing what we do.
For me, this ending is sad, of course, but it is also freeing, exciting, very scary – all at once. Who knows what is coming next? We didn’t know when we first set up back in 2008 in our first building that the adventure would last this long, involve so many people and impact such a large number of folks. We didn’t anticipate running through a major global historical event, not at all! But we did it – because we have the most amazing community that supported us every step of the way….. and I know that community will be here for the next part, too.
We’re still here until mid March so please come and be a part of this chapter – even if you’ve only just found us. We have so much going on – take a look here.
See you soon,
Jani (Jez) Franck, Founding Director
