We didn’t choose the name ‘The Art House’, we inherited it from the business before us, but we had a lot of fun punning with the name, as did our detractors.
The ART House because it’s a house where art lives.
The eARTh House – we’ve always worked in ways that try to tread lightly on our planet.
The HeART House – because it’s all about love and friendship, too!
The TART House because we do love sweet treats!
In recent years we added two more:
The ADHD House
The Autistic House
They don’t work so well as puns, but it turns out all three directors and most of our core crew are one or both of these things.
It’s why the place felt safe for others who are neurodivergent. Because it was made by us, for us, and was always the sort of space we wished we could have found.
It’s why the chaos and the creativity.
It’s why the focus on justice and fairness.
It’s why we’re also, many of us, gender diverse – because yes those two things seem to be linked.
It also has made operating in this end stage capitalist hellscape hard on our crew. Whilst we have many skills between us, none of us really rock admin or officialdom, especially when it doesn’t make sense (which it often doesn’t). It also led to burnout for all three of our founding directors at various stages, which they might talk about themselves another time. This lovely place has come at a personal cost for the people who’ve worked on it long term.
As we move out of our building and become a pop-up, the name will gently over time be replaced by ‘Bunker178’ for our pop up events. The Bunker is a place of safety, a funky refuge, an acknowledgement that people like us, and our people, need to hunker down together sometimes.
We reckon a higher than average proportion of our supporters and customers over the years have also been neurodivergent – like attracts like! Are you one of them?
PS We always thought ‘The Fart House’ was a great name, too – although it was meant as an insult! We love toilet humour, also high fibre diets are wholesome.
