About us

The Art House is somewhere to meet, share and create.  

Community run, for love and not for profit, we provide a place which is out of the ordinary, a safe place, a place where art and top quality live music can flourish and be shared – a Southampton Art Centre run by the community, for the community.

This is your space, as well as ours, somewhere you can meet up with friends, be inspired by a world class performance, learn something new, perform a poem, work in a corner on your laptop or just have some lunch!

Visiting is like dropping into a good friend’s (somewhat quirky) house – it’s not Ikea-land, but informal, a bit zany perhaps, an oasis from the busy pace of life.  You can curl up on a sofa with a book, or gather around one of our big tables for a meal, or sip wine and listen to some music.

Live performance in our ground floor "Bunker" space.
Babsie Brown and the miniature orchestra.

We’ve worked to provide a safer, more accepting, comfortable space where anyone who wants something a just a little different from the mainstream can feel right at home.

At the same time, we are committed to excellence in our events, food, service and providing you with a great overall experience of the space. We may be a small space, but our live music gigs have gained praise from many well-respected and notable performers who have played here, many of whom return year after year even though they could command much bigger audiences elsewhere, including Professor Elemental, Rachel Sage, Nick Harper, Phil Beer, Omid Djalili, Martha Tilston, Josh Savage, Will Varley, Dizraeli, Andrew O’Neill, India Electric Company, Rue Royale, Nick Pinn and Kate Daisy Grant, Sarah Angliss and even surprise drop-in performances from the likes of members of the Welsh National Opera, and an unplanned after-party with Bellowhead.

Most of our crew are volunteers, who give their time to make the space run smoothly and create a wonderful experience for you when you visit us.

To read more about the story of how we got here, visit here

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