Sitting in the café having lunch, I was struck with how silly it would be to order or buy some whiteboard markers that we need right now, when I am sure someone out there has some they aren’t using and would be willing to donate to The Art House. As the reality of Climate Change is finally hitting home for many, everyday waste is becoming more and more difficult to abide by for some, including us. Whilst we have always sought to reduce, reuse and recycle, we haven’t ever published a wishlist – rather with ingenuity, sought out second hand furniture and unwanted art consumables to stock our crafty coffers.

However seeing as our community often ask how they can best help us, we thought it was a good idea to share some of the little day to day things we are looking for, as well as the bigger things that we need – we know it’s unlikely someone will have a freestanding kitchen wash basin going spare in their shed, but one never knows!

Here’s a link to the Wish List!

Have a great weekend,

Devin @ The Art House

I thought I’d let you know that we are really close to a fundraising milestone today!

As it is the end of the month, we are hoping you can help us get over this hurdle and closer to our target.

Our fundraiser currently stands at £9362

The final target we need to reach by Autumn is a whopping £25,000 and right now that seems quite far away. Getting over the £10,000 mark would really help us right now and set us on our way to the next milestone of £15,000 and then £20,00

Every year we have set an ambitious amount, knowing how much we need to help us through the quiet season, and every year our community has come through – but each time it is still quite a white knuckle ride!

So we invite you to be a part of this year’s success story by donating whatever you can. There are a few ways you can do this:

A simple PayPal link which lets you donate using your own PayPal account

A PayPal link that allows you to use a card to pay if you don’t have a PayPal account. You can also use this link if you want to make your donation a regular monthly one!

Send us a bank transfer to:
The Art House Southampton
Sort code 089299
Account no. 65287334, (The Co-operative Bank)

Post a cheque payable to ‘The Art House Southampton’
to 178 Above Bar St, Southampton SO14 7DW

Or just pop in in person with old fashioned cash!

However much you can give, it all adds up – we have raised the amount we have so far from donations ranging from £2 to £200

If you can’t help financially, we understand and invite you to share our fundraising page on Facebook or Twitter.

People visiting Southampton often say how much they love The Art House and how they wish there was something like us in their city.
So, why isn’t there?

Frankly – cafes are a high risk business at the best of times, and making ethical and creative choices rather than financial ones makes it all the more difficult.

That is why we always knew that we were going to need to do more than sell cakes and coffees to keep going, and why we’ve managed to beat the 1 year, 2 year, 5 year and 10 year records for our industry, making us a bit of a rare unicorn as a cafe, much less a community-run, veggie one.

We did this by asking for help when we needed it.

Summertime is a quiet time for us, as many of the kind of folks who like The Art House are also people who like festivals, travelling, walking, picnicking, gardening and being outdoors. We also have about 15% of our custom from students, who go home for the summer.

Every time the weather improves, our cafe takings nosedive – it has been this way for 13 summers now.

This year, we managed to stave off the slump for longer with all sorts of creative moneymaking ideas, but the past three weeks have been, frankly, not good.

We need to make up our shortfall for August so that we can stride rather than limp into the Autumn season.

This is where you come in.

Our summer fundraising target for this year is a whopping £25K and we have raised nearly £9K of it already. We need this week to get more money flowing in, as the bills are starting to pile up.

Donate now using PayPal or click here for other ways to donate

If you can help, please do – any amount, no matter how small, helps us and encourages us as this time of year is quite emotionally taxing for our crew.

Everything you put in will be used directly, today, to pay a vital bill and keep our doors open. We promise to spend your money wisely and frugally!

Donating today will make you a part of another summer success story, and when you see our amazing events programme you will know that you, personally, were a part of making that happen.

If you can’t help financially, we understand and invite you to share our fundraising page on Facebook or Twitter.

Our printable what’s on guide is here for August – October – print yours out here

We are current low on regular weekly volunteers and are doing a shout out for people to join our crew.

Do you want to be involved in on-the ground grassroots activism that has a direct, positive and quantifiable impact on the local community? This is your opportunity to get involved with The Art House!

What does it involve?

We won’t lie – there’s a lot of washing up and cleaning! But we also provide barista training, till training and food prep training – if you volunteer in the kitchen you will get the opportunity to learn more about vegan cooking and be privy to our magic recipes. You will also get to meet lots of lovely people!

When /how often do I need to be free?

Whilst we are very flexible in terms of working times and regularity, shifts tend to be 4 hours long and we absolutely adore when people can commit to a regular weekly shift as this really helps us out! However we understand this isn’t possible for everyone – but we do ask that you come a minimum of twice a month, unless you’re specifically unable to for a short period.

Having volunteers enables us to buy and operate ethically – by using organic, local and fairtrade products – whilst preventing the exploitation of people, animals and planet without passing the cost on to our community.  This keeps us accessible to as many people as possible without compromising our values.

We aim to have 65 active volunteers on our team, as we have 62 individual shifts to fill a week across the kitchen and café. We currently have 31 volunteers so we are a bit thin on the ground!

If you would like to find out more and apply, please fill in the form below: