Convenience Gallery
After visiting Existential House, we went to Convenience Gallery; a contemporary organisation focused on working with the community. The proprietors are advocates for artists having fair pay, inclusion and mental health. They aim to help artists, the arts and art programming through their company.
They achieve these goals by:
1. Supporting people from any background.
2. Allowing access for the community.
3. Having their programmes in community spaces.
4. Having high quality art programmes.
5. Having partnerships and networks.
4000 people have attended the galleries programming since 2019, producing about 60 paid opportunities. They have also worked with over 20 artists, who led workshops and themselves have led 4 creative and wellbeing courses for youths.
We were able to start the visit with a workshop, making a patch to attach to a jumpsuit. After seeing an ugly broach, I was immediately attracted to it and though of Pat Butcher from Eastenders; she was my inspiration. I found as many mis-matching items as I could and started to sew them together.
I really enjoyed making this little patch and thought it was a fun way to introduce us top the gallery and let us get involved with it. I attached my patch to the centre as I felt it should be the first thing people look at- it’s just that ugly.
Afterwards, we did another mini workshop where we talked about building our own ethos. Paired with Maddy, we talked about what community we would want, the guidelines introduced, what spaces we could work in, the people we would want to work with, our creative focus and some manifestos we would like to incorporate.
As we have only just started our society, this was a really helpful discussion since it gave us a rough outline on what we need to get started. It also gave me hope that after university, I won’t be stuck in a retail job, but I may be able to join a community like this, or even start my own.