The Art House

From Earth to Cloth by The Art House will be a truly sustainable project working with the local community, creatives and plant life in order to create a unique selection of goods for retail.

Initially by supporting our gardening club members we will use our urban orchard space to plant and cultivate a dye garden. We will also be working with local gardening communities and our visitors to collect waste products in order to dye deadstock fabrics to make range of naturally dyed homeware items. We will work with local artists and makers as well as a local tailor to produce hand crafted items. Once established the dye garden will mean we can continue to produce more stock seasonally on site making a strong line of income for our shop.

This project will allow us to generate much needed income to support our work, without compromising our values and sustainability goals. Supporting local craftspeople and those displaced to the area we will be able to further engage with communities and collaborate in a more inclusive way. Local tailor Hamid will be briefed to construct most of the items – he came to the area displaced from Iran with his family and has since been supported by us to set up and run a successful local business.

Alongside the product launch, we will be running a series of workshops to engage participants with the processes, and model more sustainable ways of working on this scale of production. Longer term we aim to create a wholesale catalogue of items to stock in other galleries and museums around the country. Inspired by a talk at the Cultural Enterprises Conference about the power of licensing, wholesaling will enable us to extend our reach whilst also generating retail income for other organisations, creating a valuable and positive ripple effect.

At The Art House, artists and audiences of all kinds are invited to engage with the creative process through a year-round programme of residencies, exhibitions, events, workshops, and professional development opportunities.

We manage more than 50 accessible artists studios, hosting a wide variety of artists, makers, and creative businesses. In our building, you’ll also find exhibition spaces, on-site accessible accommodation for creatives, a shop, a coffee house, meeting rooms and event spaces for hire.

Our staff are a small but mighty group who all share a passion for improving access and opportunity in the visual arts.