After raising their £25,000 target, The Art House remains open.
Located on Above Bar Street, The Art House has been trying to raise enough to ensure they would no longer be forced to close. Since February there has been a big push for donations and innumerous fundraising events.
Director of The Art House, Devin Valentine, says the team were “very shocked” to have achieved their goal:
We did not expect it. We were at about £18,000 and we thought we have made a good dent, we can carry on but maybe not everything we wanted to do. Then we had one donation from one person to make up the difference – we were overwhelmed.
The final lump sum had been donated by an artist who has been supporting The Art House since its first opening.
It is expected that The Art House will close in upcoming weeks, in order to adapt the inside space in order to make it more flexible.
Valentine has stated previously that they are aiming to change how the space is used:
We would tear back some of the cafe and make the venue, stage and art area bigger since that is our passion. So the idea is to transform the space, we will continue running the cafe but it will not be our main priority, because at the moment we talk about food 80% of the time and that is not our passion.
It is thought that future plans include focusing less on the café parts of the business, and more on being able to hire out the space in the hopes of returning a reliable profit.
