New Arts & Crafts centre in Gloucester Docks
An exciting new venture has opened in the docks area of Gloucester. Gloucestershire Arts and Crafts Centre opened at the beginning of April in Lock Warehouse, which has been empty since the Antiques Centre moved to their new premises. The centre aims to support and promote creativity of artists and craftspeople throughout Gloucestershire.
The first part of the Gloucestershire Arts & Crafts Centre opened at the beginning of April with a brand new shop on the ground floor. Paintings, jewellery, glass, ceramics, and baskets were quickly joined by furniture, woodturning, textiles, and cards. A second shop area opened on 16th May to accommodate the ever-growing community of artists and makers wanting to sell their work in the centre and preparations for a third stage of the shop is already under way.
The Gloucestershire Arts & Crafts Centre is run entirely by those whose work is sold in the shop and in between producing the work that is proving popular with Gloucester residents and visitors alike, they have been busy renovating and painting each new element of the centre at an impressive rate. On the first floor there are artists’ workshops to rent and some are already occupied. On the ground floor two exhibition spaces are nearly ready and a classroom is about to be opened for the first courses in what is hoped will be a full programme of varied arts and crafts courses throughout the year.
All the people working at the Gloucestershire Arts & Crafts Centre, including those staffing the shop, are local artists and craftspeople and the emphasis of the whole centre is on supporting local enterprise. It is hoped a café will soon open upstairs which will celebrate the food made and grown in Gloucestershire. Many of the makers also grow or harvest their own materials and others source them locally whenever possible; there is an emphasis on reducing the impact on the environment.
As the Gloucestershire Arts & Crafts Centre grows it will soon become a venue you will want to return to again and again, whether to browse and buy an ever-changing range of crafts and paintings or join one of the courses and explore your own creativity.
Updates on courses, exhibitions and developments at the Gloucestershire Arts & Crafts Centre can be found on its website: www.gloucestershire-arts-and-crafts.webs.com
Explore Gloucestershire
26 May 2010
Lots of Arts & Crafts, courses and exhibitions in Gloucester Docks.
For further information.
OTHER NEWS
