ArtHouse Jersey is to open a brand new exhibition space in St Helier on Thursday 14th April.
‘ArtHouse Jersey at Capital House’ will be a multipurpose arts space located on the ground floor of the ‘brutalist’ building at 8 Church Street, tucked behind The Royal Square and alongside St Helier Town Church.
Run by the ArtHouse Jersey team, they will apply their knowledge and passion to the space’s programme while offering the Island a new centralised hub for arts and creativity in town. From visual arts to dance, music, drama, film and poetry, Capital House will become ArtHouse Jersey’s centralised space to showcase highly finished, inspiring artistic works.
It’s no secret that finding suitable spaces to present and showcase art of all mediums in the Island is an ongoing challenge. A significant proportion of what ArtHouse Jersey does is source, negotiate and transform unlikely spaces into exhibition spaces and performance friendly venues. Having identified ArtHouse Jersey’s need for an
accessible, centralised setting to showcase quality work and an appetite from local audiences to further engage with art and creativity in St Helier, Capital House was acquired.
This new premises plays a different role from the arts charity’s HQ at Greve de Lecq Barracks. The space in St Mary is integral to their artist residency programme and the creation and development of new work. Generally speaking, public performances and exhibitions at Greve de Lecq Barracks offer opportunities to artists earlier on in their career or scratch performances of developing works.
ArtHouse Jersey at Capital House will offer finished work in a much more accessible location for the general public. Alongside exhibitions and performances this new space will also act as a making room for creative projects and an artistic hub for lectures, meetings and networking. There will be content to see in the space all year round, except for exhibition turnaround periods. Opening times will differ depending on the content on offer at any one time.
Director of ArtHouse Jersey, Tom Dingle, said: ‘Capital House is an exciting development at a pivotal moment for our organisation. Having spent so long tracking down possible exhibition spaces over the years, to have a centralised venue in such an iconic location will be a real game changer.
“We aim to have active, inspiring and interesting work on display for as much of the year as possible and we’re already confident that the programme we have lined up for the space is going to excite local audiences. It’s our hope that ArtHouse Jersey at Capital House becomes a firm fixture in the minds of those who appreciate art, as somewhere to meet friends or spend a little time alone enjoying high quality work.”
Main image illustration is by artist Gabriella Street.
