Name: Convenience Gallery

Tell us a bit about your self and then a bit about your relationship to arts and culture: 

We began Convenience in June 2019 at Birkenhead market. We initially had a 6 week opportunity to come in and run a gallery which then turned into Convenience (now going for 3 and half years), but earlier than that we met at University in Manchester on an arts trip to Berlin. Andy studied Interactive Arts and Ryan studied 3D design. 

There was definitely a whole range of things that motivated us to start a gallery. It was a mixture of trying to address a lack of opportunities locally, a need for more space for artists on merseyside, to create more paid opportunities for artists in the area (this took about 12 months to bring to life fully), a want to take art out into new spaces and into towns and our town Birkenhead, alongside also having personal ambitions too to work in the arts and curate. 

We used the first 6 weeks to host a bunch of conversations and open calls that asked people locally what culture they wanted to see in the area and what opportunities were missing. Off of the back of this we ran an open call exhibit followed by a workshop series and exhibition programme up to christmas. We worked entirely voluntarily on Convenience until November 2020 and have had a number of jobs alongside running the gallery to make ends meet. We have now built a huge network of artists and collaborators across the area with a shared mission to create accessible ways for communities to engage and be enriched through the arts. Convenience is about people, places, arts and culture and play. And because we are a CIC that means we are not for profit and all the money we bring in through commissions, donations and fundraising goes right back into making projects for local people. 

We are looking forward to people sharing with us their stories at events and growing this archive of our community. If you’d like to share a story with us, come down to one of our events and let us know so we can feature you here!