Beginnings
Convenience Gallery CIC was Formed in May 2019 by friends Andrew Shaw and Ryan Gauge. Both were artists at this time struggling to find space and opportunities within the region they set up Convenience in Birkenhead Market to create a space to champion local art and develop a growing creative programme. Creating an open forum for input that invited people from the local community to shape what this programming would look like. Whilst working on events with Niamh Mitchell on Small Steps Events, with the nudge from the Wirral Environmental Network we had the opportunity to take on a 6 week takeover of a market stall on Brassey Aisle in Birkenhead Market under a peppercorn agreement.
At this early stage we wanted to begin with something open. So we started an Instagram account and started posting out dates for 1-1s, crits and group input, all in the form of open conversation to understand the needs of the community locally with a series of days at the market stall. From here we were able to design a project to run at the market that was specific to addressing barriers face by local people in the arts and culture sector.
These conversations shaped all of the early exhibitions, and a workshop series. Primarily we understand we had not been alone in our struggle to access paid work, or space to exhibit/ run projects from. But we also found a willing audience here of a place filled with artists.
With this learning we reapproached the market and extended our stay to 6 months. We also met the lovely team at Open Eye Gallery who, included our space in the 2019 Look Photo Biennial, where we exhibited the work of Dinu Li.
This process of openly speaking with our audience and the local community has been a staple across all programming we have lead at Convenience Gallery and remains a vital part of ensuring the programmes we lead a responsive and proactive in addressing the needs of the people in Birkenhead.
What followed across 2019 was a series of projects: including Open Call #1, TV Babies Collective show, Joana de Oliveira Guerreiro solo show, Burst Our Bubble (LJMU 2019 Graduates show), and latterly Anatomy of Place, Dinu Li (As part of the Look Photo Biennial). Alongside these Convenience also hosted a series of free and affordable talks and workshops bringing a wide range of artists and researchers directly to the local community of Birkenhead and wider LCR. Included in this series were: Jocelyn Allen, Claire Henderson, Lois Tierney, Rob Flynn, and from Manchester, Ash van Dyck & Ellie Brennan. As well as plenty more. In the October of 2019 Convenience hosted a lecture series in collaboration with LJMU, Bloom Building, John Hyatt's Dark Side Art Lab, called Thinking Out Loud. These invited lecturers from John Moores, to lead seminar style talks around their personal research topics.
