Empty Shop Head Quarters Now Open in Durham

Friday the 19th of February saw the non-profit arts organisation Empty Shop launch its new head quarters with an open exhibition just off Durham’s Framwellgate Bridge.

The Empty Shop was set up by local artists Carlo Viglianisi and Nick Malyan which takes old and disused buildings and turns them into exhibitions. This new building is the largest one they have ever converted and used to be a Greggs before its current incarnation.

Each exhibition features new and local artists hand-picked by Carlo and Nick and gives them the chance to display their work in a way that previously they may not have found possible. As well as giving new artists the chance, it also exhibited an exclusive wall piece by local graffiti artist The Cloud Commission.

Speaking at the launch, Carlo explains the reasons behind setting up the Empty Shop. “There wasn’t anywhere in Durham so we thought we just start it ourselves, that was a year ago and now a year on we’ve moved into a permanent building which is our headquarters.

“At first the response was really overwhelming, much more than we anticipated which lead to going through two other buildings previous to this one and we hope to continue to move forward” said Carlo.

Nick talks about the previous buildings that Empty Shop occupied. “We took one which was an old building in Gilesgate which is about a mile and a half outside of Durham city centre,” explains Nick.

“That was quite challenging because it was a space that people weren’t really aware of. But on our opening night we still had about 150 people travelling that mile and a half to come to our event which showed us that there was no one indirectly doing this, meeting the need of the people and that there was a real desire for what we do” said Nick.

One of other ways which makes the Empty Shop organisation so special is how it chooses the work which it submits. It’s an open submission and accepts art which is submitted by anyone. This makes it perfect for new artists in the area to get their work displayed and gives them an opportunity which they may not get anywhere else.  As Carlo mentions, “It’s always a really good response when we do this and we have a real open door community aspect and people respond to that really well.”

So how successful are these open submissions then? “The first time we showed something like 20 pieces of art and received a little over a 100, this time it’s around the 200 mark so its worked really nicely,” answers Nick.

“Obviously we’ve had a lot more work to look through from so many artists we’ve not heard of before and it’s a really good way of meeting people who are interested in the project and this open submission show represents the accessibility that we try to have running through absolutely everything we do” said Nick.

The Empty Shop is currently situated at 35c Framwellgate Bridge Durham City. Information about submitting work or hiring out the space can be found at the website.