We get asked a lot – “where are you based?” by people who are curious about where we do our work from.
First to highlight that (currently) The Culture House isn’t a building (although we’re looking at plans for this!). We’re a charitable organisation producing events, festival and arts projects, usually in partnership with others, to benefit residents of – and visitors to – North East Lincolnshire.
There was a time when we didn’t have a base, so to speak, with Charlotte initially working from home and then from the then Gate Gallery in Brighowgate, Grimsby, before moving to other spaces as the team grew. The nature of working in the arts means you can be quite ‘transient’, moving from one low cost place to another until you’re in a bit of a more secure position.
In 2019 we moved into an empty unit on Wellowgate in part to become more ‘visible’ and then of course the pandemic happened (during which we commissioned a number of window artworks under the title of ‘Something to Cheer Us Up’).
Obviously things were then hit and miss for a while and like everyone else we worked from home until we could go back to work ‘safely’ – a little share though that Wellowgate had no toilet, or heating, so even though it was quirky, we were essentially slumming it a bit – as well as being cold, we had to run into Vittles next door every time we needed the loo! We then found an office was available at the Business Hive in Dudley Street and moved in among lots of other locally-led businesses (we’re now a charity). Got to say, The Business Hive is great! It has low cost membership and if you’re just starting out or don’t need an actual office much, you can hot desk from there as part of the monthly membership. It has a really nice open work space with chillaxey furniture.
However, we’d been looking at our options lately as we want to be closer to the people we serve. And although it wasn’t originally on our list of options, we’ve now moved into the NEW Hive. This is the former St James’ House, which had stood empty and dilapidated for years. Congratulations to Mark Webb and his team at e-factor for seeing the opportunity here for regeneration in the town centre and for serving the NELincs business community so well. Making this happen really has transformed the square (which we’ve been activating with ‘culture’), alongside the new paving and artwork. We love our new low-cost office, which overlooks the beautiful Minster. Looking out makes us feel proud. While we work on our future plans, we can’t think of a better place to be joining those with a positive commitment to Grimsby, right in the middle of town and right next to a key heritage building that is really close to our hearts.
