Smithdown's Suburban Gallery:
The Urban Coffee Lounge

By Kenn Taylor

Smithdown Road's Urban Coffee Lounge has combined the role of café and art gallery for nearly three years. It offers an informal and relaxed exhibition space outside the city centre.

Established and run by artists themselves it specialises in exhibiting work by new artists both local and national, giving them a platform to get their work seen by a wider audience. The gallery also encourages artists to expand their own skills and is currently starting a programme aimed at giving artists curator training, giving them the space to learn how to run their own exhibitions.

Proprietor Rosie also believes that the venue plays an important role in the community too: "We aim to be as open and inclusive as possible…too many galleries put up barriers, people are afraid to go in. Here you can come in and just sit and have a drink and look at the artwork if you want to."

The popularity of the gallery means that expansion is now underway with a whole new gallery in the basement scheduled to open by next year. This will massively increase the space available to show work. Rosie also believes the gallery offers a lot of artistic freedom. "It's a coffee shop too, but we'd let them hang meat off the walls if they wanted to."

The L.issue gallery in the Urban Coffee Lounge is at 349 Smithdown Road, Liverpool.
For more information call: 0151-734 2624