Our New Home — Watch Us Grow
Exciting News — We Have a Home!.
Our Creative Hub is Taking Shape
We have taken on our new shop, studio and community space and are currently getting it ready to welcome you. From painting walls to setting up our studio space, every brushstroke is bringing our vision to life.
We will be sharing photos of our progress right here, so check back regularly and watch our space grow!
What to Expect When We Open
Our hub will not be a drop-in centre — everything we offer will be carefully planned to make sure every session is welcoming, accessible and worthwhile. Here is what we are working towards:
Planned activity days — structured, organised sessions so you always know what to expect
Art workshops — inclusive, accessible creative sessions for people of all abilities
Activities for people with disabilities — sessions designed around your needs, not the other way around
Community events — bringing people together through the power of creativity
Space to hire — groups, organisations and community partners can hire our studio space for their own sessions and events
All income generated goes directly back into supporting our community. We are a Community Interest Company — people always come before profit.
We have a coffee machine.
Those four words don't quite capture the journey, so allow me to elaborate.
After several months of exhaustive research — hundreds of candidates considered and rejected with the kind of rigour usually reserved for buying a house — I found her. A Fracino Bambino, in Basildon, in the hands of a man whose sincerity was written all over his face. He needed a new one. She needed a new home. It felt, frankly, like fate.
Getting her home was the beginning of a beautiful and occasionally chaotic relationship. First came the roller dolly, then the dining room table, and finally — as these things inevitably go — midnight under the awning in what can only be described as one of the more memorable evenings of recent times. There may have been some light engineering involved.
Was everything perfect? Not quite. A few surprises along the way that a little more information upfront might have spared us — but honestly, where's the fun in that? The investigation was half the joy.
The bottom line: we now have a coffee machine that cost us precisely one late night and an excellent story.
As for the coffee itself — we're still perfecting the menu, but one thing is absolutely non-negotiable: it will be fresh, and it will be outstanding. We have a former pub landlord, a partner who knows her way around a coffee shop, and a sister who has dedicated considerable time to the noble pursuit of drinking the stuff. Between us, we are, if nothing else, extremely well qualified.
Watch this space. Good coffee is coming.
