Humber Street Gallery
Polly Checkland Harding
Home to year-round events, performances and activities, Humber Street Gallery is a contemporary art space in the heart of Hull’s Fruit Market cultural quarter, open to everyone to experience free world-class exhibitions and events.
Housed in a former fruit warehouse, this high-quality contemporary art space was born from Hull’s year as City of Culture in 2017: established as part of the 12-month programme, Humber Street Gallery was designed to be an ambitious new gallery for the city, and to contribute more widely to the visual arts offer in the North. It has been successfully delivering on this aim, holding up to eight contemporary art exhibitions annually, featuring shows from artists such as Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2022, Hetain Patel, Lou Lou Sainsbury and more. There’s also a welcoming café on site, serving up hot food, coffee, cocktails and more.
Humber Street Gallery is run and managed by registered charity and ACE National Portfolio Organisation Absolutely Cultured, who develop work along three main strands: arts programming; artist development; community engagement and learning. Their focus is on creating meaningful opportunities for Hull’s residents, artists and visitors, with exhibitions and events fostering interactions between people that go on to have wider resonance. The organisation’s ethos is based on using dialogue to encourage engagement with challenging topics, including climate change, equality and inclusion.
Absolutely Cultured and Humber Street Gallery are continually looking towards the future. Their ambition is to further develop the venue into a multi-functional creative centre, showcasing a wide range of art and activities that provide something for everyone. Local artists are set to be at the forefront of this vision, alongside projects from national and international visual art practitioners. It’s a far-reaching and admirable goal, and one that looks set to secure Humber Street Gallery’s place in the city’s creative scene for a long time to come.
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