The Art Newspaper

Drawing Room finds new home in London soup factory

Larger, more industrial space gives non-profit organisation room to expand

By The Art Newspaper. Web only
Published online: 21 September 2011

Brigida Baltar's "Flora do sertão, (Forest Flora)", 2008, is on view in the Drawing Room's inaugural exhibition

An old Campbell Soup factory in Bermondsey, South London, is the new home for the Drawing Room. “It’s more industrial than our former premises, which was a mid-Victorian building with a more traditional, warm feel,” says Mary Doyle, the co-director.

“Our new building is bigger, lighter and gives us the opportunity to expand and experiment,” she says. But the move has meant a higher rent for the non-profit gallery, which relies on bi-annual fundraising events to raise money to mount exhibitions.

However, the centre has just received first-time funding through the Arts Council National Portfolio Programme 2012-15, which will come into play next year. The new gallery opens with the exhibition “The Peripatetic School: Itinerant Drawing from Latin America” which runs until 13 November.

Riah Pryor