Shoreditch Arts Club, opening on 7 March 2023, will be the newest addition to east London’s arts and culture scene. The private members' club will seek to evoke ‘the curiosity of an avid art collector’s home’ and offer a fusion of art forms, through a revolving programme of performances, moving image commissions and installations.
The club will take over 500 sq m of 6 Redchurch Street, Shoreditch’s Tea Building, a 1930s warehouse and local landmark. It’s the latest creative addition to an area with a rich and fertile cultural heritage. Also in the vicinity are independent galleries such as Maureen Paley, Hales, Herald Street, and Kate McGarry – responsible for bringing artists to global renown – and the Barbican Centre and Whitechapel Gallery, representing decades-long beacons of culture.
Exterior view of Shoreditch Arts Club at 6 Redchurch Street, inside Shoreditch’s iconic Tea Building
The club seeks to blend culture, community and culinary offerings under one roof, and, as Shoreditch Arts Club CEO Joel Williams explains, offer a platform for ‘stimulating conversations in a comfortable environment’. Facilities include a restaurant, café and bar, an open dining space, working and lounge areas, private dining and meeting rooms, a 24-seat cinema, an events programme and an evolving display of artworks and design objects. Culinary-wise, the club will offer a seasonal menu by in-house chef Mattia Luminelli, who will oversee a locally sourced cuisine with an emphasis on vegetarian and vegan options, and drinks led by award-winning mixologist Walter Pintus.
Shoreditch Arts Club will be led by Williams, previously chief executive of the Conduit club, who brings experience in hospitality and a focus on social change to the table, and Ché Zara Blomfield, who has previously curated exhibitions across Europe and has collaborated with local collectors, artists and galleries to bring the venue’s programme to life.
Hannah Perry, Gas Lighting (6) (left) and Oliver Laric, Sun Tzu Janus inside Shoreditch Arts Club
The cinema at Shoreditch Arts Club
‘It is our hope to encourage some day-dreaming and future thinking with those who share common interests inspired by conversations, the consecutive projection of curated video art, a cinema programme and an environment to relax in,’ say the founders. ‘Since its inception, it was clear that the club should be a space for art though not a gallery. Therefore we had the idea to create an environment like an avid collector’s home. Who is this collector we imagine? It will develop with our members and we hope will be eclectic yet thoughtful.’
The double-height lobby of Shoreditch Arts Club will host a rotating programme of installations, exhibitions, and events, while the first floor will host three projection walls for a programme dedicated to moving image art. The inaugural moving-image commission is created by German-born, London-based artist Peter Spanjer, whose work explores resistance, specifically to the emotional stereotypes attributed to Black men. Further collaborators include the organisation Girls in Film, for the club’s cinema programme, and artists such as Christine Sun Kim, Joey Holder and Ed Fornieles.
Shoreditch Arts Club interior, featuring Louis Morlæ's artwork Alpha, 2022
Ed Fornieles, London Has Fallen: The Good Dinosaur, 2015, inside Shoreditch Arts Club
Applications to become a Founding Member of the Shoreditch Arts Club are now open. shoreditchartsclub.com
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