Room 212

Room 212 – visited 6^th October

Room 212 is a shop/gallery with over 100 artists from the Bristol area. These range from being very established to new emerging artists, and are found through email submission, which is always open. This range makes the shop friendly for all budgets. Prints can be ordered online and sent to customers or picked up if they live locally. The space is a shop, so customers can also buy anything they see when they visit. Room 212 strives for a low carbon footprint and encourages their artists to use locally sourced and recycled materials. Every artist has to help run the gallery, helping them meet other artists and their customers. They put on many different exhibitions that last around a couple of weeks, such as the photographic exhibition, Bristol’s Synchronised Swimmers. They also put on events, e.g. North Bristol’s Art Trail, which happens every year. Their artists often work on themes set by the gallery, usually tying in with the season or Bristol events, and participate in window displays. This, alongside getting themselves in local and Bristol press, e.g. Bristol Life, Envoy Magazine and Bishopston Matters, works as promotion for the gallery. They also have Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for self-promotion.

 

The gallery is very indie feeling, from the building to the quite low-fi feeling art, which ranges from prints, postcards, lamps, house décor, jewellery, mugs, wrapping paper etc. The interior uses what’s for sale to eccentrically  decorate an old-fashioned country house that could belong to an art collector. This is because of the wooden floors, simple wooden furniture, random chairs and tables and open old-fashioned suitcases, all used to display art, as well the walls being hung with art works. Appears slightly chaotic but is still organised. This makes you imagine the art being displayed in your own house, and seeing how having so much looks good, I imagine encourages customers to want to buy more and get excited by it. The jewellery is displayed on a table that seems like a dressing table, while in another section, mugs are displayed on shelves that look more like kitchen shelves, all adding to the homey feel as things are displayed much as they would be once they are brought home.