Castlefield Gallery's New Art Spaces at Federation House is now officially home to Filmonik HQ!
The launch-party has been and gone, and what's already been accomplished in such a relatively short space of time is outstanding.
It's been a long road, and yet only two months have passed since the Filmonik team was first taken to Federation House. On day one, we walked into the third floor space only to find our boots immediately glued to the floor. The inadvertent removal of carpet tiles by the floor's previous occupants left us with about 800 square metres of glue, loose cables, and minor health hazards. Yet, all we could see was potential.
A helping hand from dozens of volunteers made fast work of tearing up countless chipboard floor panels. We began stripping away the old to make way for the new, only to be faced with crumbling wallpaper, some baffling light fixtures, and the infamous sea of staples! Building Filmonik HQ has been far from easy. Our new space has been worked to death almost every day since we signed our agreement with Castlefield Gallery. From the paint on the walls to the last-minute concrete in the floors, this is the outcome of the whole Filmonik community putting in whatever they could whenever they could, each day taking us a little closer to what we have now: A bold, functional, yet inspiring space for people to use. The long-held dream of securing a long-term base of operations for Filmonik has finally been attained. For every second of work you've put in, we say thank you.
Last Thursday Filmonik HQ finally opened its doors to the public. The launch party was a chance to meet and greet representatives from the other organisations co-habiting Federation house, along with many other members of the local arts community and a pride of Filmonik regulars to boot. Speeches and announcements were made introducing the space and explaining our ambitions, much networking took place, while all around films and graphics were screened, and posters displayed, mapping out the history of Filmonik’s screenings and events – a chance for those attending to take a brief step back into Filmonik's past before we take a giant leap into the future. Congratulations to the winners of the raffle. We'll see you all at the next screening.
The success of the fundraiser has also taken us one step closer towards our rather more mundane but utterly practical dream of having a sink in the kitchen. But now it's time to pool our resources, to bring together everything we have at our disposal and continue exploring the potential that Filmonik HQ presents. Stay tuned for information on our upcoming events. And also for information on how you may be able to use the space to support your own creative projects.Until then, here's to the future!
More on Castlefield Gallery’s New Art Spaces: (click here)
Head over to our flickr page now for highlights from the launch night: (click here)
