Kitchener's Art District Gallery finds new home

Kitchener's Art District Gallery has found another home, if only for a short while.

The organization went from having one home to two, hosting a satellite exhibition at TheMuseum, and a more permanent exhibition at St. Jacobs.

This new setup in St. Jacobs will last until the end of 2016, and the space at TheMuseumwill operate end of September.

"Beggars can't be choosers," said JaxRula, chair of the gallery.

"As an artist finding exhibition space is really the trick.I'm very, very happy to have exhibition space as opposed to not having any at all."

The gallery was in a rent-freespace at the Kitchener Market until when a new tenant was given the space, a store called Dollar 123.

As a not-for-profit gallery, the organization provides the majority of income to their artists. This also means they have fewer dollars to payfull rent for exhibition space.

"We take space where we can get it. It's the one thing all artists want is good, clean, safe exhibition space, and that's probably the hardest thing to find," she said. "We don't have, and probably still won't in 2017 have, the ability to pay full rent."

For now the gallery will look to for permanent spotin the downtown core, but is appreciative of TheMuseum's space.

"To have a space like that in downtown Kitchener is wonderful because most of the artists are from downtown Kitchener, we have a thriving art scene; to be able to have space to show our art and share that with the general public is so important."

In the meantime Rula is trying to encourage the City of Kitchener to invest in showcasing local artists.

"Artists bring so much to the culture for any community, and culture is important. So really is this not an awareness process around how important artists are to our community?"

The Art District Gallery moved into their new space late this summer, and will be open forSeptember.