Hey… Welcome to our Kickstarter! We have launched this campaign so we can plan for the growth and sustainability of our vibrant, inclusive, independent gallery and event space here in Leeds.
When we opened our shop way back in November 2012 there was a lot of talk about the death of book shops, the death of print. It was an indie spirit that saved it, the tenacious small presses, the independent publishers, the adventurous paper manufacturers, the plucky and pioneering retail spaces – they made us realise what we were losing, they gave us something to cherish again.
It wasn’t a ‘get it tomorrow’, ‘Black Friday’, ‘pile‘ em high, sell ’em cheap’’ attitude that turned things around either, it was achieved through collaborative venture, audacious enterprise and a common bond.
Since we opened our doors as the first design-focused book shop in our city, we have become a completely different animal. We are still passionate about the graphic arts and design publications and prints, but opening our event space changed what we do here forever and it is this element of Colours May Vary which needs some love (and your help). We have lined up some amazing rewards, all designed by the super talented Studio.Build which we think you will love!
The retail landscape is changing fast, but what remains important to us as individuals is experience, learning, and relationships. We love sourcing stuff for the shop and we will continue to do this as long as you come over to buy things. However, we know you are buying less stuff, we all are. We are visiting physical retail spaces less often and we want to grow the side of our business that offers us all more.
So, we need your help in making this self-sufficient, we never planned to make a fortune, just to make a space that was sustainable and that pays for itself.
The gallery has to evolve to survive the next few years and we have lots of ideas you might be able to help with.
Firstly, we would like to create a publication which will be the start of a series of collectable editions featuring work by illustrators, photographers, and designers; some may have exhibitions with us, others may be stand-alone. This series will be affordable and collectable. We want to create a beautiful, simple format that can adapt to each medium. Sales from these editions will help us fund the day-to-day running of the space, promote the work of designers and artists as well as create a lasting legacy.
Secondly, we would like to dedicate more of our year to up-and-coming artists and illustrators. New talent can’t always fund exhibitions, our running costs rely on sales from shows, gallery hire fees, and shop sales. Some months we don’t break-even on the space and this puts us, the shop and artists under a lot of pressure.
A show may be well attended, but there may not be anything to buy, but that show may be the start of someone’s career and key to making connections or bringing something amazing to the city. We are still one of the very few spaces in Leeds for up and coming artists and designers to exhibit and we would love to be able to continue to do this.
Thirdly; we would like to improve the space to a standard that would make it possible to run more workshops, install a sink, get some decent lighting in there and some solar film for the window so it doesn’t get so hot. We would also like to commission an illustrator to design an interactive physical donation box for the gallery.
Lastly, if we beat our target, we would like to put the extra income toward spending more time working on the space, be it researching new exhibitors, putting together publications, interviewing artists and makers for the blog and collaborating on in-house products.
So… we have put a target together which would help toward us doing all that. The more we raise the more we can do to ensure that the space continues to grow.
It would be amazing to say we have raised enough to do everything we need to keep the space going for the next couple of years so we can start to plan, but we really do need your help.
We understand you might not be able to donate anything at all, but you really support what we do here and that is totally cool. We just ask that you share the project as far and wide as you can and leave us a review on Google or TripAdvisor (this helps people find us).
Likewise, if you would like to help but don’t want anything in exchange we welcome anonymous donations (obvs) so please do forward this on to eccentric millionaire aunts and uncles.
Our promise to you if we do manage to reach this target is that we will do all the things we have mentioned and continue to work on the space, continue to collaborate with artists and designers, get folk together, plot some excellent events, make things happen and keep CMV a place you want to come over to and be a part of because without you we wouldn’t be here.
Above you will find some images of our gallery space being used for a variety of wonderful things. If you click the links it will take you to our archive where you can see more.
Please get in touch if you need to know anything else at all or if you have a dream reward we haven’t listed, let us know!
Thanks for reading!
Big Love
Becky, Andy & Stevie Dog xxx
We have kept this project very tight and simple so we can deliver what we see as the first stage in making the gallery space sustainable. We don’t know what 2020 will bring in terms of the economy (I mean what could go wrong!?) but we will do our utmost to deliver everything we have set out here. Those of you who know us will know how much love goes into the shop and gallery and we would love to be able to secure its future for as long as possible. We promise to keep in touch with you should we encounter anything that prevents us from doing this.