Hadleigh Gallery, on London Road, was launched last month after the family behind the popular Plant Faced Coffee Shop heard of their next-door neighbour’s plans to retire from haircutting.
While they eventually hope to use the space to expand the café, it is currently seeing success as a hub for south Essex’s creative community.
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Florence Geary, who’s dad and sister run next door’s Plant Faced Coffee Shop, said opening a gallery was a natural move for her creative family.
“My dad is a photographer who also paints, and as I have a photography background it just made sense to create somewhere to showcase the work of our local artists in that space,” she said.
“As we wanted to get it open in time for the Castle Point Art Trail, we had just a week to turn the barbershop into an art gallery and now have a range of different exhibition spaces to offer artists.
“The response from the community has been amazing, and we’ve not had a single person come in who hasn’t been excited to see something a bit different being done – everyone has been so supportive.”
For Florence, part of the gallery’s early success can be attributed to the close knit community already established at Plant Faced Coffee Shop.
Hadleigh is a hotspot of thriving independent businesses and the London Road café is no exception.
“They’ve created such a tight little community at the coffee shop,” she said.
“During the conversion we had so many customers from the coffee shop offering to help in whatever way they could, and it was really humbling.
“There’s a strong community out there and we hope this place can help bring them all together.”
In addition to artworks from south Essex-based creatives, Hadleigh Gallery is also exhibiting a range of archaeological artefacts borrowed from the nearby Hadleigh & Thundersley Community Archive.
Florence is also hoping to connect with schools in the area in the hopes of hosting exhibitions of art projects made by pupils and has plans to hire out the venue for talks and pop-ups.
