On Thursday 12 April, Top Floor Art proprietors Emma Whitehead and Stephen McClean officially open First Gallery to the public.

The new exhibition space and adjoining studio, increases the size of the organisation to the Top Floor and the First Floor of their Saintfield main street premises.

Top Floor Art started life in 2010 as studio space for fine artist Stephen McClean but quickly expanded into a bright, welcoming exhibition space for artists working in a range of disciplines including textiles, glass, wood and painting.

Textile artist Emma Whitehead said: "From quirky to exquisite, we wanted to build a reputation for being somewhere you could find unique, handmade work of incredible quality from artists and makers living and working in Northern Ireland."

In addition to both owner-artists' work, visitors can now find work by over 30 artists and the gallery space welcomes visitors from Wednesday to Saturday. But that's not all.

Top Floor Art also offers workshops, with a concentration of participation opportunities happening in August to tie in with Northern Ireland's annual August Craft Month, and it houses an associated textiles-focused studio group whose own reputation has been growing. It has strong links with organisations who share its vision, including Rowallane Community Hub since its formation – and has been involved in a wide range of community based arts participation opportunities.

Top Floor Arts shares a premises with Agar Antiques on the ground floor and previously Town and Country Antiques (now moved around the corner). When the option of having the first floor came up, they decided that the time was right to expand.

Emma said: "Saintfield always seemed an ideal location to us. Not only because of its heritage but also because of its well-established reputation as a place to find quality items for the home – whether decorative or functional, antique or high street. We are excited to be part of a flourishing offer of new and unique work which is handcrafted or created by local artists which now includes a weekly Saturday market in Saintfield, open studio and workshop space by internationally recognised glass artist Alison Lowry and further ongoing developments."

Denise Griffith, Arts Officer, Down Arts Centre added: "I would like to congratulate Emma and Stephen on the expansion of Top Floor Art and wish them every success for the future. They are helping to make Saintfield quite the mecca for craft and design.

First Gallery officially opens on Thursday 12th April with a celebratory get-together from 7-9pm where everybody is invited to come and view new work by current artists and work by newly exhibiting artists such as Geoff Tulip (woodturner), Tom Bevan (artist), Jude Fenton (artist), Anne Butler (ceramicist), Cula Ceramics and more.

Visitors are invited to visit all of Top Floor Art's current work on show. Artwork shown at Top Floor Art is refreshed regularly often to seasonal themes, so visitors will be the first to view a new curation in the First Gallery which has a distinct feel of Spring about it.



topfloorart.co.uk