Ark Space was established in 1998 as a resource for the local community. It is an area for people of all genres in Ealing and the surrounding areas to perform their talents and express themselves.
Ark was founded by Yousif Naser and Dalal Al-Mufti.
Since the conception of Ark, dozens of cultural activities have taken place in the venue: art exhibitions, musical performances, poetry readings, art workshops, lectures and discussions.
ARK Aims and Objectives:
Ark is an art venue founded and run by artists to provide a platform for the making and showing of innovative and issue based art forms.
It will promote a broad spectrum of art forms to include practitioners of all the arts. Ark aims to provide a platform for non commercially or trend motivated makers. It will focus especially on issue-based art and politically challenging themes such as racism, displacement, the environment, stereotyping and minority groups.
Conceived and founded by artists from the ethnic minorities, ARK is aware of the wealth of creativity that exists in a multi-cultural Britain. This wealth rarely surfaces, excluded by an art world very much dominated by Eurocentric trends and fashions. To counter this, ARK aims to showcase the neglected aspect of cultural diversity.
ARK will identify and promote experimentally motivated artists, without reference to social or cultural backgrounds, and whose work is both innovative and educational.
ARK will be more than an exhibition venue for displaying art. It aims to become a dynamic space encouraging work to be conceived, made and viewed at the various stages of its development on the premises. It will provide a space for the exchange of ideas between makers and audience alike. This will form the basis of Ark's education outlook.
Participants in Ark's programme will be expected to develop an educational element in their work and, where financially possible, to cooperate on projects with local schools, educational, and community institutions.