Contains Art CIO was established in 2012 as a not-for-profit social enterprise, converting to a charitable incorporated organisation in 2021.

For six years, until October 2019, Contains Art's home was three shipping containers. Over a period of about a month, in the early summer of 2013, around 40 volunteers worked to convert the worn-out containers into a wonderful gallery and four artists' studios. The builders, mainly women from the local creative community, who knew very little about construction, worked together, worked it out and learnt rapidly the value of power tools!

Since 2013, the organisation has gone from strength to strength, broadening our remit, expanding our audiences and demonstrating a firm ability to have a real impact—changing perceptions about who can engage with what. A full programme of increasingly ambitious exhibitions and community events was delivered each year in the container gallery and the friendly courtyard. Our studios supported the development of a group of tenant artists as well as offering residencies to emerging artists. Visitors enjoyed meeting and seeing the artists at work, and the studios and courtyard were a hub for the local artist community to congregate.

Our exhibition programming has always reflected a core focus on work that is accessible but still amazing. For example, we brought Matisse's cut-outs to our shipping container (from the Hayward gallery on the Southbank in London). It was visited by hundreds of local primary school children. Likewise, an immersive digital installation by Lumen Projects brought in an unexpected, new, teenage audience, and we commissioned Jennifer Taylor, one of the liveliest emerging performance artists in the UK who worked organically with students from the local sixth form to produce a show-stopping spectacle. Our final exhibition in the shipping containers was by Chris Dobrowolski, featuring model containers, train tracks and even a washing machine.

In 2019, we closed our shipping container gallery to make way for the redevelopment of the East Quay site, though we continued to support exhibitions, such as Jon England's around the town, and to work with schools on our learning programme and through projects such as Studio Digital.

We now run the exhibition programme in the wonderful new galleries at East Quay, as well as a host of workshops, installations and activities out of Studio 10, the Creator Space and the Courtyard.

If you would like to donate to Contains Art CIO, please click this link to be taken to our JustGiving page.

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