Art, writing, and culture are not, and do not need to be about entertainment and commerce, about making one’s way in society. They can be a mode of relating to each other that takes its cues from friendship, from engaging each other as separate and related people committed to each other in mutual support and protection…

Fred Dewey ‘a polis for new conditions’

Established by Christian Mooney in 2007, Arcade offers a programme of exhibitions and a constantly evolving platform of performances, live events, talks and publications. Through these varied formats, we aim to find new modes of presentation exploring the developments and complexities in contemporary art, across a range of practices, media and concerns.

Both in London and internationally, Arcade has aimed to support working artists and show how experimental visual arts can be important in public life. Initially, we started as a traditional commercial gallery, but now we are proud to announce that we have changed to become a Community Interest Company (CIC). Community for us means the community of artists in the gallery as well as the local communities we live and work among. We want to expand partnerships and engagement beyond our usual arts network to support innovation and risk-taking in the arts. We aim to strategically respond to the changing social and political landscape, seeking to drive progressive change within the industry.

I had the pleasure of meeting Christian through our community work. I’ve been truly inspired by his creative vision for transformative, progressive change in the fields of arts, culture, and broader societal issues.

Allan Hogarth | Head of Government and Political Relations at Amnesty UK

Our new visual identity for the gallery is a comma or breath mark. This motif is borrowed from the artist Anna Barham who started using it in 2015 to implicate the audience’s breath in the reading of her work. During the several lock-downs of 2020 and 2021, it seemed also to reflect the gallery’s moment of pause and reflection, giving time to the questions ‘What is art?’ ‘What is its purpose?’ ‘What impact can it have on society’. The work and friendship of the late Fred Dewey, have been instrumental in helping to understand how Arcade can present and begin to answer these questions.

The name ARCADE is a ready made (referencing neither Pac-Man nor Walter Benjamin) found on a street in Amsterdam in 2006 on the way to a studio visit with Jeremiah Day—the first artist approached to make an exhibition at a gallery that hadn’t yet opened.