Two Queens is an artist-run and community-owned gallery and studios based in Leicester’s Cultural Quarter.

Two Queens is an independent champion for freedom of artistic expression and believes in access to art that enriches and brings meaning to our lives; art that is created by and for the community in Leicester’s Cultural Quarter and beyond. We believe that art can be both courageous and challenging, whilst also serving a therapeutic purpose for our wellbeing. Our public programmes seek to push boundaries, stimulate thought, challenge the status quo and provoke discussion. We want to put our energy into work that moves us forward through new creativity and progressive ideas, brings vibrancy and vitality to our local community, and nurtures the next generation of artistic talent.

Our Vision is:

• to be a leader in developing new talent in the contemporary visual arts; through commissioning new work by emerging artists and providing resources for sustainable artistic development
  
• to be a community owned and community-led organisation, that reflects the interests and concerns of the people who value our work
  
• to run high quality creative learning programmes that provide opportunities for all local people to make art

Our current Aims are:

• To become a public resource that is open, accessible and sustainable.
  This means finding ways to be open more often, through consistent resourced programming, improving our facilities to provide a safe, comfortable and engaging space for all, and achieving financial and ecological sustainability, through a secured and improved premises that fits our needs and is resilient to a changing climate.
  
• To grow our reach within our community, both those who live in our local area, and the community of interest around contemporary visual art within the UK.
  This means increased and new types of audiences and participants, ensuring that we are reaching the many communities that make up the diverse population of Leicester, with a particular emphasis on those who have faced barriers to access.
  
• To be a civic-minded organisation that seeks to benefit our home city of Leicester, making it a good place to live, work, study and make art.
  Through collaboration with key local partners, including cultural sector venues with whom we work on shared programming, and wider community partners such as local NHS Arts in Mental Health coordinators, with whom we devise programmes in support of creative wellbeing. We additionally work to improve graduate retention through close links with local arts and culture courses, with the aim of holding creative talent in the city, thereby supporting the local creative industries sector.  
  
• To remain an independent and sustainable organisation, allowing us a critical and provocative voice, free from political or institutional ties, but with a public facing profile that seeks to be a force for good, and to bring high quality, thought provoking visual art to local audiences.
  
  History

From our beginnings as a collective of young artists volunteering their time and energy, through to our new structure as a Community Benefit Society, Two Queens has always been a community first and foremost.

The first iteration of Two Queens began in late 2011, when two collectives of recent Fine Art graduates from Loughborough and De Montfort Universities came together to start a new collaborative artist studios and gallery, initially forming as a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee. Between 2012-2015, the volunteers running Two Queens (including all of the current senior staff) held 25 exhibitions featuring work by emerging contemporary artists from throughout the UK, including 2023 Turner Prize winner Jesse Darling. 

2014 saw the organisation move to occupying our premises on a full lease, and with success at securing funding for public programme, the beginnings of a new, increasingly professionalised phase of Two Queens, including taking on our first staff member, and an increasing focus on learning at the heart of our work, including our popular monthly free family workshops, and more recently drop-in creative wellbeing sessions that seek to benefit the mental health of local artists and creative people. Throughout its time as a not-for-profit company, Two Queens always involved members of our studio-holder and artist community in decision making, including holding open Annual General Meetings and granting associate members a vote on important decisions. Becoming a Community Benefit Society was therefore a natural fit for Two Queens, which has always had a strong community of support at the heart of our work, and we converted to this new form in March 2023.

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Two Queens is a Charitable Community Benefit Society, registered with the FCA, number 9027
HMRC Charities Reference Number ZD33350

Donations

Donations towards the costs of running our public programmes are always welcomed.

Small donations can be made via PayPal

To arrange a larger donation please get in touch with us at info@2queens.com

Purchases through our online shop also contribute to funding our public programming

We also welcome donations of second hand books on Art and related subjects, which we sell in our on-site shop, and art materials which we can use in workshops. Email info@2queens.com to arrange, or drop off donations during public opening hours.

In 2019 we made a radio programme for Art Licks Radio, originally broadcast via RTM.fm. The programme responds to the art licks weekend theme of ‘Interdependence’ by interviewing our studio holders and associate members about the role that the building Two Queens plays in facilitating a community. Listen below: