In 2026 we celebrate 15 years of activity in Cambridge supporting inclusion in the arts in the city, supported by a voluntary group – the Art Salon Foundation.
Our work centres on promoting equality and our legacy of ensuring that the arts and the broader city, remain a welcoming space for people of all backgrounds. These principles guide all of our programmes, partnerships and public engagement; the ethos behind the three spaces we set up, to benefit the public in Cambridge.
Cambridge is the UK’s most unequal city and it has become prohibitively expensive for artists from lower income backgrounds, to practice in the city. Public access to art space, is one of the biggest de-markers of equality in the arts in Cambridge.
Cambridge Art Salon and the voluntary group The Art Salon Foundation wish to clarify our position regarding the new tenant now occupying the premises at 1 Thrifts Walk.
The Art Salon no longer has any operational involvement with this address and has no connection to the activities, views or affiliations of the current tenant.
Our artists and volunteers from the Cambridge community conceptualised and created the art space there in 2016, converting it from a derelict space into a vibrant, much loved gallery and studios run by artists with strong local connection to the city – but vacated in 2025 after being told the building was being sold.
To our knowledge, the building has not been sold – instead leased to a group who have adopted a similar name to ours – without our permission. And have been fundraising to buy the building, claiming that they founded the space we created.
We do not share or endorse their work, or endorse their similarity to our name, or the claim that they founded the art space that we established – created by volunteers in Cambridge, to support the city.
While we cannot comment on the activities of external individuals or groups, we want to make it absolutely clear that we are entirely independent from any work, messaging or public activity taking place at 1 Thrifts Walk under the new tenancy.
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