Heavenly Beverley : Our Indiegogo Campaign

Saturday 20 June 2015

Our Indiegogo Campaign

Welcome to the East End Gallery, Beverley

Hi! How are you? Let me tell you a bit about ourselves and our dream. We are Kate and Michael Sofoulis, a fifty-something couple who live in Heavenly Beverley, the best-kept secret in the Avon Valley, one hundred and thirty kilometres east of Perth.

We came here by choice four and a half years ago after Michael was forced to retire from the mining industry due to ill health. In that time, we have renovated a dinky little doer upper house and, three years ago, we bought the Forbes Building, a derelict, 390 square metre 100-year-old building on the main street. Our intention is to create an artists' precinct.

We need your help to finish this project. Michael is a metal artist. He is also chief renovator. With a loan of $100,000 we have poured our hearts and souls into the building. We have run out of money. Michael has complex health issues and receives a Disability Support Pension.We are not eligible for another loan as I was injured at work and I am unable to return to my profession. We are ineligible for other funding as we are the independent owners of the East End Gallery.

So far, we have fully renovated three shops, Michael's studio and part of the back two roomed accommodation unit. The "residence" still needs a kitchen and new floorboards, due to existing holes in the floor.

The Gallery itself has been open since December 2014. We have to complete the final forty-five square metres to extend the Gallery to its full potential. In addition, the building is moving as it is drying out after decades of neglect. We have repaired all the old cracks; now we have new cracks to revisit.

We also hope to install kitchenettes and bathrooms into the first two shops (each is fifty-seven square metres). We hope, in time, to build mezzanine floors in each of the shops to provide extra living space. That way, we can offer two separate units in Beverley town centre for artists to live and work in and display their pieces. The East End Artists' Precinct would then be a reality.

We realise that we have champagne tastes on a lemonade budget. Yet, we feel that we understand the building and her challenges. We are used to being frugal and very imaginative. Our immediate goal is to finish the Gallery so we have one hundred and fifty square metres of space for Wheatbelt artists.

The Forbes Building was on the point of collapse when we bought her. We couldn't let a building of this age, with her history and character, die. Please be part of this project to finish our building, support Wheatbelt artists and fulfil the dream of our Artists' Precinct.

Any donation would be greatly appreciated. We will never give up.

Many Thanks,

Kate and Michael.

PS please tell your friends about us and pop in for a look!

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/east-end-gallery-supporting-wheatbelt-artists#/story

In the Beginning there was...