Nucleus Arts

CHAMPIONING CREATIVITY TO ENHANCE PEOPLE LIVES.

INSPIRE – Affordable, dynamic and innovative space to create, showcase and retail

CREATE – Inspiring creativity, encouraging diversity, creating inclusivity

SHOWCASE – Providing affordable space to exhibit in Chatham & Rochester

SUPPORT – Promoting access to the Arts for over 15 years throughout Medway & Kent

Nucleus Arts is the Award Winning flagship arts organisation founded by the Halpern Charitable Foundation. The Foundation was the brainchild of the late Hilary Halpern and it was his dream to promote the Arts in Medway and Kent. Nucleus Arts has become the cultural and creative heart of Kent & Medway over the past 15 years (founded in 2002) and focuses on affordability, accessibility and excellence in the Arts.

 Featuring a wide variety of works by local artists, Nucleus Arts aims to prove that beautiful, original and unique works of art can be both attainable and affordable, whilst at the same time providing low-cost studio space to artists in order to enable them to be able to practice their Art.

 Now in our 15th year, Nucleus Arts has sites in Chatham where artists can create and display their work. Open to the public (and free to enter), constantly updated, the Nucleus showrooms are a haven for local art lovers and a wonderful retreat for those who want a little something different from their shopping trip.

Nucleus Arts manage two art galleries:

• The Halpern Gallery in Chatham
• The Halpern Pop in Rochester

The Halpern Charitable Foundation exists to inspire and transform the lives of the broad and diverse audiences of people and communities in Medway and Kent.

The Halpern Charitable Foundation was founded in 2002, achieving charitable status in March 2003. It was set up initially to meet three particular aims – to provide affordable space for artists to work and exhibit in Medway; to help people with mental and/or physical illness/disability; and as a backstop for the Chatham Memorial Synagogue, should it ever be in real financial difficulty with no other avenue left.

Since then the Foundation has refined and expanded its ideas. We realised that in addition to providing studio and exhibiting space at affordable prices to artists, we needed to help break down the barriers some of the public felt in accessing contemporary arts. We realised that there were a lot of people not being included within the local community and we have found that using the arts to enable these groups is tremendously effective.