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Business & Culture
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Chapter Arts Centre: Canton’s artistic hub

Join us on a visit to Chapter Arts Centre, the vibrant creative space at the heart of the community, currently home to Garth Evans’s latest sculptural exhibition.

Exterior of Chapter Arts Centre building in Canton.
Chapter Arts Centre in Canton, an innovative creative and cultural hub born out of a deserted school.

As I walk through the doors of Chapter Arts Centre, I’m greeted with the weekday afternoon hustle and bustle of Canton’s creative and artistic hub. The café, directly in front of me as I walk in, is full of a diverse range of visitors, chatting and enjoying a tea and bite to eat in the calming, minimalistic, white space. 

I turn left to enter the current art exhibition: British artist Garth Evans’s ‘But, Hands Have Eyes’. This striking sculptural display is the favourite of gallery invigilator, Jemma Roper.

“When you walk in, it visually affects you straight away,” she says of Evans’s art. An artist herself, Jemma finds working at Chapter inspiring for her own multimedia artistic pursuits, which are currently focused on painting. 

Housing a cinema, theatre, art gallery and café, Chapter is a dynamic social and cultural centre which welcomes nearly 800,000 visitors per year.

Colourful sculptures by Garth Evans on a white table.
Garth Evans’s solo exhibition ‘But, Hands Have Eyes’ featuring six decades of sculpture, displaying his characteristic geometric, asymmetrical style.
Close-up of one of Garth Evans's sculptures.
Evans’s work bridges 1960s modernism and the lyrical multimedia experimentation that followed. The use of simple, everyday materials is important to his work.
Jemma Roper, gallery invigilator.
Gallery invigilator and artist herself, Jemma Roper, has worked at Chapter Arts centre for seven years on and off in various roles including at the café, bar and box office.
Booklets and flyers of upcoming events at Chapter Arts Centre.
Upcoming events at Chapter include an Everyman Theatre production ‘Playhouse Creatures’ from 22 to 26 October; ‘The Emergency Room’ climate and culture workshops and performances from 21 October to 3 Nov; and Cardiff Dance Festival from 8 to 24 November.