The Bike Shed - a new Community Arts Venue located in the Merkinch area of Inverness is to open its doors on Thursday 28th January 2010 with a special launch event.

The launch will take place at 6pm on Thursday 28th January 2010, the address is The Bike Shed, 23 Grant Street, Inverness, IV3 8BN. At the launch there will be an exhibition of photographic work from Paul Marrs and painting, glass and textiles from Bette McArdle.

The evening will consist of a short opening ceremony and then people will be free to have a look around the venue, have a glass of wine and paint a ceramic tile with ceramicist Kira Brown (the tiles painted on the night will be used to decorate the bathroom at the venue).

Annie Marrs from The Bike Shed told us: 'We are so excited about this building. I really think it will be a huge opportunity for the Merkinch area and also artists in Inverness. It's a really flexible space, about 6m x 9m in size. Who know what we might be able to have in there!!'

Once The Bike Shed is open there will be the following weekly classes (these groups are aimed at local people) :

• Tuesday's 4pm - 5pm, Childrens Art and Craft group. P4-P7's, £1.50 - Led by tutor Liberty Blight
• Thursday's 6.30pm - 8.30pm, Adults Art Class, all abilities, £2 - led by tutor Liberty Blight
• Friday's 9.30am - 11.30am, Adults Ceramic Class, all abilities, pay per piece made - led by Kira Brown.

Then there will be monthly classes led by Eden Court, it's the last Saturday of every month starting on 30th January 2010:

Eden Court Kids Club at the Bike Shed will be full of dance, drama and crafts and costs £4 per child.

• 11.00am - 1.30am,  Ages 5yrs - 7yrs
• 2.00pm - 4.30pm,  Ages 8yrs - 12yrs 

Also in the pipeline are plans for one off workshops such as wet-felting, photography, podcast/radio, film and more.

The Bike Shed is also offering the hire of space for artists to work in as a temporary studio and as an exhibition space.

Use as workshop/temporary studio - Artists can hire The Bike Shed (when free from classes) to use as a workshop/temporary studio. Hire rate is £20 per day, which runs from 9am - 9am. Typically Sunday's and Monday's will be available.

Hire for exhibitions - Artists or artist groups can hire The Bike Shed at a rate of £50 per week for exhibitions using the wall space only. The regular classes will continue through this. Exhibitions with sculpture or with free-standing screens can only take place when there are no classes on, typically school holidays. Artists must man their own exhibitions, and must decide when they open.

Hire for classes/workshops - For those wanting to run a class or a workshop for the public to come to,  the hire charge will be £8 per hour.

You can follow The Bike Shed on Facebook or find out more on www.merkinch.info/blog/index.php

To contact Annie Marrs at The Bike Shed email annie@merkinch.com