The EngineRoom Gallery

The Engine Room Gallery occupies three floors at 59 North Street, its entrance looking across at St Anne's Cathedral. A collective of east Belfast artists founded the gallery in 1997 to give local and international makers a space to show new work, and it now operates as a registered charity rather than a commercial dealer. Exhibitions change monthly, covering painting, sculpture, photography and print, with the gallery's scale, among the largest in Northern Ireland, allowing several shows to run at once. Admission is free and the space is staffed by gallery officers rather than sales assistants. It sits a short walk from the Cathedral Quarter's bars and print studios, drawing exhibition-goers rather than passing shoppers, and has hosted several hundred exhibitions since opening, without ever expanding beyond this one building.