Bleeding Heart

Bleeding Heart is many things - an event space for hire, a cafe, an art gallery, an artisan retail outlet and a wireless internet hub.

Howe'ver, when you visit us, in the historic School of Arts building at 166 Ann Street, youll notice that we are a business with a difference.

Sporting the motto, Using our powers for good and not evil, we pride ourselves on our operation as a profit for purpose organisation. This means that every dollar YOU spend goes into funding charitable and community enterprise.

We encourage and support positive activism, social and economic inclusion, education and self-supporting, ethical business practice.
Background

Bleeding Heart was born in 2008 and is an initiative of the Wise Foundation, which aims to empower disadvantaged and marginalised individuals and strengthen communities by providing business and creative opportunities. Some of these endeavours include Bleeding Heart, Bizness Babes (a program that helps women develop micro businesses), Musgrave Farmers Market and an exciting new social business (more details announced in May 2011)

Bleeding Heart functions as the epicentre of these activities by contributing space, training and funding.

We like to think of ourselves as a social enterprise hub, essentially giving people a place and an opportunity to start self-supporting businesses, exhibit emerging art and products and to participate in positive social activism.

In addition, we also financially support a number of external charitable organisations.

We also actively support the endeavours of established, ethical community businesses by actually selling their products- everything from our organic fair-trade coffee to the community trade products in our store.
Why the name Bleeding Heart?

The expression bleeding heart has long had negative connotations and has been used to disempower and belittle those who champion human rights and care about other people.

We are dedicated to assisting communities and marginalised people and are determined to reclaim Bleeding Heart as positive terminology.

Join us in our mission to champion human rights and positive expression through art, activism, ethical consumerism and education.. with maybe a beer or cup of tea along the way.

"Right and wrong should come back into the language, I think, and better and worse, even good and bad. Call me old-fashioned, but thats what I think. Its time.. Ive lately thought of issuing a T-shirt, and it reads:   I think its wrong to kill people; I think its wrong to torture people, and wrong to hurt children. Thats what I think. Im a bleeding heart. How about you? "- Bob Ellis

Open:
Monday - Friday: 7:30am - 5:00pm
We are open late some weekends and weeknights (depending on exhibitions and events)