Calling All Art Lovers!

From telephone box to art gallery, this classic red K6 in Ryde may be tiny, but it has huge ambitions. Sara Whatley shares the story of Re:Box

Brring-brring, brring- brring... hello?” Once upon a time, not that many years ago, telephone boxes would sometimes ring. Oh, the excitement of hearing an empty box ringing to itself, the mad rush to get there, press the heavy handpiece to your ear and let the mystery unfold.

Or, more commonly, phone boxes were used to make calls in the times before we all walked round with a mobile phone in our back pocket. Now these iconic red kiosks are often left to rack and ruin.

Unless they get saved, that is. On the corner of Lind Street in Ryde you will find one of these lucky phone boxes. The classic Kiosk No. 6, designed by Giles Gilbert Scott in 1935 to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of the coronation of King George V, was purchased for £1 by Ryde Town Council through BT’s ‘Adopt a Kiosk’ initiative, and was handed over to two local creatives, writer Anmarie Bowler, and photographer Zoë Barker.

The friends had put together a proposal to create a tiny art gallery in the decommissioned telephone box. One of the key features of the project was that it would have a light inside to make the artworks shine at night. The idea behind their project was inspired by a similar repurposed telephone box in Edinburgh, the Porty Light Box. “The light box was the exciting part for us,” said Zoë. “Once our proposal was accepted, we were off!”

And so Ryde’s smallest art gallery was born – Re:Box. “We were inspired by all those words like re-use, recycle, renew, repurpose... It was all about finding a new role for this unwanted ‘box’,” said Zoë. ‘Re’ also means ‘regarding.’ “That adds another layer because this project is all about the box,” continued Zoë. You can bring that full circle with the word ‘regarding’, also meaning to consider, and to gaze at – this box is all about the box, and it is made to be looked at, thought about and appreciated in a new way. This duo were re-boxing their red box into something much greater, for the good of the community around them, both artists and viewers alike.

When Anmarie and Zoë first got the telephone box it was very unloved. “There was an old bicycle stuffed behind it, rubbish and dirt,” explained Zoë. But the friends rolled up their sleeves, donned their Marigolds and washed it all down – it came up trumps. No panes of glass were broken and overall it was not in a bad state of repair. If necessary you can order spare parts for telephone kiosks, including the instantly recognisable Currant Red Gloss paint.

Next came the practical steps to make the K6 perform as the gallery they had envisaged. They built frames to sit in the windowpanes and figured out how to install a light; not as bright as they would have liked, but 8 watts was all they could have. Different materials were tried until they hit on the right one to make the 2D printed artworks shine in the windows.

Re:Box gallery holds either 2D or 3D art installations for periods of 6 to 8 weeks. They kicked the project off in the summer of 2022 with a cardboard cut-out of Queen Elizabeth II, and bunting, to mark her Platinum Jubilee. “We meet the artist there and offer any help if they need to install their 3D art, otherwise we are good for providing cups of tea!” said Zoë. If it is a 2D installation, the artist will send their work in advance, which then gets printed onto the correctly shaped acetate and hung in the frames inside the locked box.

The current installation is by local artist Adam Brown, who has filled the gallery with caricatures of famous faces, all of whom have a connection to the Isle of Wight. See if you can guess who they all are?

Other installations include the Tour of Britain Cycle Race, a 3D installation created by Aspire Ryde using bicycle parts; artist Losten Art, who captured superman secretly changing; Ryde Pride with their rainbow box; and the Rydeosaurs project with artist Naomi Baisley, in association with The Museum of Ryde.

Some of Zoë’s favourites so far have been a simple but punchy design of cut-out stars in a navy background, so at night the stars shone bright. This was in support of the Isle of Wight Dark Skies Festival. “I sometimes sit on a bench opposite and watch for a little while. When Paradox Paul’s exhibition was in there a young boy walked past with his dad, stopped and said ‘Wow!’, like it was the best thing he had ever seen. That was wonderful,” Zoë said.

A good vibe is being created here, and Re:Box is gaining a reputation; people are keen to see what’s coming next for the tiny art gallery. Apparently, people walk around the corner with surprise and happiness when they see the phone box, especially being situated opposite the beautiful but crumbling building that is Ryde Town Hall. Anmarie and Zoë are also campaigning to save this historic building from ruin, but that’s another story...

Re:Box is also part of Ryde Arts Trail, a 2 mile walking trail connecting 9 captivating art works around the charming seaside town. As a member of The Ryde Art Collective, Zoë has many contacts in the creative scene, which is great for finding the next installation, although lots of interest is through word of mouth too.

Writer Anmarie is also deeply embedded in Ryde’s creative scene, as the founder of Brevity, The Isle of Wight’s Literary Handbill. This “handbill – an elegantly folded piece of paper featuring compelling stories from Islanders, for Islanders is perfectly sized in terms of shape and ambition” Anmarie is quoted as saying on the Brevity website.

So, what is next for this tiny but mighty art gallery? They have plans for a Valentine’s special, further projects with local artists, the Isle of Wight Biosphere Festival, and the opening of Department, a new art centre in central Ryde. But they have lots of spaces in their 2025 creative programme they would love to fill. “Surprise us! Quirky ideas of how to fill a phone box, we are open to anything new and original.”