Life in London: Visiting an art gallery

Today we are out and about in the suburbs of London. Come with me and visit a very special shop, an art gallery full of paintings, sculptures, and other art works. But it's an art gallery with a difference, as money made from sales goes to an organisation called Street Souls, a charity for homeless people. We'll be chatting to David, who runs the gallery and chooses the art works to display there. We'll hear about the special opening of the gallery, attended by a famous London-based film star (I'll give you a clue -- he has appeared in Lord of the Rings!). This is a chance for you to listen to real conversation between two native English speakers, as well as to learn about English culture. So, if you're ready, let's go in...

Learn more about Artful Pelican and the Street Souls organization at their Facebook pages:
https://www.facebook.com/artfulpelican/
https://www.facebook.com/streetsoulshomeless/

Did you like this video? Why not watch Jade's video tour of another part of London called Covent Garden:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpnDAGVEeZg&index=34&list=PL-Q2Xro-OWKe-pXnqtUKfD2Gpsbpu6Gl7

TRANSCRIPT

Gill: Hello. I'm Gill at engVid, and today we're doing something a little bit different for our lesson. We are going to be visiting a place in... Seven miles away from Central London, the Artful Pelican Art Gallery, which is a small art gallery and shop. And if you visit or if you're in the U.K., or if you visit a U.K. city you will probably see places like this, so this lesson will help you to find out what to expect if you go in one of these places. It's also an opportunity to hear two native English speakers, that will be me and David, the owner of the shop, speaking, having a conversation in English, so it's an opportunity to hear an English conversation between two people. Okay, so... And also we'll be seeing what kind of thing to expect if you visit an art gallery like this; pictures and sculptures. And so, we'll be seeing pictures of London, pictures of famous people who you may have seen in films, so let's go in and have a look.

David: Hi, Gill.

Gill: Oh, hi, David.

David: Hey. It's nice to see you.

Gill: Hi. Nice to see you. How are you?

David: Excellent. Thanks.

Gill: Oh, good.

David: You too?

Gill: Fine, thank you. Thank you for letting us come in...

David: Hey.

Gill: And have a look around.

David: You know you're always welcome.

Gill: Oh, that's really nice. Well, thank you.

David: This has always been one of my favourites, this charcoal. Amazing art.

Gill: That's lovely. Lovely detail. So, David, so you've been here for a while now, haven't you?

David: Yes.

Gill: I remember the place gradually being decorated and open.

David: Yeah, well, we... I would imagine sometime around about May 2015.

Gill: Yes.

David: And we opened in July in 2015.

Gill: Right, that sounds about right. Yeah.

David: Yeah.

Gill: So that's nearly going on two years?

David: We're getting on for two years, aren't we?

Gill: Yeah.

David: I think you came to our opening, didn't you?

Gill: I did.

David: When we had Sir Ian McKellen here.

Gill: Yes.

David: And a big crowd.

Gill: Wow. You could hardly move.

David: No. It was...

Gill: The place was packed, wasn't it?

David: It was good. It was a nice, fun evening; and very well-supported.

Gill: Yes, it was really nice. And to get Sir Ian McKellen to come and...

David: Quite a coup.

Gill: Open the place was a real coup, wasn't it?

David: Yeah, and it went very well.

Gill: And it was so nice to see him so close. He was about, you know, where that chair is away from me, and I thought: "My god, that's Sir Ian McKellen."

David: "It's really you", yeah.

Gill: And I'd first seen him on the stage in the 1970s, and been really knocked out by his...

David: Oh, good.

Gill: Like, he was in the Shakespeare play, Richard II, so that was when I first ever saw him.

David: So we fulfilled a wish, then, you got to meet him.

Gill: So all those years later, there he was.

David: Oh, good.

Gill: Slightly nearer.

David: He was very good with everyone that came, yeah.

Gill: So that was great, that was great because he cares a lot about the charity.

David: He cares a lot about homelessness.

Gill: Yes.

David: He has two pet likes, which is homelessness, which is what we're all about.

Gill: Yes.

David: And AIDS, they're his two main... main things.

Gill: Right. Yes, yes.

David: So the homeless thing...

Gill: Yeah.

David: He was very keen to help.

Gill: Yes, yes. So you... This is an art gallery, obviously, but you have this sort of fundraising element for charity?

David: Well... Yes, of course, it is an art gallery, but it's a non-profit art gallery.

Gill: Right.

David: So no one earns a salary in here. Every penny of the profits gets plowed back into the gallery or at homeless projects, Street Souls. So we help homeless people street-level.

Gill: Right.

David: And in particular homeless artists through the art gallery. […]