About

Bleeding Heart is a ‘profit for purpose’ art gallery, event space, café and local artisan gift store that contributes all profits into charitable and community enterprise. Bleeding Heart brings together community, business, the arts and local talent to provide a place for social enterprise and positive activism in the heart of Brisbane.

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 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,  Buffed and  Mulgrave Farmer’s Market.

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 learn about social enterprise, exhibit emerging art and products and to participate in positive social activism.

In addition, we also financially support a number of external charitable organisations through direct donation or in-kind support. Click here to see who we have helped.

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 that’s what I think. It’s time… I’ve lately thought of issuing a T-shirt, and it reads: 

’I think it’s wrong to kill people; I think it’s wrong to torture people, and wrong to hurt children. That’s what I think. I’m a bleeding heart. How about you?’ ” – Bob Ellis