Inside Pup and Tiger: Canterbury’s New Queer Art Café

This is more than just a café. It’s a love letter, a protest, a beginning.

Welcome to Pup and Tiger, a queer-run art space and café in the heart of Canterbury. We’re still building, still painting, still crowdfunding (hello!), but the vision is already alive in every conversation, every late-night brainstorm, every voice that’s joined us so far.

We thought now was a good time to tell you where it all started, and where we hope we’re heading.

It began with a feeling.

A feeling that we needed more. More queer joy. More art that isn’t shoved in a back corner. More places where you can just sit down and feel like you belong: no stares, no shrinking, no need to explain yourself.

We’d spent enough time in cafés that felt like they weren’t made for us. Art shows we weren’t invited to. Cities with no truly queer spaces outside of bars or clubs. We wanted to make something different. Something gentler, more honest, and proudly loud in its queerness.

And that’s where Pup and Tiger came from.

The name? It’s a long story (and a little inside joke).

One of us is the Pup: playful, curious, obsessed with community and spreadsheets. The other is the Tiger: fiercely creative, protective, always dreaming big. Together, we balance each other out. We make a lot of art. We drink a lot of coffee. And we’ve been quietly plotting this space for months.

Pup and Tiger felt like the only name that captured what we were building: a space that could be soft and strong. Gentle and wild. A place for the underdog and the untamed.

So what is this place?

We’re creating a queer art space that doubles as a café or maybe a café that doubles as a queer art space. Either way, the coffee will be excellent and the art will matter.

We’ll showcase work by LGBTQ+ artists, underrepresented voices, and local creatives. We’ll host talks, workshops, exhibitions, fundraisers, poetry nights, and whatever else this city needs. We’ll be a place to meet, rest, make, flirt, plan, and plot revolutions (quietly or loudly, your choice).

And we’re not doing it alone.

So many of you have already donated, shared, cheered us on, and sent DMs saying, “I need this.” Thank you. Truly. Every pound raised and every message sent makes this dream a little more real.

We’re still crowdfunding right now, still looking for our perfect space, and still saying yes to every weird and wonderful idea that could make Pup and Tiger grow.

If you believe in what we’re building, a place for queer joy, art that matters, and community that shows up, we’d love your help. Whether it’s donating, shouting about us online, submitting work to our zine, or just showing up for opening day… this place is for you, too.

📮 Got questions, ideas, or art to share? Drop us a message or come say hi on Instagram @pupandtiger

🎨 Support the crowdfund here.

📚 Want to read more? Check out our zine project, Soft Territories.