Founded by a group of RMIT graduates in 2001, including three video artists, Kings ARI was Melbourne’s first gallery with a permanent space dedicated to screening video art. Since then Kings has maintained a loose association with the medium, but has also gained a reputation for presenting significant Australian and international work, such as Glasgow-based David Shrigley’s Poster Series in 2007 and Sydney artists The Kingpins after they were included in the MCA’s Primavera – quite something for an artist-run-initiative. Aside from this, Kings' regular program presents a good reflection of Melbourne's emerging artist community as well as trends developing in the surrounding art schools. Despite this success, in late 2008 Kings faced a significant rent rise that would have resulted in its closure. The committee launched a ‘Save Kings’ campaign, and after an enormous response from the art community and careful negotiation with the property owners, thankfully Kings was saved.