Evolver 117 - September and October 2020

LOCKDOWN 2020 5 Talking to gallerists and artists it seems that although it has been an extremely anxious time, it has also in many cases been fruitful. New and different work has started to emerge, websites were rebuilt, and it was an opportunity to reconsider what everything is about and to make plans for the future. In Bristol THAT ART GALLERY had just relocated and was about to open its first show in the new space. Owner Andy Phipps likes the idea of art being accessible and wants to show physical objects in a physical space, matching people to objects that they want to live with. Turning to Instagram, he invited people to send in Covid-19 images for a project he called Together / Apart . The idea captured the imagination and the feeling of the moment. The digital images were printed as polaroids. Polaroid offered sponsorship in the form of printing paper. Selecting around 250 images from over 1,000 submitted he hung them in the window. The project kept the momentum going and now he has reopened the gallery with social distanced viewing. B-SIDE on Portland also used a closed space as a pop up gallery. Photos of people’s lockdown activities, from bread-making to sculpture, were displayed in their office window. They postponed the 2020 festival and focused on engaging with the residents of Portland. Aware that many artists had lost all sources of income they launched an emergency fund, Dorset Artists Emergency Fund (DAEF) and raised £16K though a combination of contributions from arts organisations and a Crowdfunder. It is evident that in the short-term at least, the model of galleries opening with big launches and packed exhibitions spaces cannot continue. For larger galleries, dramatically reduced footfall impacted negatively on income from ticket sales. Smaller galleries with fewer overheads found it easier to change their way of working. Anna Powell at SLADERS YARD in West Bay kept up the profile of the gallery with a digital presence initially but then reopened in July. In September she will be showing paintings by Simon Quadrat. Her biggest challenge has been learning to do everything digitally. She feels that a lot of people have adjusted to buying work online. “They want something tangible. They were stuck at home looking at their surroundings and wanted to enhance their space.” Meryl Ainslie, Director of RABLEY GALLERY in Wiltshire, points out: “As artists we produce physical objects whether they are two or three- dimensional and people want to experience those things physically in a physical space and online does not provide that experience”. She has recently opened for collectors by appointment, and enjoyed having the time and leisure to talk to her visitors about her artist’s work, about their processes and motivations. She feels strongly that private views are an important part of the art-making art-exposure process for artists: “It is a celebration of three or four years work and it is important to create that sense of energy of people coming together in a space”. She is going to try a series of small openings for the Peter Randall- Page show, featured on page 8, which opens in September. The success of these gatherings will help to determine where she goes next. Crucial to the survival of artists as exhibitors are framers, and similarly framers are dependent on artists for framing commissions. Simon Keyte of MOUNT in Frome responded to the downturn in work by furloughing staff and diversifying into fine art printing art services, setting up an ecommerce section on his website to make frames to order to be mailed out. His outlook is positive, and once demand increases their staff will come back to work. His attitude is that in order to survive you need to respond to circumstances. Market Place, Somerton, Somerset TA11 7LX • acearts.co.uk • 01458 273008 • Wed - Sat 10 - 1 and 2 - 5 Rebecca Bruton and Lydia Needle: Towards the Tipping Point Environmental textile artists present an exploration of consumption versus the earth’s finite resources 19 September – 24 October SIMON QUADRAT ‘STRANGE ENCOUNTER’ (Sladers Yard, West Bay, 19 September - 7 November)