A Generous Space and the Artist Support Pledge

Artist Support Pledge now has a real exhibition space as well as an online one.

View of part of A Generous Space

Immersed in pre-surgery stuff - and accordingly not travelling anywhere last November - I missed the press releases about the Exhibition which is now taking place at Hastings Contemporary.

Which accounts for why I've not seen it - but I can tell you about it.

A Generous Space

A Generous Space is a manifestation of the first ever exhibition by the Artist Support Pledge (ASP). This opened on 25th November and moved the artwork from just being online to a space in the Hastings Contemporary Gallery in Sussex. 

Hastings Contemporary

The exhibition has been crowdsourced from Instagram and there were more than 3600 submissions to take part in the show, all made via Instagram using the #aspshows hashtag

The exhibition now includes more than 300 works created by artists from around the world - which gives a slightly less than 10% success rate.

The artwork includes paintings, drawings, sculpture, ceramics, textiles, photography, basket making, weaving and needlework. The has travelled to the UK from countries including America, Canada, India, Republic of Moldova, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Italy, and Republic of Ireland. There is also a strong representation from local and regionally based artists.

A view of A Generous Space

The ASP founder, artist Matthew Burrows MBE and a group of selectors selected works to be included in the exhibition. The selection panel included 

• Kate Bryan – Head of Collections for Soho House
• Jes Fernie – Curator and writer
• Julie Lomax – CEO of a-n The Artists Information Company
• Lakwena Maciver – Artist and 2020/2021 Hastings Contemporary exhibitor
• Natalie Melton – Creative Director at Crafts Council 
• Javier Pes – Art writer and editor
• Sally Shaw – Director of FirstSite, Colchester
• Jo Baring – Director of the Ingram Collection of Modern British & Contemporary Art

The exhibition lasts until 17 April 2022 - and you can view the exhibition in this video

For a list of artworks available to purchase in this exhibition, please click here.

You can find Hastings Contemporary on Rock-a-Nore Road, Hastings TN34 3DW

On the website it says

All the works featured in A Generous Space – the design for which is inspired by an Instagram grid – have an accompanying label that includes the Instagram details of the artist, so anyone interested in buying the work can get directly in touch with the artist to do just that. The same egalitarian ethos as the online version of ASP.

except, on the basis of the video an the website that doesn't seem to be quite how it works

• I can't see a label next to the paintings
• nor can I see where the individual paintings are being profiled online

If anybody would like to help me out with this aspect I'll be pleased to change this comment. 

Context

Matthew Burrows started the Artist Support Pledge on on the 16th March 2020 in response to the COVID19 pandemic. 

The Artist Support Pledge is the blog post I wrote about it back in May 2020

Other posts include

• A Pledge to Help Artists Becomes a Lucrative Lifeline | New York Times

Website www.artistsupportpledge.com

Instagram: artistsupportpledge

Mall Galleries is 50 years old and the FBA is 60!

Two anniversaries

In February, two anniversaries occurred

• the Federation of British Artists achieved its "Diamond Jubilee"  having been 
• established as a Company Limited by Guarantee - following a Memorandum and Articles of Association dated 13th February 1961; and 
• registered as a Charity with the Charities Commission (see website)

The Federation provides exhibition facilities and organises open art exhibitions for public viewing in the Mall Galleries. The open exhibitions provide opportunities for developing artists to exhibit alongside more established artists. Our education programme incorporates collaboration with people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities.

• It also acts on behalf of its nine members societies, eight of which are also charities.  
• the FBA was originally formed when this group of national Art Societies joined together to offer each other mutual support in exhibiting their members’ works.
• the Mall Galleries celebrated its 50th anniversary. The Mall Galleries were opened by HM The Queen on 25 February 1971 - as a brand new gallery in London.  It provides a home for the Federation of British Artists.  It is also the trading side of the operation of the exhibitions and events which happen at the Mall Galleries - covenanting the profits of Mall Galleries Trading Limited to the FBA.  In doing so it helps.....
• support the 500 member artists of the 9 Art Societies that make up the FBA. 
• enables c.5,000 other artists get their work exhibited in a prestigious Central London Gallery each year. That's a LOT OF ARTISTS!
• provide much enjoyment to all those who travel from near and far to visit the art exhibitions in the Mall Galleries.

Sadly, what should have been a time to celebrate properly has instead morphed into recognition online only.

It's time to take stock....

Just imagine, for a moment, if there were no Mall Galleries...............

What's been happening in the last 12 months?

The Mall Galleries - closed most of the last 12 months

The pandemic - and associated lockdowns and constraints on opening - in 2020 and the beginning of 2021 - has created a very challenging time for both the FBA, its societies and the Mall Galleries.

• The Gallery has been open for only a few weeks in the last 12 months. It closed from March - August 2020 and again from November until now - with a brief period of opening in early December. 
• It had to create 
• a brand new way of running exhibitions - which worked really well - and 
• a brand new way of booking visits to them (to keep numbers under control and facilitate contact tracing)
• It has been continuing to run the annual exhibitions of the FBA Societies - not knowing whether and when they will run in reality (I remember well the Annual Exhibition of the RI being postponed twice from April before it finally opened in September)
• My exhibition reviews this year have been much reduced! see 
• my first exhibition at the Mall Galleries in six months was held by the RI - which got postponed twice (moved from April to September 2020)- see Review: 208th Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours
• the second society to exhibit were the portrait painters - see Review: Annual Exhibition 2020 of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters
• the RSMA (I think) opened at its normal time - see Review: Royal Society of Marine Artists Annual Exhibition 2020 It had LOTS of red dots!
• the SWLA closed early due to the second lockdown - but I got to see it before it did - see
• SWLA's new website and annual exhibition closing early
• NEAC was also caught by both the first and second lockdown - and finished one day before the third! See New English Art Club - Annual Exhibition 2020 (Part 1) and the New English Art Club - Annual Exhibition 2020 (Part 2) - but also had the very first virtual exhibition (see below)
• The Annual Exhibition of the Pastel Society has had to be postponed - but is available to view online and (fingers crossed) will be in the Gallery later this year
• It has delivered one virtual exhibition - of an exhibition hung for opening - but unable to do so until allowed to do so - see A Virtual New English Art Club Annual Exhibition 2020 - online now!
• It has continued to achieve sales for the member artists and those selected for the open entry via online exhibitions of the artwork. I had a discussion with the Chair of one society recently who said sales had held up remarkably well
• However it has lost 
• sales associated with the shop - which is now very successful and generates significant income. 
• income generated by third party / corporate events in the Galleries - again an important source of income.

It will, of course, have received grants for the government to offset its running costs and provide furlough income for its employees. 

However it will face a very different set of numbers in its accounts in 2020 and 2021.

We receive no on-going public funding. With the doors of the gallery closed, we have lost a large source of income that we usually obtain from gallery rental and corporate events in the evenings which helped to fund our Exhibitions and Events.

Which is one of the reasons why it has now created a NEW DONATION PAGE.

A NEW DONATION PAGE

We are a registered charity, providing opportunities for developing and established artists. Any amount will be greatly appreciated.

The banner image for the Donation Page reflects the opening exhibition 50 years ago.

Making A Mark: the 20 most popular blog posts for artists (Part 2 2006-2019)

This is a list of Making A Mark blog posts from previous years (2006-2019) - unrelated to art on television - which have proved to be perennially popular - and were the most popular in 2020

It follows on from yesterday's post Making A Mark - the 20 most popular blog posts for artists in 2020 (Part 1) - which highlighted how art on television - rather than in exhibitions - became very popular in 2020 due to the pandemic.

Summary

As last year five of the ten are "how to" posts - although interestingly not the same five as last year! If you write a good "how to" post on your blog about perennial topics it can be of value and generate traffic for very many years - but popularity and relevance can come and go.

I'm also noting which are NEW ENTRIES and which have moved up or down compared to last year's post Making A Mark - the 20 most popular blog posts in 2019. The Pandemic has had an obvious impact on some.

Please note that I've excluded all television posts from previous years as they get their moment in the limelight in the most popular posts in a year - see yesterday's post Making A Mark - the 20 most popular blog posts for artists in 2020 (Part 1)

#1. Favourite quotes about drawing and sketching

The mobile version of Favourite quotes about drawing and sketching (2013) was the most popular post in 2020 - by some considerable distance.

Do not fail, as you go on, to draw something every day, for no matter how little it is, it will be well worth while, and it will do you a world of good.
Cennino Cennini

L'Écho, study for Une Baignade, Asnières (Bathing Place, Asnières) by Georges Seurat
Conté crayon on Michallet paper. 31.2 × 24 cm

Last year it was #2 - and was outranked by my somewhat encyclopedic annual guide to the BP Portrait Award in 2018. 

Last year I said I kept meaning to do an update to this post and this year it's definitely going on my 'to do' list.

#2 How to hang a large or heavy picture - using heavy duty hanging hardware

How to hang a large or heavy picture - using heavy duty hanging hardware (2015) has moved up one place as the BP slipped out of the rankings

I can only think nobody else has written a decent post about this topic. It's certainly the case that is something you don't want to get this wrong - which is why this post beats the next one on traffic! Includes pics of kit you need and helpful videos!

However this might also reflect activities associated with Covid-19 lockdowns (see the next post!)

#3. How to hang a picture - using D rings

How to hang a picture - using D Rings (2015). This post is particularly relevant for smaller paintings and drawings.

PLUS:

• I've now also got a page about How to hang a picture on my Art Business Info for Artists website
• I also wrote a summary blog post about How to hang a picture back in April 2020 when it suddenly struck me that lockdown is when everybody decides to 
• redecorate 
• and/or completely rehang their art collection 
• and/or finally get round to hanging those paintings they've bought which have never quite made it on to the wall. (I know that's one of the things I did!

Hanging hardware

#4. Creating a signature on your art

Creating a signature on your art (2009) - moved up five places this year.

This is one of those perennial issues which comes up time and time again concerns the best way to sign your art. 

This is of course quite different to another type of signature - Signature membership which I also wrote about in 2009.

#5. Who knew Giles from Gogglebox was an artist?

Who knew Giles from Gogglebox was an artist? (2018) is a NEW ENTRY in the top ranked older posts

It just goes to show that art and television seems to be a very popular connection. (Television posts are banned from this post - but this one is allowed in because Giles does not do art on television!)

#6. Artists and Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI)

Artists and Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) (2016) is another climber - up four places from #10 last year.

Again this is one of those perennial topics which is often searched for but rarely produces a decent response. I think this one still comes top on Google.

#7. How to create a 'search description' for your Blogger post

How to create a 'search description' for your Blogger post (2009) - This is a NEW ENTRY and one which I suspect has cropped up due to the change from Legacy/Classic Blogger to New Blogger. 

#8. What kind of art do people like to buy online?

What kind of art do people like to buy online? (2016) is another NEW ENTRY.  This post covers:

• the similarities and differences between the type of art that British and American people buy online
• how this compares to the type of art that people like to paint.

Based on sales data in 1 January - 31 December 2015 (Source: Artfinder)

I suspect this post has popped up because of the unique nature of 2020 - when an awful lot of art exhibitions and art fairs did not take place. Hence more and more artists have turned to trying to sell their art online.

I think maybe it's now time to revisit this post - maybe via a poll or survey to see whether anything has changed in the Covid-19 era.

In the meantime - for all those interested in this topic - please take a look at the big section about How to Sell Your Art on Art Business for Artists

#9. How to sign an art print

How to sign an art print (2011) has dropped four place since last year. However it's a detail that matters - and for some reason there's not many "how to" articles!

#10. How to do a reverse image search

How to do a reverse image search (2011) is another blog post about a perennially popular search query - which has also dropped four places. 

You can find the updated version here - How to do a reverse image search in the Copyright section of my Art Business Info for Artists website.

Addendum

One of the things I tried to do when I started this blog was to write about things which I thought artists needed or wanted to know about - but which weren't covered terribly well online. 

That's still the case - and if you ever get a query where you cannot find a satisfactory answer, do please let me know and I'll see if I can come up with one! Although I try to avoid practical matters I've no experience of!

"Hold Still" moves offline and onto billboards around the UK

Back in September I wrote about the "Hold Still" digital exhibition on NPG website. Since then the digital exhibition has had over 4.8 million page views to date.

Hold Still is an ambitious community project, launched in May 2020, to create a unique collective portrait of the UK during lockdown.

Today the National Portrait Gallery announced that a Community Exhibition can now be seen on billboards around the country. 

From today, the final selection of portraits, unveiled in a digital exhibition in September, will be:

• exhibited for a period of four weeks on billboard and poster sites across the country, including at bus stops, in high streets and outside train stations. 
• Groups of works will be shown on posters in cities such as Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester and London. 

• Many of the portraits will also be displayed individually in the entrant’s hometown with locations ranging from Belfast, Liverpool and Southampton to more rural areas such as Blaenau Ffestiniog (Gwynedd), Delabole (Cornwall), Marston Moretaine (Bedfordshire), Knypersle (Staffordshire Moorlands) Oban (Argyll) and Thorpe Audlin (West Yorkshire). 
• Some of the portraits will also feature on community screens in over 1,500 Co-op stores across the UK.
  
• One of the portraits ‘Melanie, March 2020’, taken by Johannah Churchill, has been recreated as a hand-painted mural in Manchester city centre.

All one hundred works will also be on display at Hold Still Exhibition at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire from 23 October until the 6 December 2020.

The exhibition has been led by the Duchess of Cambridge as Patron of the National Portrait Gallery. Today The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited Waterloo in south London to mark the launch of the UK-wide Hold Still community exhibition and viewed the final one hundred Hold Still portraits displayed on billboards outside Waterloo station, one of 112 community exhibition sites in 80 towns, cities and areas across the UK. 

The Hold Still community exhibition sites are in the following towns, cities and areas across the UK. Some locations have more than one community exhibition site.

• A - Aberystwyth, Arundel, Alrewas (National Memorial Arboretum), Ashford (Kent), 
• B - Baldock, Balham, Belfast, Bethnal Green, Bingley, Birmingham, Bishop's Stortford, Bootle, Borehamwood, Bournemouth, Bradford, Bredbury Romiley, Brighton, Bristol,  Brockley, Burgess Hill, Burnt Oak
• C - Cambridge, Cardiff, Carshalton, Cheltenham, Cockenzie And Port Seton, Croydon, Cumnock
• D - Dulwich
• E - Eaglescliffe, East Ham, Eastbourne, Edgware, Edinburgh
• F - Fareham, Finsbury Park, Folkestone, Forest Hill
• G - Gidea Park, Glasgow South, Gosport, Gravesend
• H - Harringay, Hemel Hempstead, Hitchin, Hyde
• K - Kensington
• L - Lancing, Lewes, Litherland, Liverpool
• M - Manchester, Marylebone, 
• N - Norwood, Notting Hill
• O - Oxford
• P - Peterborough Rural, Poole, Preston, Purley, Putney
• R - Ramsgate, Reading, Roehampton, Rotherham
• S - Sale, Southampton, Southfields, St Ives, Stenhousemuir, Stoke On Trent, Sutton
• T - Teddington, Tottenham, 
• W - Walthamstow, Wanstead, Waterloo, Westminster (National Portrait Gallery), Wimbledon, Wokingham

About the Exhibition

Hold Still invited people of all ages from across the UK to submit a photographic portrait, which they had taken during lockdown, in a six-week period during May and June. A panel of judges, including the Duchess of Cambridge and National Portrait Gallery Director, Nicholas Cullinan, selected the final 100 portraits from 31,598 submissions.

Focussed on three core themes – Helpers and Heroes, Your New Normal and Acts of Kindness – the images selected present a unique record of our shared and individual experiences during this extraordinary period of history, conveying humour and grief, creativity and kindness, tragedy and hope.

The exhibition is supported by the Co-op, which launched ‘Co-operate’ in April to help connect vulnerable people to local and national support initiatives and has recently provided emergency relief funding to 4,500 community causes. 

Covid-19: When life is hard - you learn to adapt

Art in Lockdown and Beyond: 6 Months On

Yesterday was the six month anniversary of the UK being put into lockdown - in order to protect people and reduce the expected number of deaths from Covid-19.

Yesterday was also when 

• Boris announced more restrictions on what we can do
• it was a very sunny day at Kew Gardens - and I spent a very happy day on my very first visit of the year to the gardens in decent weather.

I spotted this sign.  It struck me as absolutely spot on to where we are now 

Think about how you can learn to adapt to a new normal.

When Life is hard... you learn to adapt

The Coronavirus Posts

Today I thought I'd take a quick look at the number of blog posts that I've written in the last six months which relate to Coronavirus and Covid-19 in some way or other.

I've just been updating my schedule on my Coronavirus / COVID-19 and Art page on my Art Business Info for Artists website - and it is in fact a LOT of posts. (listed below)

TIMELINE OF UPDATES by me 

(on Making A Mark, Botanical Art and Artists and Art Business Info for Artists)

FEBRUARY 2020: 

• Coronavirus, Courses and Cancellations (27 February 2020) - written before the Pandemic was declared

MARCH 2020: 

• Coronavirus & Art #1: Risk Management for Artists & Art Events (6 March 2020)

• Coronavirus & Art #2: Thoughts and recommendations on the implications of a pandemic (12 March 2020). Note I'm particularly proud of this one - because:
• my predictions were pretty much spot on
• lots of people wrote and thanked me for the pep talk!

• Covid-19 and Art #3: The timeline for cancellations and postponements?

• Coronavirus and Art #4: Art Galleries, Museums and Auction Houses close in London

• ​Mall Galleries to close until further notice

• COVID-19 and Art #6: Financial support for self-employed artists and freelancers

• A List of UK based Online Art Suppliers

APRIL 2020: 

"Hold Still" digital exhibition on NPG website

Earlier this year, HRH Duchess of Cambridge - who has been the Patron of the National Portrait Gallery since 2012 - asked everybody to send images for the Hold Still Exhibition - to reflect what life was like during lockdown

Today a digital exhibition of the 100 portrait photographs selected from the 31,598 entries have been unveiled on the National Portrait Gallery website

the images present a unique record of our shared and individual experiences during this extraordinary period of history, conveying humour and grief, creativity and kindness, tragedy and hope.

Images #1-3 of the 100 selected for the digital exhibition "Hold Still"

Hold Still: Three Core Themes

There are three core themes to the exhibition

• Helpers and Heroes, 
• Your New Normal and 
• Acts of Kindness.

Click here to view the images individually - and do take the time to read the narratives alongside each. Sometimes they are not what they seem.

View them all together in the video (below) released today by the National Portrait Gallery.

The final 100 present a unique and highly personal record of this extraordinary period in our history. From virtual birthday parties, handmade rainbows and community clapping to brave NHS staff, resilient keyworkers and people dealing with illness, isolation and loss. The images convey humour and grief, creativity and kindness, tragedy and hope - expressing and exploring both our shared and individual experiences.

Please note this exhibition includes text and images recording people’s recent experiences, which some visitors might find upsetting. If you have been affected by any of the issues reflected in the exhibition, and feel you need support, please click here for some suggested sources of support.

How the exhibition came about

The call for entries for the exhibition was launched by The Duchess of Cambridge and the Gallery back in May

Hold Still invited people of all ages, from across the UK to submit a photographic portrait which they had taken during lockdown. The project aimed to capture and document the spirit, the mood, the hopes, the fears and the feelings of the nation as we continued to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.

More images of lockdown in 2020

Judging Panel

The Judges

The Hold Still judging panel included: 

• The Duchess of Cambridge - who is a keen photographer and is a Patron of both the National Portrait Gallery and the Royal Photographic Society
• Nicholas Cullinan, Director of the National Portrait Gallery - who's grown a beard for the occasion!
• Lemn Sissay MBE, writer and poet - who some will remember sat for a Portrait in the Final of Sky Portrait Artist of the Year 2020 - in the National Portrait Gallery
• Ruth May, Chief Nursing Officer for England and 
• Maryam Wahid, photographer.

The criteria used for assessment of the images by the panel focused on the emotions and experiences they convey rather than on their photographic quality or technical expertise.

You can 

• hear about the selection process (in what is currently a really badly edited video version of a Zoom meeting! It NEEDS SORTING!)
• review the Director's Choice - personally I'd have been more interested in the Duchess's choice!

The Exhibition

A selection of the photographs featured in the digital exhibition will also be shown in towns and cities across the UK later in the year.


Note: International law firm Taylor Wessing are supporting the Hold Still project in partnership with the National Portrait Gallery. They are long-term supporters of the Gallery and have sponsored the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize for the past 12 years.

Covid Guidelines for Artists meeting in Groups

Drawing Attention, the official monthly zine of the Urban Sketchers organization publicises sketching meet-ups each month. 

This month it published some very sensible guidelines for those artists and sketchers beginning to meet up again. You can find Drawing Attention (August 2020) on Issuu and the guidelines are on pages 4 and 5.

Well done to Urban Sketchers for doing a good turn and providing a very useful checklist of everything that needs thinking about and attending to! 

Plus a lot of it is relevant to other painting groups aiming to meet up in future e.g. plein air painters.

I've clipped the relevant guidance as it struck me that the more this very sound guidance can be shared, the safer people will be. 

ONE THING: It did strike me that another couple of points:

• caution might be suggested to those aged over 70 or those who have been shielding or have an underlying condition which places them at higher risk - maybe meeting up in smaller groups to start with
• I personally would want to know who harboured young people at home who ignore safety precautions or are too young to adhere to them properly - so I can stay well away from them.

I did also wonder what the scope was for Zoom Sketching Groups!

BOTTOM LINE: As indicated, whoever is running a group and arranging meetings between people from different households should ALWAYS have the health and safety of ALL participants as their #1 priority.

Artists need to exercise good judgement, common sense and integrity

Job losses at major art galleries

Staff working in the 'art' side of major museums in the UK seem to be surviving Covid-19. Those working in the trading arms appear to be not so lucky. 

Some of the strategies being employed to allow art galleries and museums to live within their means seem a bit crude at present - and, in my opinion, there needs to be rather more business 'nous' employed in my option.

Tate staff protesting the proposed job cuts

This is a tweet by the union representing the staff at Tate Enterprises Ltd - the commercial subsidiary, which operates retail, publishing and catering within the galleries - following a socially distanced demonstration will take place outside Tate Modern at the end of July.

Today the press is being welcomed back to @Tate Modern, but the workers from #Tate Enterprise working in shop & cafés won't be: instead they'll be made redundant! Culture bail out money should save jobs! #CulturevsCovid pic.twitter.com/custyXB3Pp

— PCS Culture Group (@PCSCultureGroup) July 24, 2020

I'm left wondering whether the Head of Coffee - on a salary which exceeded that of curators of art at the Museums(!) - will be on the list of those whose jobs may be for the chop.  (READ my post from January 2020: Next time stop and think before you have a coffee at the Tate)

To be honest - if it were staff in Conservation (which requires training for jobs with limited opportunities) who faced the prospect of losing their jobs I'd be very concerned. However the trading arm does NOT exist without the reason why the art galleries and museums exist. Jobs in catering also crop up rather more frequently than jobs for conservation staff or curators.

While it's always sad that anybody loses their jobs through no fault of their own, let's keep a proper perspective on this. 

• It's a lot more sad for people who are losing their lives during the pandemic and 
• there is going to be a major structural shakeout with respect to how organisations are run in future - and there's no guarantee that ANYTHING will ever go back to being the same as before.
• If more cuts in spend are needed, and I were in charge:
• I think I'd be very inclined to start with all those earning a salary of over £35k - right up to the Director - with the percentage cuts increasing as salaries increase.  
• That would enable more people to remain employed and reduce those who would need to claim benefits. 

More about the job losses

These articles tell you more about the consultation about the need to cut back on staffing due to the anticipated decreased level of trade at the Galleries.

• Tate boss defends plan to cut 200 jobs in art gallery shops and cafes | BBC (9th August)
• Tate and National Gallery commercial units to cut hundreds of employees (10th July)
• Tate faces protests over impact of job cuts on BAME staff | The Guardian (26th July)

Bankside Gallery reopens - with a new exhibition

The Bankside Gallery - home of the Royal Watercolour Society (RWS) and Royal Society of Painter Printmakers (RE) - has reopened for a new Exhibition and viewings in person - in the gallery.

An exhibition "Summer at the Bankside Gallery" opens today until 27th September 2020.

It comprises artwork - paintings and fine art prints - by members of both the RWS and the RE - although I think the latter has the edge in terms of quantity and quality of content.

While it says on the RE website that the exhibition is full of new work, I'm afraid I recognise a few as works I've seen before and the word "includes" might be more appropriate.

The Bankside Gallery and Exhibition are open daily (during exhibitions) between 11am and 6pm.  There are no indications of visitor controls on the website relating to

• limits on visitor numbers
• the need to pre-book a visit

although I do expect they will need to ask for names and addresses on entry re contact tracing.

However their email says

The safety of our visitors and colleagues is our top priority. We have been working hard to ensure that we can welcome you back to the Gallery safely, so you will notice a few changes and new measures in place on your next visit.

For the record "retail art galleries" come under the Covid-19 government guidance for Working safely during coronavirus (COVID-19) for retail shops and premises and section 2 indicates the type of provisions expected for "Keeping your customers and visitors safe".

There are no announcements as yet around events - and I'm guessing they might be somewhat more problematical.


Given they're three stops on the Tube for me, I may well break my duck (no public transport since March!) and venture forth to view the exhibition at some point - when I feel a bit more confident about safety arrangements. 

PS Today the Mall Galleries has posted that deferred art society exhibitions will be restarting on 1st September. I'll post more about this tomorrow.

A Digital Renaissance for Online Art Collections

It's become very apparent that in a world starved of external stimuli, people turned to art online for a visual feast. Covid-19 has changed a LOT of things and art is not least among those activities that will be changed forever.

Bye bye, blockbusters: can the art world adapt to Covid-19? - back in April - suggested that online might well become the NEW norm for consuming art.

“We’re going to talk in terms of before and after. The virus will change a lot of things for art.” Frances Morris, director of Tate Modern,

The Art Galleries and Museums are now re-opening (slowly).

However, it's noteworthy that the old world of viewing in art galleries has changed in a very marked way. They are having to be

• very, very careful with pre-booking, 
• choreographed routes through an exhibition and 
• lots and lots of sanitiser.

I think it's very definitely going to be a long time before we again see the usual hordes associated with blockbusters. What we might get instead is

• a more civilised viewing of an exhibition or a gallery - so long as you don't want to wander from a prescribed route or retrace your steps!
• a continuing upward trend in viewing art online - now people are more aware of what is out there.

If you don't know what's online

For those of you who are not aware of what is out there, there's a lot more than in the past - although there have been some sad losses along the way.

Here's a list of places where you can view art online.

I'm an inveterate surfer and I know there's a lot more out there. I'm going to keep coming back and adding to this list - in future posts. (see the side column for how to subscribe to this blog)

In the meanwhile, you can get started.........

Tate: ways of viewing art in the permanent collection online

Online Art Websites (i.e. online is the norm)

• Google Arts and Culture which has interesting offshoots such as
• Collections - at museums around the world. One wonders whether Google outdoes the museum's own website when it comes to viewing art given you can get in VERY close to some artwork on Google's website
• Art Selfie

Install the app, take a selfie and search thousands of artworks to see if any look like you.

• Web Gallery of Art created by two retired Hungarians Emil Krén and Daniel Marx. This website has been aroundsince 1996 and looks precisely the same as when I first visited many moon ago. It has an  alphabetic list of artists giving basic information on artists
• WikiArt.org - Visual Art Encyclopedia - nearly - but not quite - as good as Google for high resolution images. However the selection is more boring. Essentially a vehicle for shifting reproduction oil paintings
• Art cyclopedia: The Fine Art Search Engine - another ancient website which does the job if you are searching for art or want to explore an art movement but isn't the best at delivering an indulgent visual experience
• Art UK - the digitisation of the public collections of art in the UK's art galleries and museums and other public collections

Sadly, The Athenaeum has disappeared - see Goodbye to the Atheneaum Art Database? I keep testing the original URL but keep getting the sorry this site cannot be loaded message

The remainder of this post is devoted to some of the main museums in the UK and USA. Starting this post has made me realise - yet again - how much progress has been made in making art more accessible online.

Take this to be the first of a number of future posts which will explore the online art offerings of different art galleries and museums around the world

- because this is going to be a major way of consuming art for some time to come......

Art Galleries and Museums - UK

Each museum takes a different approach to how they make their collection accessible - which makes it somewhat irritating as the first thing you need to do is make sure you understand what is available and what unique method for making it available and accessible is adopted by this gallery!

However I'd added more than few pointers and examples below....

#Museums Unlocked and lockdown art

We've had a number of innovative lockdown art projects during the Coronavirus Lockdown. One of these was created by #MuseumsUnlocked - and this blog post is about that initiative

#Museums Unlocked - The Facts

1. It's a project developed by Dan Hicks (@profdanhicks) - who is a professor of contemporary archaeology at the University of Oxford and a curator at the city’s Pitt Rivers Museum
2. It ended earlier this month after running for 100 days. 
3. It was a Twitter project - run through the hashtag ##MuseumsUnlocked
4. The project had themes - one for each day (see below for the themes for Days 1-100)
5. People responded and posted images in response to the set themes (see examples below)
6. Most of the themes were to do with history and archeology - but some were related to Art.
7. People were invited to share their own pics of the museum in question
8. It produced what has been termed a "curatorial endeavour" by the culturally engaged Twitterati.

Please share your photographs of exhibitions, objects, architecture, events and more—so we can make a "virtual" visit tomorrow and see the museum through each others' camera lens.

Below are the themes for each of the days

Four pics provide the themes for 25 days at a time.

How to see what got posted

To view what people posted for specific topic you need to:

• log into Twitter
• put #museumsunlocked and the theme into the search window e.g. "#museumsunlocked + portraiture"
• do the search - and see what comes up.

Here's a few I found on various museum topics

Which London art galleries and museums reopen next week?

Here's a summary list of the art galleries and museums in London which begin to open from next week  PLUS

• what you need know in order to visit 
• which are offering extra benefits for essential workers who have kept us all supported through this health emergency. 

The RA reopens next week

I won't be venturing out to see any of them in the near future. I've got a risk factor re Covid-19 so am more content viewing art online right now.

All Galleries REQUIRE pre-booking in order to manage numbers and social distancing

Masks will be recommended by all galleries.

The list below is ordered in terms of date of reopening and amount of information available on the website.

Royal Academy of Arts

The health and safety of our visitors and staff is paramount. We will be following government advice on health and safety as a minimum, with additional measures and standards also in place. Among these measures will be a limited number of visitors at any one time, and asking that all visitors wear a face covering while at the RA.

Open to Members: Thursday 9 July
Open to the Public: Thursday 16th July
Days of the week: Thursday–Sunday
Hours: 11am–4pm
Advanced booking: ESSENTIAL https://knight.royalacademy.org.uk/page/reopening-corona

the UK’s Emergency Services, NHS and social care workers, Blue Light Card holders will be able to visit for free. Simply book online using the promo code THANKYOU. We'll require employee ID when you arrive for your visit.

Exhibition Programme

• the four-star ‘Picasso and Paper’ exhibition has been extended to August 2.
• ‘Gauguin and the Impressionists’ was due to open March 28, but will now run from August 7 to October 18

National Gallery

added social distancing, one-way art routes and a contactless experience.

Open to Members: Monday 6th July

Open to the Public: Wednesday 8th July

Days of the week: daily

Hours: 11am–4pm

Advanced booking: ESSENTIAL https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/visiting/plan-your-visit

Exhibition Programme

• ‘Titian: Love, Desire Death’ has been extended until January 2021

Wallace Collection

A one-way fixed route will be in operation to visit the galleries, starting on the upper floor. Not all galleries will be open for visitors.
The café and cloakroom will be closed.

Open to Members: ?

Open to the Public: Wednesday15 July

Days of the week: ?

Hours: 11am - 3pm

Advanced booking: ESSENTIAL - see https://www.wallacecollection.org/blog/Wallace-Reopening/

Exhibition Programme

• Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting for the East India Company will reopen on Wednesday 29 July.

Tate 

One-way routes and safe distancing guidelines are in place throughout the galleries. Prepare for a bit more walking than usual. Access information for each gallery will be published mid-July.

Open to Members: ?

Open to the Public:  All Galleries reopen on Monday 27th July

Days of the week: ?

Hours: ?

Advanced booking: ESSENTIAL - see https://www.tate.org.uk/visit

Exhibition Programme - see individual Tate Museum website for programmes. Some exhibitions are extended; some are cancelled

Serpentine Galleries

Please only come if you can get to the gallery safely. Group size is limited to maximum 6 people.

Open to Members: ?

Open to the Public: 4th August

Days of the week: ?

Hours: ?

Advanced booking: ESSENTIAL https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/visit/

Exhibition Programme

Dulwich Picture Gallery

Open to Members: ?

Open to the Public: AUTUMN 2020

• 4th July - open for gardens, pop-up shop and café

Days of the week: ?

Hours: ?

Advanced booking: ESSENTIAL

Exhibition Programme: ?

Victoria & Albert Museum 

- NO NEWS

British Museum 

- NO NEWS

National Portrait Gallery 

- Closed for the next 3 years - see my previous blog post National Portrait Gallery not reopening - until 2023

It's time to talk recession - and what next!

The Covid-19 Pandemic to date has made economic survival very difficult for a number of artists.  However the coming Global Recession is going to make life difficult for a lot more artists - all around the world.

It's time to take stock and think about what this means - in the short term and the next 2-3 years.

This post focuses on:

• how I'm going to try and help in the coming weeks / months / years
• how you can contact me - with suggestions and queries and ideas
• current predictions about a global recession

The OECD published its Economic Outlook report today.

• This provides forecasts for the scope and size of the recession 
• The last section below deals with those predictions - and the nuance of the one hit or double hit recession.
• It focuses on how long this recession and period of uncertainty will last

OECD Projected REDUCTION in GDP in countries across the world (i.e. national economies contract)

Making A Mark - The Way Forward

I'm proposing to write a number of posts in the coming days and weeks

• focused on how to help artists survive and thrive - for example
• what to cut
• what to improve
• what to build
• creating checklists of things to think about and do - in relation to creating / marketing / selling / being business-like
• as an artist
• as an art teacher
• as an art gallery
• as an art co-operative
• re. art fairs
• re. exhibitions and competitions.

I'm inviting you to SHARE WITH ME:

• the strategies you have used in the past which WORKED (eg 10 years ago re the banking recession). I can certainly remember some of the things which happened then which I'd recommend people do think about or don't repeat!
• the dreadful mistakes you've made in recessions in the past and definitely will NOT be repeating this time around.
• the innovation you want to embrace
• the new initiatives and approaches you're thinking of creating / following
• how you cope with uncertainty

Essentially I want to help in any way I can to share learning from the past - and creativity re. the future.

I'll also be on the lookout for helpful blog posts and articles written by those active in the art economy - whether they are artists, art dealers, art galleries, art fairs or whatever.

You can share contributions - or ask questions you want the answers to - with me via:

• either the Contact Page on Art Business Info for Artists 
• or my Facebook Pages / Messaging re. 
• https://www.facebook.com/artbusinessforartists/ and 
• https://www.facebook.com/makingamark2/)

I'm pondering on setting up a community linked to one of the pages (probably the Art Business Info for Artists FB Page) to enable artists to share what they need help with and what they are doing to address the various challenges.

The Global Recession - cannot be ignored!

The COVID-19 pandemic is a global health crisis without precedent in living memory. It has triggered the most severe economic recession in nearly a century and is causing enormous damage to people’s health, jobs and well-being. 
OECD’s latest Economic Outlook

What follows is not a pleasant read. However in order to plan to cope with the recession you need to know what's coming at you.

I'll talk more in future posts about very specific issues you will need to address in relation to the business of being an artist - based on what we know happened in the last major recession.

Get on and do!

I firmly believe that the most pragmatic way forward is to 

• understand what we are facing and 
• make plans accordingly - for at least the next two years that this Recession will be felt.

I predict that:

• All artists who ignore the coming recession may well not survive it and will also become impoverished in the process
• However, start making realistic plans now and you may well come out the other side intact.

The Nature of the Global Recession

Today the the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published
The world economy on a tightrope

Conclusion #1: The global outlook is highly uncertain

This is the projected decline in real GDP as a result of the Coronavirus Pandemic for the seven countries which make up 

The darker colour relates to the additional impact (i.e. additional decline in GDP / deeper recession) if a second peak occurs in a significant way. (i.e. why it so important to prevent that from happening!). The one thing that is certain is that the deeper the decline the longer it takes to climb back out of it.

FOR ARTISTS: the significance of this recession, how deep it is and how long it lasts relates essentially to the buying power of their customers in the marketplace. Sales of art - except at the wealthy end of the market - took a deep dive in the last recession and very many art galleries also closed. There's no reason to suppose the same will not happen this time.

This is the outlook for the G7 countries

BELOW is the outlook for the OECD countries - Spain is the worst affected and Korea is the least effected.

The outlook for countries across the world appears at the top of this blog post.

The projected reduction in GDP in OECD member countries

Those taking the biggest hit are the economies with a significant part of their economy dependent on the service sector. Another way of looking at this is those aspects of the economy which are discretionary as opposed to essential.

Conclusion #2: Amid high uncertainty, two scenarios are possible

The two scenarios are:

• Double-hit scenario: A second wave of infections hits before year-end
• Single-hit scenario: A second wave is avoided

Overall, economise with not return to the level of performance enjoyed in Quarter 4 of 2019 for at least two years.

Conclusion #3: Unemployment is soaring

Many countries have introduced support measures to protect jobs in the near-term in hard-hit sectors, but young workers in particular are vulnerable.

In the second quarter of 2020 (April - June 2020) the predicted unemployment rates - as a percentage of the population are:

• USA - 17.5%
• OECD - 11.4%
• UK - 11.2%

Unemployment is predicted to continue to increase in Q3 (July - September 2020)

If a second peak occurs this is likely to be towards the end of the year and could have very serious implications for unemployment in Q4 (October - December 2020). Assuming a second peak occurs, unemployment rates are predicted to run at:

• USA - 16.9%
• OECD - 12.6%
• UK - 14.8%

Unemployment is predicted to remain high throughout 2021 - and much higher than pre-Pandemic days.

Conclusion #4: Strong fiscal support is warranted but it has consequences

Public debt will increase very significantly - and at some time this had got be paid back - which may have implications for tax rises and cuts in services.

Conclusion #5: OECD and emerging economies face RECESSION and UNCERTAINTY

The global economy is now experiencing the deepest recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s, with GDP declines of more than 20% and a surge in unemployment in many countries. Even in countries where containment measures have been relatively light, early data are already making clear that the economic and social costs of the pandemic will be large. Growth prospects depend on many factors, including how COVID-19 evolves, the duration of any shutdowns, the impact on activity, and the implementation of fiscal and monetary policy support. Uncertainty will likely prevail for an extended period. Given this uncertainty, two scenarios have been developed to reflect the possible evolution of the global economy. In the double-hit scenario, it is assumed that renewed shutdowns are implemented before end of 2020, following another surge of the COVID-19 virus.

The long road to recovery

Just as the Pandemic is not yet OVER, this is not going to be "just a blip" in art sales. 

I believe we're going to be facing a very different art economy over the next two years. 

It's going to be a long road to economic recovery. My take on the nature of that economic recovery to date is that

• It's going to look pretty different - and that 
• We may well see a number of strategic shifts in how the economy - and the art economy - operates in future.
• Artists will need to be nimble in their thinking and on their feet. 

Are you ready to start addressing these very important issues?