How are art galleries facing the coronavirus pandemic?
With the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, art galleries across the globe have taken an enormous setback. The economic and cultural shift in the axis of the art world has catapulted its institutions into an unfamiliar direction.
"This is the worst economic crisis that anyone has seen. People are comparing it to the Great Depression and World War Two," says the Director of Volte Gallery, Tushar Jiwarajka.
But, new technologies and galleries with firm foundations or unique models have been able to cushion this blow. By speaking with gallery experts across Bangladesh and India, we have gained some insights on what may await us around the corner.
Galleries have long depended on their collectors or art fairs for their income, and in this situation of lockdowns and fair cancellations, the future seems bleak for several of them. The Founder of The Edge Foundation (Dhaka), Iftekhar A Khan, sheds some light upon the current situation.
"The local galleries are not profitable to begin with. Realistically speaking, we will see several close," he explains. "The Edge Education programme is dependent on donations, which of course, in the current climate, will decline. Most of our funding comes from private events, such as exhibitions utilising the gallery space and the Lakeside Plaza setting. With social distancing in place, this activity will most likely not return anytime soon."
Emerging and small-scale galleries will be the ones who will have to bear the brunt, as they lack the resources to be able to sustain in a drying up market, especially with the high rents. Spaces like Gallery Maskara and Volte Gallery in Mumbai, that are operating on unconventional modules, however, seem to have lesser inhibitions. Gallery Maskara closed their physical space a few years ago and now conducts private viewings and invitation- only shows for their clients. Whereas, Volte Gallery changed its business model by executing their projects in different spaces with the same artists, instead of having a permanent space.
Bangladesh and India already have a very low patronage for art, and with galleries being rendered incapacitated to maintain a clientele and survive this economic crisis, several of them have transformed their physical presence into e-view rooms or other online platforms. The conjunction of VR and arts caught attention when Hauser & Wirth announced their programme ArtLab. But on its viability Jiwarajka says that not everyone can afford to have a VR set. " I don't think Francois Pinault or any other major collector in the world, would have a virtual reality headset. I think that's way too ahead of time. Maybe two or three years down the line when the headsets become more like regular glasses and they're not cumbersome, something like that would make sense," he says.
While Maskara says that although people can get a sense of certain two-dimensional by viewing it online, the experiential part will be missing because of the small scale of the phone, iPad or laptop. The same visceral feeling of seeing paint on a canvas can never be substituted in a digital format. So, while online platforms are providing innovative solutions and accessibility to the audience, it restricts the viewers in terms of spatial depth and tactility, insuring the need for a physical gallery.
Although the pandemic is creating a ruthless chaos, there is a silver lining to it. Collaborations between art institutions have increased many times fold, the internet has become a new medium for art institutes, and a larger audience is now being included in the art world.
According to Jiwarajka, this is a big opportunity for his gallery as it makes international artists more accessible, as the West is facing the crisis too. Yamini Telkar, the former gallery director of Delhi Art Gallery and the Head of the arts programme at Bengaluru International Airport, says, "The ideal situation is that this becomes an avenue for the younger audience or the people who are unfamiliar with the world of art to give away their inhibitions, to start engaging with it without saying 'Oh will I look foolish?, Here, all the means and tools are now being made available."
Meanwhile, galleries are also trying to support the community. The Edge Foundation hosted a design competition for emergency ventilators, with the objective of increasing the healthcare capacity for the people. "We felt it was our duty to contribute to the larger community by highlighting our gifted engineers and scientists who can really make a difference," says Khan.
All in all, we hope that just as galleries faced various adversities in the past and overcame them, they will thrive despite the pandemic, and continue to support the community, the artists and each other.
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