How art galleries will navigate our new normal

Chantelle Rountree, associate director at Petworth’s reopened Rountree Tryon Galleries, is predicting a slow return to normal as the art world picks up again on the face-to-face interaction on which it thrives.
Chantelle Rountree on the left and Gallery Manager Amy Homewood on the rightChantelle Rountree on the left and Gallery Manager Amy Homewood on the right
Chantelle Rountree on the left and Gallery Manager Amy Homewood on the right

“Lockdown started badly for us. We had invested a large sum of money in a stand at one of the most important art fairs in our annual calendar, the BADA (British Art Dealers Association) Art Fair in Duke of York Square, Chelsea, which was running this year under a new name The Open Art Fair, March 18-24.”

Much of the advertising and set-up costs had already been paid, and the new fair management team felt it was too late to cancel. However very little art was sold and it closed after just two days.

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“The fair provided a virtual tour that we sent out to clients but this in no way made up for not being there and everyone’s focus was elsewhere, quite rightly.

“It was a huge financial blow to many art dealers, some of whom rely solely on fairs to sell their art. The fair has traditionally been a great success for us and in normal times we would hope to turnover ten to 15 per cent of our annual turnover and start the spring art season with a bang. Instead it was a very bad start for us and the rest of the trade.

“With the Prime Minister announcing lockdown on March 23, we all felt extremely worried about how our businesses would cope. Confidence was low and with the major London auction houses Christies and Sothebys closing earlier than many other businesses, the art market did not look like it was going to fare well.

“However, the government realised the risk to small businesses and Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s announcement regarding the furlough scheme, business interruption loans and local council grants was extremely welcome news. We received our grant quickly from Chichester DC, furloughed our staff and shut the doors.

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“Our director Jamie Rountree remained to try to keep things ticking along and a new opportunity came to club together with a few other dealers to sell some stock online, via The Saleroom.com. Traditionally this platform has only been used for auction houses, but they opened it up to dealers and in our first online timed auction we sold eight items of stock totalling £41,000 – a percentage of which went to NHS charities to help in the fight against CV19.

“In total over a number of online shows and timed auctions we have raised £14,230 for NHS charities over April and May. It also helped our cashflow issues considerably as there were no sales coming through the gallery.

“We have adapted to the situation like all other businesses have had to do and found ways to keep things ticking over, but as April-June (with Christmas) are our busiest times of the year, we are hopeful that we can welcome many visitors and buyers to the gallery in the normally quiet late summer months to see us through a tricky patch.

“We are delighted to be getting back to normal and able to open our doors to visitors again.

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People I think are still wary and will not be rushing back to group gatherings. However on the up side, people are spending more time at home, investing more in their houses, gardens and new pictures for their walls – we hope! People who would normally spend income on holidays abroad might perhaps have more to spend at home. Fingers crossed they will be buying a wonderful painting for their wall as well as a long-term investment for the future.

“Will the art world be changed forever? No, I don’t think so. I think things will slowly return to normal. Good artworks will always have an intrinsic value for the emotional response that they bring to potential buyers, and they remain a fairly stable long-term investment. However, I think that websites and selling online will be much more important in all industries in the future including the art world, but only from trusted companies.

“I also think the future of big art fairs is less secure, there will be less enthusiasm to visit and virtual fairs are just not the same and in my view not particularly worth doing. The art world thrives off face-to-face interaction, trust and conversation between dealers and their clients. It cannot rely solely on the internet as there are many pitfalls to buyers from dishonest dealers and virtual scammers.

“Our online sales are up currently. Perhaps as we are the only company in the art world to hold a Royal Warrant, so we are trusted enough for clients to feel safe buying directly from the website knowing that if they are not fully satisfied on receipt of the work we will take the item back and refund. However we all need to attract new clients and build up their trust over time and it is this aspect that will suffer as a result of the pandemic.”

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