The Pyramid Gallery poster for the Strange Days virtual exhibition
IN
response to York Open Studios 2020’s cancellation, Pyramid Gallery owner Terry
Brett is stepping in with a lifeline to artists, offering the Stonegate gallery’s
website as an online showcase at a much-reduced commission.
Its name
prompted the lyrics of The Doors’ song from 1967, Strange Days is an “Art behind
the doors” show that aptly is growing through springtime with new additions
each day, trailed on Terry’s blog at pyramidgallery.com.
“We’ve opened the show to all York Open Studios artists and any York artists who already do business with the gallery, and I’ve lowered my commission to just 20 per cent, plus VAT, to make it work for them,” says Terry.
Delivery Creature, by Chiu-I Wu, one of the York Open Studios 2020 artists
“This enables York artists to show their new work to our customers, without a selection process, and allows them to earn more from each sale.
“The gallery
is closed and my staff are furloughed, so I can operate with lower overheads
during the Coronavirus lockdown, hopefully maintaining contact with my
customers who are confined to their homes.”
For those
living at a YO postcode, there will be free delivery of artworks, subject to the
present lockdown restrictions. “So, delivery might be in a few weeks if the
items cannot be sent through the post,” says Terry.
Terry Brett, on Stonegate, outside Pyramid Gallery
To
complement the Pyramid virtual gallery, he has addressed the challenges presented
to galleries by the Covid-19 pandemic in a candid piece on his blog.
Among the York Open Studios artists taking part in Strange Days are Kate Buckley; Peter Park; Jo Walton; Chiu-I Wu; Lesley Birch; Colin Black; Linda Combi; Zoe Catherine Kendall; Michelle Hughes; Sally Clarke; Adrienne French; Hacer Ozturk; Jill Tattersall; Karen Thomas; Kate Pettitt and Ruth Claydon. #
The second weekend of the 2020 event would have taken place on April 25 and 26.
Pyramid Gallery owner Terry Brett, on Stonegate, York, holding a work by Askrigg artist Piers Browne from the Full Sunlight exhibition
THE
Coronavirus pandemic may have shut doors on next month’s York Open Studios, but
Pyramid Gallery is stepping in to offer an online exhibition to York artists.
What’s more, gallery owner Terry Brett is calling this new service Strange Days, after the song of that title by The Doors. As rather more than one door closes, The Doors open new possibilities for a different form of Pyramid selling.
“This applies to artists who have sold through the gallery either recently or in the past, and we’re extending this invitation to any of 2020’s 144 York Open Studio artists,” says Terry.
“The
artists will keep the work that they’re showing at their studio, and between
them and the gallery, delivery will be arranged to the purchaser’s address if
it is within a YO postcode.”
Terry has run Pyramid Gallery, in Stonegate, since 1994, says: “We need to survive in these Strange Days, and so do our artists. We noticed many posts on social media this week by worried artists who had heard that York Open Studios was cancelled. We wanted to do something positive for them. It has given us an aim and lots of work to do, which is very useful for morale.”
Morale that he believes is under immediate threat from this week’s urgently announced Government financial policies in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. “I am disappointed by the ineffectiveness of government to make sensible and working decisions,” says Terry.
The brochure for the 2020 York Open Studios, adapted post-cancellation by participating York jewellery maker Jo Bagshaw
“While
other European nations are protecting citizens and employees from economic
crisis and worry, our Government seems unable to make the decision to support
individuals and freelance workers or self-employed artists.
“These
matters are being passed down to the community to resolve. It’s not a good
approach. The Government should offer quickly to make payments to everyone, so
that we know we can pay rents, employ people and buy essentials.”
Pyramid Gallery
is reducing its normal commission to the artist for this event to 20 per cent
plus VAT on each sale and is arranging the delivery free of charge to the
customer.
“Some
artists have already submitted work for the online show, and images are being
placed on the website all the time,” says Terry. “The show will continue as
long as there is a Coronavirus crisis.”
Pyramid Gallery continues to open its doors, Monday to Saturday, between 10am and 5pm, but will be closed on Sundays. On show until April 26 is Full Sunlight, an exhibition of etchings and paintings by Piers Browne, studio ceramics by Hannah Arnup, figurative sculptures by Helen Martino and glass by Fiaz Elson.
The artwork for The Doors’ Strange Days
Oh, spoiler
alert, here are Jim Morrison’s 1967 lyrics to The Doors’ Strange Days:
Strange
days have found us
Strange days
have tracked us down
They’re
going to destroy
Our
casual joys
We shall
go on playing
Or find a
new town
Yeah!
Strange eyes fill strange rooms
Voices
will signal their tired end
The
hostess is grinning
Her guests
sleep from sinning
Hear me
talk of sin
And you
know this is it
Yeah!
Strange days have found us
And
through their strange hours
We linger
alone
Bodies
confused
Memories
misused
As we run
from the day
To a
strange night of stone
Let’s look forward to the day when Pyramid Gallery can host an exhibition with another of The Doors’ titles, The End, but in a good way, not an Apocalypse Now way.
