Guide The Appeal for younger volunteers as Chichester’s Pallant House Gallery prepares to reopen

Art

Chichester’s Pallant House Gallery is working towards reopening later this summer, probably August.

Gallery director Simon Martin said entry would be by pre-booked ticket only.

The gallery would be introducing a one-way system to ensure social distancing and would be looking to admit up to 50 people at any one time, allowing people up to two hours per visit.

Simon confirmed that he was introducing a young volunteers scheme for the reopening.

A number of the gallery’s existing volunteers are in the shielding category and will not be able to return to help the gallery reopen its doors.

“We would love to hear from students who might normally be doing a summer job at this time and who would enjoy the experience of helping us.”

Potential volunteers should get in touch with the gallery.

As for the timing: “We are probably looking at August.

“Wehaveadatethatweare working towards internally. We will be monitoring how everything else is going.

“It seems that most of the galleries in London are planning to be open in midjuly.

“But lots of galleries outside London are not going to be open for some months still.

“We are going to be one of the first to take that step, but with the national institutions going first in July, if there is any learning for us to take on board, then we will be able to do so quickly. We will be wanting people to come back to a safe and enjoyable experience.”

Simon is currently negotiating with the lenders of the works in the spring exhibitions – which were forced to close after just three

Gallery director Simon Martin

days – to extend their loans. The idea is that the spring exhibitions will then continue until November.

“I have been doing a lot of webinars with German museums and others about all that they have been doing to make their institutions safe for reopening.

“We have been looking at all their plans.

“I have been speaking to colleagues at the National Gallery and other galleries in the region about what everyone is doing, thinking about all the logistics.

“And we have been going through all our plans to work out what numbers we can safely have in the building, that we will have a limit on numbers and that we will be having pre-booked tickets.

“We will have the tickets for sale through the website or by telephone so that people can come in and show their phone.

“And we will also have a one-way system.

“The good thing for us is that the historic house has a route through it and the way that we have designed our exhibitions is that you go in one way and come out the other. And we are pretty confident with the pacing of the visitors’ arrival. We have got the space in the entrance area and we will have PPE available if there is any queuing.”

The inside café will be moved into the garden: “We don’t want people coming in and seeing lots of people. We want people to feel reassured. We are not allowed to open anyway until July, and we will be closely monitoring all the latest government advice and then will be putting in place a communications plan.

“We will be announcing the reopening a few weeks in advance and then opening the building and then gradually bringing back the furloughed staff and making sure we have enough volunteers.

“We really are going to need our volunteers to help us with the reopening. The main difficulty for us is that in the past we have done lots of lectures and events and concerts. These will be difficult for us to do.”

But over the past few months, during lockdown, the gallery has made great efforts to stay in touch with people, particularly those who have been vulnerable during isolation.

The gallery’s shop was able to reopen for online trading around a month ago.

As part of the building, it couldn’t physically reopen. But online interest has been strong.

“One of the things about this period that has been so challenging for so many people is that it has been very clear from the people I have spoken to how much they have missed the gallery and how much they realise they have appreciated it, that regular ability to pop in to see an exhibition or to have a coffee in the café and meet up with friends.”