Belfast artists welcome the return of galleries – and are fighting to keep them free
Beth Healy
With the return to some sort of post-Covid normality has come the long-awaited return of free art galleries, outdoor exhibitions and museums.
While the pandemic has shown us that there are many ways to experience art digitally, nothing quite compares to the physical experience of a gallery.
Ellie Niblock is an artist based in Belfast and London who works primarily with sculpture. She comments on the return to in person exhibitions: “Personally, as a sculptor, I feel it’s very important to show my work in a physical space. To be looked at 360 degrees. And there are qualities of sculpture that a camera simply cannot pick up. It’s also about the experience of exhibiting in a gallery, having the closure of finishing a piece of work and enjoying people’s response.”
‘Art should be accessible to everyone’, Niblock says (Beth Healy)
The physical experience of art is something we have all been deprived of since the pandemic hit. To wander aimlessly through a wide, open space, in an experience shared with strangers. To be mere metres away from a physical, tangible piece of art. To stop at a particular piece which catches your attention and spend a few minutes with it. To leave that day with a new perspective.
In a time where the UK arts sector is struggling, and the arts departments of some universities face increased budget cuts, Niblock says, “Art should be accessible to everyone, so I definitely think galleries should remain free. Especially for students as it is so important for research and development… It can be hard enough to get people to come to a free exhibition, never mind one with an entry fee”.
To put a cost on free, public spaces would cause them to decline. In her book, How to Do Nothing, Jenny Odell comments on the beauty of free, public space: “A public, non-commercial space demands nothing from you in order for you to enter, nor for you to stay; the most obvious difference between public space and other spaces is that you don’t have to buy anything, or pretend to want to buy something, to be there.” Art galleries and outdoor exhibitions are one of the few spaces left in which we are allowed to simply be.
Niblock adds: “It’s a really important time for public art especially, which is created to be seen by everyone. A lot of the time we access public art by surprise, on the way to work, or out for a walk. Discovering art is such a wonderful thing and it can be a space for people to stop and take it in, to slow down and recharge.”
Covid-19 affected the art world in immeasurable ways. But one thing is clear post-Covid, and that is that enforced periods of lockdown and isolation have forced us into new ways of making meaning, finding beauty, and feeling connected to strangers. Art galleries are one of the few remaining places where we can do so.
Beth Healy is a third year English student at Queen’s University Belfast