Yorkshire galleries and museums reopen: 'We need the joy of engaging with art now more than ever'

Galleries and museums are reopening their doors after months of lockdown. Yvette Huddleston speaks to some of those in Yorkshire to see how they’re getting on.
Kirstie Hamilton of The Millennium Gallery in Sheffield.Kirstie Hamilton of The Millennium Gallery in Sheffield.
Kirstie Hamilton of The Millennium Gallery in Sheffield.

For those of us who have been missing real-life, as opposed to digital, interaction with the arts, there has been some cause for celebration over the past couple of weeks.

Since it was announced last month that galleries and museums could once again open their doors to the public following months of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a steady trickle of announcements from some of our much-loved visual arts institutions around the region. A few have already reopened – such as the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, the Hepworth Wakefield and York Art Gallery – while others will soon be welcoming visitors back in to their spaces.

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The Hepworth Wakefield reopened last Saturday – on Yorkshire Day. “It’s been so lovely to see people back in the building,” says Simon Wallis, director of the multi-award-winning gallery.

Assistant Curator Clare Nadal at The Hepworth WakefieldAssistant Curator Clare Nadal at The Hepworth Wakefield
Assistant Curator Clare Nadal at The Hepworth Wakefield

“During lockdown everybody has learnt an awful lot about the opportunities that working digitally can present, and we can build on that, but what has been the vital missing element for us is getting people in to have that direct face-to-face experience of art. Everyone is thrilled to be here.”

During the closure, there was a lot of work still going on, including extensive behind-the-scenes negotiations in order to ensure that the major Bill Brandt/Henry Moore exhibition which had opened just weeks before lockdown – and had already garnered 4- and 5-star reviews – could continue once restrictions were lifted.

“The exhibition was two and a half years in the planning with loans from all over the world so this is a rare opportunity to see the work of two of the greatest artists of the 20th century,” says Wallis. “It would have been heart-breaking if people didn’t get a chance to see it, so I am really pleased that we have been able to extend the exhibition until November.”

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Preparations for reopening were focussed on health and safety across the board. “We are very lucky here that we have nice big, light and airy spaces so social distancing is very easy,” says Wallis. “There are all sorts of challenges to think about, including financially, but I don’t mind how small the audiences are to start with, it is just so good to be open again – and numbers will build up as people see they can have a great, very safe experience here.

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“I think all of us have found that art has been so important to us during lockdown – it is a part of our lives that we have all really missed. I think we have become more aware of the connection between humanity and creativity; I hope we can continue to build on that, we want to contribute to people’s wellbeing.”

At York Art Gallery, which also opened its doors again last weekend, senior curator Beatrice Bertram and her team kept very busy online throughout lockdown connecting with their audiences. “Everything we do is about sharing and inspiring so we did online curations and a still life challenge asking people to recreate, with objects they had at home, scenes from paintings in our collection. Some of those were amazing.”

One of their most successful online ventures was the weekly #curatorbattles on Twitter challenging museums and visitors to put forward entries on a specific theme – they have included ‘creepiest exhibit’, ‘star object’, ‘fabulous fakes’ and the cheeky ‘best museum bum’. “We have had worldwide audiences for those and we even got on Have I Got News for You one week,” says Bertram.

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“So, when we started thinking about preparations for reopening, we thought about how we could engage our audiences in that.” They invited people to help them curate a display of paintings from their collection – selecting a list of twenty paintings then asking people to vote for which ones they would most like to see, and why.

“It’s been lovely to see how people have responded to this,” says Bertram. “We are showcasing paintings which have either been in the stores for a long time or not usually on display, or paintings that have been away on loan, as well as a couple of old favourites that might speak to our times.”

From an online survey and a Twitter poll, they selected the ‘winning’ paintings which include works by L S Lowry, Paul Nash, Barbara Hepworth and Bridget Riley. One of the lesser known works on the list is The Birdcage by Barbara Stanger Mackenzie Smith. “It’s of a bird in a cage looking out through a window,” says Bertram. “Perhaps not surprisingly, that image really seemed to resonate with so many people.”

In Sheffield Kirstie Hamilton, director of programmes at Museums Sheffield, is overseeing the reopening of several galleries and spaces. They will be welcoming back visitors this month in a phased reopening beginning with the Millennium Gallery and Weston Park.

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“As for everybody, it’s been a really strange and challenging time,” says Hamilton. “We have been creating short films to go online and we’ve been doing much more on social media – our Twitter and Facebook followers have tripled – but we’ve also been aware of the fact that not everybody has access to digital so we have tried to support children and young people throughout Sheffield, with food drops and providing activity packs for the children’s hospital and to the city’s most vulnerable children.”

Hamilton and her team have also reprogrammed where possible – the Millennium Gallery had been due to host, in June, the National Portrait Gallery’s Bright Young Things exhibition of photographs by Cecil Beaton which will now, hopefully, come to Sheffield next year. “Really the most important thing has been thinking about staff and visitor wellbeing and safety,” says Hamilton.

“We did a visitor survey which got a very positive response; however, we are also aware that we might get only around 20 percent of the visitor numbers we had before. We acknowledge that people need to build up their confidence to come back, but this is a civic space for everyone – it is warm and welcoming and safe.”

In the Millennium Gallery visitors will be able to see an exhibition of work by Sheffield-based artist Richard Bartle, the Ruskin Collection and, in September Lines of Beauty: Master Drawings from Chatsworth will return, while at Weston Park Sheffield Stories looks at city life in the 1950s to 70s.

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“I think art is absolutely essential to our recovery after this,” says Hamilton. “Arts, culture and heritage are a really important way to explore humanity as a whole, to present issues and stories in a wider context so that we get different perspectives.

“And there is a joy in engaging with art – a lot of these collections are inspirational, they are food for your soul; if ever there was a time, we needed that, it is now.”

Brandt/Moore, Hepworth Wakefield to November 1; Your Art Gallery opens at York Art Gallery on August 20; The Millennium Gallery and Weston Park Gallery open on August 17.

Leeds Art Gallery has now reopened with its permanent collections available for everyone and with social distancing and safety measures in place.

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The Henry Moore Institute will reopen on September 1. The Institute closed its doors in on March 17 just days after the opening of its new exhibition Paloma Varga Weisz: Bumped Body. It had been due to close in June but they have secured an extension to January so more visitors can experience the show.

The Impressions Gallery in Bradford is reopening on September 2 with new exhibition Seedscapes: Future-Proofing Nature, bringing together photographic works from five contemporary artists exploring global efforts to safeguard vital plant species from extinction.

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