Are Exhibitions and Galleries in Crisis?
By Natasha Long
Guido Reni, Assumption of the Virgin, ca.1598-99, oil on copper, 58 x 44.4 cm, Städel Museum, Frankfurt. Photo: Städel Museum
The month of October demonstrated that the art world is no stranger to change, and no exception to the struggles of economic turbulence that affect the ordinary individual. Galleries are still dealing with the fallout of Covid 19 – which resulted in postponed exhibitions, closed museums and restricted visitation. However, just as the pandemic moves into the shadows and leaves the forefront of the news, the cost-of-living crisis has come to bite the art world and disturb creative institutions.
Large exhibitions such as Guido Reni and the Spain of the Golden Age, which is due to be shown at the Prado Museum in Madrid from 28th March to 9th July next year, typically take at least 3-5 years of planning. Such exhibitions rely on loaning and transporting artworks from institutions and individuals around the world. The risk of delaying an exhibition due to an economic crisis has not affected the Prado in recent years. However, this risk became a reality when no travel company validated the €865,000 bid in July to transport over 100 artworks from the Städel Museum in Frankfurt to the Prado in Madrid. Since July this year, the second tender increased to €965,000, with the deal due to be closed Monday 24 October. Fortunately, the Prado has declared the exhibition is due to go ahead by its launch date. Despite this, the Museum was in a state of panic due to their heavily planned exhibition timeline being possibly disrupted. We are seeing that rising costs for moving artworks is generating instability for exhibitions internationally that rely on the transportation of art across the globe.
Modern Art Two gallery in Edinburgh. Photo: Shutterstock / PhotoFires. Credit: TimeOut.
The anxiety of not just postponing exhibitions but closing museum doors entirely is present in the UK. The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, Newcastle recently declared their fuel bills could reach £1m a year and are fearful they will have to shut. The Centre faces uncertainty, reaching for new and unfamiliar options to manage the huge building – such as sourcing renewable energy that may not even be viable. And if not, rising energy bills could catalyse the Centre’s downfall.
The nightmare of temporary closure has come to fruition in Scotland. The Modern Two Gallery has shut for the remainder of 2022 due to inflation and funding struggles. Sir John Leighton, the Gallery’s General Director, stated that they were struggling “to keep the lights on”. The museum even suggested that visitor numbers lower than pre-pandemic times exacerbated funding issues. Indicating that people are less able to afford visiting art galleries, the cost-of-living crisis is creating a vicious cycle where galleries are struggling to function, but even when they can, visitors may not be able to afford ticket costs.
The cost-of-living crisis is posing potentially a greater threat to these institutions than the pandemic. Museums globally are struggling to afford energy bills which are increasing exponentially with the need for specific temperatures required to conserve art together with specialised lighting necessary to view art in a proper setting. The art world is operating in new economic territory. Rocketing prices are creating great uncertainty for the future security of galleries and exhibitions that cannot be fully comprehended by institutions and workers in the present. This appears to be merely the start of the fallout. Only time will tell how galleries and museums will be impacted. We are beginning to see there is no art to conquering the cost-of-living crisis, even within the art world.
Bibliography
Addley, Esther and Sherwood Harriet. ‘“Its really desperate”: cost of living crisis spells bleak times for British art venues’. 22 October 2022. ‘It’s really desperate’: cost of living crisis spells bleak times for British arts venues | Arts funding | The Guardian
McCartney, Scott. ‘Cost of living crisis: Modern Two art gallery in Edinburgh closes due to rising energy bills’. 18 October 2022. Cost of living crisis: Modern Two art gallery in Edinburgh closes due to rising energy bills | Edinburgh News (scotsman.com)
Wayne, ‘The Prado saves ‘in extremis’ Guido Reni’s major exhibition’. 24 October 2022. https://todaytimeslive.com/entertainment/147398.html
Wilkinson, Chiara. ‘This iconic art gallery in Edinburgh has been forced to shut’. 20 Thursday October. https://www.timeout.com/uk/news/this-iconic-art-gallery-in-edinburgh-has-been-forced-to-shut-102022
Wilkinson, Isambard. “Rising transport costs put Baroque master’s Madrid exhibition at risk”. 24 October 2022. Rising transport costs put Baroque master’s Madrid exhibition at risk | World | The Times