00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers.
00:06Lovely to speak to John Ayton, who is the Chair of the Board of Trustees of Pallant House Gallery.
00:11And goodness, so many arts institutions are struggling, but it sounds like in so many respects,
00:17Pallant House Gallery is doing very, very respectably in terms of numbers of patrons,
00:22in terms of number of visitors, just the whole context.
00:27Post-pandemic, the galleries are doing well.
00:31Well, it's great to be able to report that our numbers are ahead of where they were
00:37starting with Covid, and that they've bounced right back.
00:41And I think it's credit to the new management team in place under Simon Martin, the Director.
00:49And also some very good programming from Melanie Vanderbrook, who is the new Chief Curator.
00:56You know, we've had a run of excellent exhibitions from Sussex Landscapes to Gwen John to John Craxton.
01:04And the most recent, which is an interesting genre, Portraits of Artists.
01:10Yes.
01:11And these have done very well.
01:15But I guess the point is you'd say there are plenty of other exhibitions, other galleries,
01:20are not doing so well, are they, who are considerably down despite offering equally interesting exhibitions.
01:26Why is Pallant House ahead?
01:29Well, I think that we've made huge efforts in terms of marketing our exhibitions,
01:37great editorial in all the national publications, a real focus on social media,
01:46in terms of bringing these great exhibitions to people's notice.
01:51And I think that it's a sort of, in many ways, Pallant House is a sort of undiscovered gem.
01:57And I think that, you know, and what we're very excited about is, you know, with the Goodwood Art Foundation,
02:04and the cathedral, Chichester should become a great destination for anyone interested in art.
02:12Yeah.
02:13There's plenty to do for, you know, a day or two.
02:16Right.
02:17And, you know.
02:18Absolutely.
02:19And you say undiscovered gem.
02:20Where do you feel you are in terms of awareness within Chichester,
02:23with the fact that you are there and you have so much to offer?
02:26Well, I think, you know, that people are busy.
02:29And I think there are still a lot of people locally and in our catchment area that haven't visited the gallery yet.
02:39And we, you know, particularly, we'd love to build our schools program.
02:45We'd like to encourage more young people to come into the gallery.
02:49We'd like to encourage more students to come.
02:51So I think there's still a way to go, but it's certainly getting better.
02:57Absolutely.
02:58And as chair, is there anything else that troubles you?
03:01And financially, things are always going to be a challenge, aren't they, in the arts?
03:05Well, I think we, you know, we do have a deficit, which we need to narrow.
03:11We rely very much on the generosity of our local community.
03:15You know, we're not funded on a regular basis by the Arts Council, which is unusual.
03:23And although we are very generously funded by Chichester District Council and a number of companies,
03:31we do need local support.
03:34So, you know, that's always a challenge.
03:37Absolutely.
03:38But the overall picture clearly is at a time when so many people are struggling.
03:42Palant House is in a good place.
03:44We're heading in the right direction.
03:46That's definitely true.
03:47Fantastic.
03:48Well, congratulations on that.
03:50Lovely to speak to you, John.
03:52Hi.
03:53Thank you, Phil.
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