Chichester’s Artisan Gallery celebrates successful first year

Nancy Goodens started the project as a pop-up gallery which changed status to a permanent gallery in September 2023. Spokeswoman Mim McCann said: “We are 25 local artists, working in a mixture of medium and styles, all high-standard affordable works. Each of us helps run the gallery and takes turns stewarding. My role includes being on the marketing team. We would be delighted if you would like to join us on the day, any time between 10am and 3pm.

“Nancy is a local artist and runs workshops and she saw a gap a couple years ago in the art scene for Chichester and set this up as a pop-up gallery in the same location. It was there for just over a year as a pop-up and then there was an opportunity to make it permanent. We have a steering group who all came forward to take on the running of the gallery and then there are the 25 local artists within the gallery who all have a job. The steering group is like the engine and the rest all support the steering group.

“I remember seeing a post about it by Nancy, about what she was doing and at the time I remember thinking I would like to be part of that but I had various things going on and then when it came up again last August and they were advertising for people, my son had started school and I realised that I had time and I jumped at it. The first year has been fantastic. We all initially signed up for six months and only one of us didn't continue after the six months and that was for personal reasons. 24 of us stayed on and we've got an extra person now to be 25 again and we've even got a big waiting list. 25 is the limit and we have a great variety of artists.

“There are a lot of galleries that are similar but what makes us a bit different is that people love to be able to come in and talk to us. They enjoy talking about the art with local artists and how it's made and what inspires us. People come in and have a look around and it's just lovely speaking to them and they love the fact that we actually run it. We take turns to be there, and we all strike up conversations with the people that come in and talk to them about the art and about how the gallery works. And the lovely thing is that we have got the incentive that we are actually part of the place. We are all invested in it emotionally and I think that's part of what makes it work so well. We all support it on social media and we all support each other’s projects.

“We all have an individual space and it's up to us what we put in there. We look after our own spaces and if you see that something is selling better than something else then you can do more or you can just do things differently. Because we're engaging with the customers themselves it's an extra insight into what they want. And the gallery is flourishing. You would have thought it would be difficult in the economic situation we have got and that people would see art as a bit of a luxury but business is really good.”