HS030 - Jerwood Gallery

Hastings Speaks

Jerwood Gallery – a day in the life, on the 12 May 2016

6.30am  -  Steve arrives to clean the gallery. He doesn’t dust the paintings though.

8.30am  -  Head of Operations, Kim, arrives by bike from St Leonards and meets a technician who has come to work out why the lift isn’t working.

9am  -  The core team are all in; there’s lots of chat and tea being made. We’re an all-female team in the office, close knit, and into fitness and cooking.

There’s a new exhibition opening today – Ruth Borchard: The painter behind the Canvas. We have self-portraits of artists, collected by the writer Ruth Borchard during the 20^th century. They have been hung next to the pictures they painted. So for the last three days, the technical team has been taking down the previous exhibition, packing it up to go back to the people who loaned it, and then putting up the new works. It feels very quiet now that hive of activity is over.

10am  -  Becky, the Visitor Services Manager, is opening up the galleries, turning on the tills, checking everything is ready to open. Anna, Business and Learning, is stocking the shop shelves.

10.30am  -  Volunteers start to arrive at the back door. There are 60 volunteers who work at the gallery. They are a completely brilliant group, from students gaining experience, to retired people who love art. There are 4 or 5 of them working in the gallery every day.

10.45am  -  Briefing with Front of House staff and volunteers. There are people coming in for meetings with staff, a journalist visiting to review the new exhibition, and someone needs to check the loos at regular intervals.

11am  -  Doors open. The first visitors arrive. They are Members and so have unlimited free access to the gallery. They have come to see the new exhibition and to have coffee in the café.

The next visitors are from Holland. They are in Hastings for a week’s holiday. Their English is perfect and volunteer Graham gives them an impromptu tour of Prunella Clough’s work, the exhibition in the large Foreshore Gallery. There’s a lovely painting of a fisherman in the exhibition and Graham suggests they go and buy fish for dinner from the fishing beach stalls outside.

12.30pm  -  A primary school class from a school nearby has walked to the gallery for their Pearls of the Sea session. This is an education programme where schools visit regularly and work with an artist educator. Today’s group are talking about emotions the artists are trying to express in their paintings, writing them on post-it notes which they stick to the floor below the painting. Under one painting they read ‘kindness’, ‘hugs’, ‘quietness’ and ’I don’t know’.

1.15pm  - Anna, who also runs the events programme, meets with the Marketing team, Kate and Kirsty, to talk about promoting the summer workshop programme. They decide the web pages need overhauling and Kirsty, who manages the website, sets to work.

2pm  -  The Duty Manager, Daniel, makes an announcement over the tannoy that there will be a free tour of the gallery. It’s being given by volunteer Helen who has been on a fast learning curve about the new exhibition, helped by the curator Victoria. Now it’s over to Helen to lead the tour. Visitors gather in the shop before it starts.

3.25pm  -  Gallery Director, Liz, and Head of Communications, Kate are having meetings in the café because it provides an excuse to drink nice coffee and look at the stunning view of the fishing beach. They are talking about the Root 1066 Contemporary Arts Festival which will celebrate the local arts scene 950 years after the Battle of Hastings, and also upcoming projects with Hastings Arts Forum.

4.10pm  -  A seagull has nested on the roof, but without actually building a nest. The egg has rolled onto the electric security fence around the edge of the roof. Much discussion is had in the office about what to do. Kim heads out onto the roof with gloves on to move the egg. Then we let nature take its course.

4.45pm  - An announcement tells visitors that the gallery will be closing in 15 minutes. Daniel, the Duty Manager begins to move through the gallery, searching for visitors in the corners.

5pm -  Everything is locked up the office staff begin to finish up and go home. The lift is working again. The studio floor is covered in charcoal after the schools visit. A job for Steve tomorrow morning.