Oxmarket refurbishment heralds exciting times for the gallery

The lockdown coincides with a time when the gallery would have been closed for refurbishment anyway.

Oxmarket chairman Sophie Hull is thrilled at the thought of all the opportunities the new look and the new facilities will open up.

Restrictions permitting, the gallery is aiming to reopen on March 15 with a high-profile exhibition and will then celebrate its refurbishment with an even higher-profile exhibition starting on April 1 entitled Refreshed, a name harking back to the gallery’s fund-raising campaign. Refreshed will run for three weeks.

The lobby area is currently being cleared and the kitchen and loos dismantled: “We are going to have a beautiful entrance area with more exhibition space and open it all up, and there will be comfortable seating too.

“At the back there is a side room that will be a disabled loo and there will be a unisex loo as well, and we are going to improve the flow of the gallery as well. At the moment you go in and then out and then in and then out again. Now you will be able to go around the whole gallery without going in and out at all, a complete flow. We are also going to be improving the flooring. At the moment it is different flooring in each area. It is going to be uniform elegant flooring with the refurbishment.”

The aim is also to improve signage – all part of ending the Oxmarket’s “hidden gem” status. It’s certainly a gem, but Sophie really doesn’t want it to be hidden. Sophie will also be looking to improve signage to the gallery from East Street.

The refurbishment is costing around £200,000: “I have been very busy with our professional fundraiser working on targeting institutions and trusts because we don’t have the resources to organise fund-raising events. The only fund-raising event that we had was the Philip Jackson exhibition in November which was highly successful and raised a very considerable sum towards the costs which has allowed us to start work. We are working to get the rest of the money in place. We have a lot of applications that are outstanding. We have secured about three-quarters of the money so far. Let’s hope we can get the rest of the money in place by the end of February so that we don’t have to do the work in two phases.”

As Sophie says, the timing has been fortunate insofar as this was all scheduled to happen during what has now become lockdown. She has also completely overhauled the Oxmarket’s IT systems which were “archaic”.

Together, it will all put the Oxmarket in its best position ever, helped by an influx of high-powered new directors at its November AGM.

“We are going to be able to have even more exciting exhibitions and even more variety of art, and we are hoping to become better known than we have ever been. We will be able to have workshops and we will be able to use the enhanced facilities more for schools and universities. We will be able to have more events. The scope is enormous.

“How many other places have the space and the facilities that we have? Most of them are commercial and very expensive to hire. We are going to be in a unique position. We are going to be part of the regeneration of Chichester.”