\n The gallery, which is located on Regent Street and previously in the Brunel Shopping Centre, is a \u2018local non-profit group who enable artists of Swindon to sell and exhibit their work.\u2019\n<\/p>\n
\n Due to a declining footfall and rising costs, the gallery is being forced to shut on April 20.\n<\/p>\n
\n The public have expressed their sadness at this news.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cMy father had some of his work in there over the years. Was a nice place to visit when I came over to visit family from the US,\u201d said Alice Lochner Quinton.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt is a sad circumstance. I actually bought one of my father\u2019s paintings there one time!\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cVery sad that it\u2019s closing, we have some great artistic talent in the town, but we won\u2019t be able to see any of it in the future,\u201d said Richard Clark.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cEverywhere is closing now,\u201d said Clive Head.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cVery sad indeed. You can always visit Oink Gallery in Old Town\u201d said Lily Matic Pepperall.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWhere do people go now to see art galleries, that is so sad,\u201d said Rozza BG.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cVery sad lose,\u201d said Peter Blackford.\n<\/p>\n
\n “You can thank Labour,” said Thomas G Ainsworth.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Artist Forum is run as a Community Interest Company (CIC), and one of its directors, Andy Hubble, spoke to the\u00a0Adver\u00a0about the closure.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cBasically, the amount of footfall, people coming into the gallery \u2013 its losing money every month. It is just not sustainable any longer,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt was originally set up to promote art within Swindon, give the local artists somewhere professional to show their work, make some sales etc, and do different types of art, from needle felting, to paintings to sculptures.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI feel pretty gutted \u2013 I hate for it to close under my stewardship. I was a chairman for a number of years, until a few years ago we changed it to a CIC.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cBut it\u2019s been slowly on the decline since Covid, because nobody has got the spare income to spend on something like art, when they are choosing between heating and food.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n The gallery was always free for people to come in and look round.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cPrior to Covid, we were seeing 100 to 200 people over a weekend, and now we don\u2019t even get that a month coming in,\u201d said Mr Hubble.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ken White, a celebrated local artist from Swindon who recently passed away, opened up the gallery.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe have just had a lot of local talent to a high standard,\u201d said Mr Hubble.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cPeople have come in and read the sign [saying the gallery was closing], and said how disappointed they were.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n They have also showcased artwork from a local school in the past free of charge, and have set up an art station where people can come in to paint or draw.\n<\/p>\n
\n The last day of selling at the gallery will be Monday, April 20. Artists are being encouraged to reduce the prices of their work, so Mr Hubble said there will be \u201csome good prices to be had.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n The fixtures and fittings of the gallery will also be for sale, such as art materials and display stands.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThanks to all our customers, past and present, that have supported us,\u201d said Mr Hubble.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had quite a good following from some people. Unfortunately, it\u2019s just not enough to save us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The gallery, which is located on Regent Street and previously in the Brunel Shopping Centre, is a \u2018local…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-466904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}