Covid19 Industry Message

During this challenging time GalleriesWest recognises that many public galleries will primarily be taking advice from governing organisations and communities as to how you respond to the current situation re the COVID-19 pandemic and we provide the following advice to assist you if you have decisions to make.

GalleriesWest recognises the dependence of our sector on volunteer effort and further that our volunteers are typically drawn from older cohorts in our community who are particularly vulnerable to the Coronavirus.

GalleriesWest encourages all volunteer operated galleries to close to the public and all volunteer dependent programs in galleries with professional staff should be suspended.

Where galleries remain open, events such as exhibition openings where social distancing cannot be assured should be cancelled. These recommendations are consistent with actions being taken by our interstate colleagues.

These temporary measures will ensure that public health is prioritised but we also encourage all public galleries to respond to the advice of Local, State and Federal Governments when considering decisions about your gallery operation.

This is a challenging time for our sector and for all of our communities and GalleriesWest will do whatever we can to help you get through it. Please contact us if you need further advice and support and we will do our best to provide whatever information is needed.

Julian Bowron

Chair

GalleriesWest Inc