Amidst financial difficulties and decreasing attendance, art spaces like The Helm and Phoenix Art Space are finding other forms of income to ensure they can remain open.
Brighton is home to several art venues, including Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, The Helm, Phoenix Art Space, and Fabrica. And, walking the streets of Brighton, you can find plenty of street art in the form of murals and graffiti.
In recent years, art spaces have been struggling on a national level. Art Unplugged reported that between 2019 and 2024, visitor numbers at the Tate Modern dropped by 1.5 million. In the same period, Tate Britain, Tate St Ives and the National Gallery all saw attendance drop by at least 30% each, with the National Gallery seeing a drop of almost 50%.
At least part of this could be due to a lack of advertising by venues. Jesse Barnes, who attends a book club at The Helm and recently visited an exhibition at Phoenix Art Space, noticed that the space was not adequately promoting itself. He said: “I see a lot of stuff outside the building, like physically. But if I didn’t live so close, I’m not sure that I would have. And I did sort of assume it was more studios than a gallery… So, I assumed it was more for artists than a gallery.” When it came to social media and leafleting, he had not seen anything related to Phoenix Art Space, stating: “I don’t get a lot of stuff like that advertised online, I don’t see it on my social media stuff. But yeah, I see a lot of other similar stuff advertised, there’ll be like leaflets around town, but I haven’t really seen anything for Phoenix Art Gallery.”
This attendance drop also correlates with a decrease in funding. Art Unplugged found that between 2009/10 and 2022/23, government funding that art spaces received via arts councils in England dropped by 18%.
A Brighton-based artist, Zoe Bailey, who uses the artist’s name GIRL SHIT, highlighted a lack of government funding as an issue for artists. She said: “We desperately need investment from government. Galleries are crippled by rents, and it forces every decision to be dictated by income… There are never-ending pubs, cafes, open studios/houses that will show work, but they end up being free wall decoration. Nothing too experimental and often fall into the ‘pay to show model’ (this is a problem with galleries too). Artists should be pushed to explore their work and allowed to ‘fail’. We need environments to show risk-taking work – to have the conversations, to learn.”
Struggles with funding mean that some Brighton galleries and spaces have turned into workspaces and cafes alongside displaying art, with this acting as a secondary form of income. The Helm and Phoenix Art Space are examples of this. Jesse said: “I think a lot of people do use [The Helm] as like a workspace as well, because that was what we saw at Phoenix Art Gallery. There was some people on laptops in the gallery as well as the cafe next to it, which I didn’t expect, but that, I think, kind of helped make it feel a little bit more casual… I think Helm definitely has a different target audience. They do funky matcha drinks in the cafe. I think there’s like a cereal milk one and that does sort of match the vibe because it’s a lot of pop-culture stuff.”
Both The Helm and Phoenix Art Space feature cafes, but both venues also rent out spaces, whether as venue hire, like with The Helm or with art studios, as with Phoenix Art Space. Neither space receives consistent government funding, but Phoenix Art Space has received Arts Council grants in the past to help with gaining freehold and refurbishments.
Art exhibitions and spaces are essential for many artists. While social media is becoming increasingly popular for promoting art, this is not effective for all artists. Zoe Bailey has had issues with her art being removed from social media and needing to be censored to be seen. Zoe said: “Nothing beats an in-person exhibition… The contacts and conversations you have with people are incredibly valuable – you learn so much from your audience, and the environment, in-person exhibitions are about how you present the work going forward, too. Apart from adding to your CV, you get good images of the work, and you’re communicating your skills as a curator and adding to those aspects of professional practice. People still validate your worth as an artist on the idea of an exhibition – online is a great community, but the online platforms are swamped, so it can be hard to be seen even without shadow bans.”
Even for artists that do not rely on exhibitions for promotion, they act as a way for an artist to step back and see their work. Mehreen Raja, an artist who recently held an exhibition as part of a PGCE course, said: “I really enjoyed seeing everyone’s exhibitions and mine all finished… It’s very satisfying to step back and say, ‘It’s finished’. It’s great to have a show of your work and practice, and having that experience is very special… But it is also very stressful to put together, and it is a team effort.”
These secondary forms of income may allow these venues to stay open, but not everyone feels that they complement the art. Speaking about this, Jesse Barnes cited an exhibit he had seen at Phoenix Art Space by artist Clare Nias, he said: “I think it works a lot better for Helm because a lot of the stuff is more pop-cultural, whereas Nias’s work was very political and quite serious… I think having people working alongside that might have been a bit odd and a bit strange.” And for artists like Zoe Bailey, having a cafe or bar next to your art can make it feel like “wall decoration”.
Given the issues with art spaces also acting as workspaces, cafes or bars, it could be that this solution from Brighton venues is merely a temporary solution to the problem caused by a lack of centralised funding.