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Jersey's Harbour Gallery needs just £1,700 to reach its fund-raising today of £10,000 and stay afloat, after it was forced to close its doors due to lockdown.
The Gallery is hoping to raise the money in order to stay open, over the winter months into 2021.
The Gallery has been a much-loved artistic hub for art lovers and local creatives for the past 18 years.
It is run by the Art in the Frame Foundation, which was itself founded in 1998 by art teachers Pat Robson and Elizabeth Le Gal to help young graduates and emerging local artists and craftworkers exhibit their work.
Pictured: Pat Robson, one of the founding members of the gallery.
The Harbour Gallery not only gives artist an exhibition and working space, but it also welcomes local schools and charities.
"I do not think a lot of people quite realise how much we do, they think we are just a gallery," Pat said.
Due to lockdown, the Gallery is facing a significant loss of income and the team are concerned they won’t be able to reopen if they can’t secure enough funding.
"There are a lot of bills," Pat previously explained. "The government said we do not have to pay Social Security and ITIS right now but it will have to be paid. There are not going to be a lot of people, there are not going to be good sales when we reopen.
"People won't have as much money as they used to have. A lot of people have had to take cuts in wages or lose their wages.
"We have to be sensible about this because there is no good opening for a few months and then finding out we can't afford it."
In April, they launched an appeal in a bid to raise £10,000 to continue “to bring art and design to the Jersey community”.
Donations have been pouring in and the page has so far collected just over £8,300. The team at the charity are therefore appealing once more to the generosity of islanders to help them get over the line.
“We need to support our very talented local artists and makers and to be able to run more workshops for adults and children etc…,” they recently wrote on their page.
"We have to look to the future.”
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