‘My online art classes helped people switch off’: how creativity became a lifeline in lockdown
Art-shop owner Barry Whitehouse tells how he went from having no website to running virtual art classes for his local students – now, they’re joined by people from all over the world
It may be packed into a small space, but The Artery is full of everything you would ever need to get creative. The Banbury shop is an art lover’s paradise, full of watercolour brushes, lino sets, calligraphy pens and more. Upstairs there is a classroom where owner Barry Whitehouse delivers art classes for up to eight students.
“My customers range from complete beginners to professional artists and my passion is to make art accessible and affordable to everyone,” says Whitehouse. “I know all my customers by name and many are retired or ‘recycled teenagers’ as I like to call them. It is wonderful to see the positive effects learning art has, such as mindfulness, confidence building and creating communities.”
In January this year, The Artery celebrated its 10th year of trading and had been going from strength to strength. Forty different classes were available in the studio space at £12 each, plus there were strong sales from the shop. Whitehouse was also heavily involved in organising community events such as the Banbury art festival.
But then Covid-19 hit and by late February he was seeing the effects.
“Revenue dropped and so did footfall. My older students started cancelling classes due to health concerns. I needed a new business plan and fast because at that stage I didn’t even have an online shop,” he says.
In March, he was forced to close his beloved shop and put his two part-time staff on furlough. Stuck at home like everyone else, Whitehouse started experimenting with streaming his classes online direct from his dining room via closed Facebook groups. The camera was trained on his easel and he offered step-by-step instructions just as he did in the real-life classes.
“Those first few weeks were about getting my older students used to new technology,” he says. “For some, my classes were the only outside contact they got all week. It became a special time where they could connect and switch off from the stress of Covid-19 for a couple of hours.”
Whitehouse charged a flat rate of £5 a class and by April had seven weekly classes available, covering watercolour, acrylics, drawing, and calligraphy. Initially the clientele were mostly current students but then he started to up his social media presence.
He began by offering the occasional free paint-along sessions on the Artery Facebook page. To date those six sessions have now had more than 12,000 views, with his class on painting a bluebell wood in watercolour proving particularly popular. This resulted in new students signing up to his online classes from all across the UK as well as the US, South Africa, Australia and Canada.
“I have gone from around 50 students pre-lockdown to several hundred now,” he says. “Some classes have 40-plus people in them. The students have created their own community by sharing their work and words of encouragement.”
Whitehouse has also brought his shop online for the first time via a ShopAppy.com account. You can buy both art supplies and classes here. He is now sending parcels across the UK and sales are especially strong for products such as the watercolour brushes that students need for classes.
“I personally deliver all local orders either on foot or in my car and often have a socially distanced chat,” says Whitehouse. “My customers love buying from a small local shop. Support from brands like Visa has been invaluable in raising awareness on shopping local and falling in love with our town centres again.”
“As the shop is so small, you can only safely have one person in there at a time. We’re opening for click and collect to begin with to keep everyone safe.”
But now it’s all change again with government news that shops can reopen from 15 June. For Whitehouse though, while he will open up the shutters, it will be far from business as usual.
“As the shop is so small, you can only safely have one person in there at a time. We’re opening for click and collect to begin with to keep everyone safe.”
And as for the classes, Whitehouse says he will offer them face-to-face again once he is allowed, but they will also always be streamed online too.
“The students see the same image and get the same instructions. It has made the classes so much more accessible, plus the recordings can be watched whenever and as many times as needed.”
So an unexpected bonus of Covid-19 is that The Artery is actually busier than ever.
“I always thought I’d need a bigger bricks and mortar classroom to grow my business. But the online world means my classes have opened up to so many more people across the world. They have become a crucial support lifeline,” says Whitehouse.
“It is so wonderful that people are turning to creativity to help them get through this difficult period the world is currently facing and to see my small business grow at the same time has been incredibly rewarding.”