School of Creative
Industries
Zheng Youhe
Youhe is a transdisciplinary thinker and creative, with a track record of utilising her excellent copywriting skills to create copy for a high-profile luxury jeweller and gallery. With several years of voluntary experience in the arts and luxury industries, she has amassed a wealth of experience across marketing, customer experience and event management. Youhe is dedicated to completing work on time and meeting expectations, and possesses an agility that allows her to work both independently and as part of a team. She strives for self-enrichment and is always open-minded about exploring new things.
Work
Research interests
New media Strategies
Thesis abstract
Impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on art galleries in Shanghai
Since December 2019, the world has been fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-2). The virus has impacted businesses globally resulting in serious disruptions and significant losses for many industries. Along with retail, hospitality and travel, the arts and creative industries were badly hit by the pandemic, facing several short-term and long-term challenges as a result of pandemic-related restrictions such as event cancellation, redundancies, bankruptcy and so on. Not only has the pandemic forced museums and galleries to close, but it has also resulted in the postponement and closure of significant art exhibitions including important art fairs which are critical to the contemporary art sector.
This research study therefore aims to examine the impact of the pandemic on the functioning and operation of art galleries in Shanghai. The research seeks to provide an insight from the perspectives of gallery owners on their experiences during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, their perception of the impact of digitisation on their business and how they adapted their business model.
By using a qualitative approach, four art gallery owners from Shanghai were interviewed. The findings showed that not only has the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the business activities of art galleries in Shanghai in the short term, but the ongoing crisis may have also profoundly changed the future of art galleries worldwide. Nonetheless, the galleries demonstrated organisational resilience in how they adapted to the pandemic. A shift to online commerce and virtual experiences irrevocably changed the ways artists and collectors interact with art. It is expected that digitisation will remain a part of the art industry even post-pandemic.