I miss the Gallery immeasurably; light filtering through the garden tree canopy; the water in Michael Andrews’ Thames Painting: The Estuary that seems to ebb and flow; standing in front of Freud’s Portrait of a Girl and marvelling afresh at his technique.

I am constantly reminded of Olivia Laing’s exploration on the art of being alone in The Lonely City and to paraphrase: “There are so many things that art can’t do. It can’t change the impact of coronavirus, it can’t find a cure or bring back those we have lost or mend arguments, but it has the capacity to infiltrate and enrich lives, to create intimacy and heal wounds”.

I’ve always understood I’m incredibly lucky to be able to work within the arts. My motivation for doing so is I believe art is essential and should be accessible to all. Now more than ever creativity is needed to problem solve, communicate and rebuild from a community level upward; not the other way around.

Hopefully the art world will emerge from lockdown realising just how precarious it is for some elements of their workforce. Paying artists appropriately and supporting freelance workers has never seemed more relevant.

Is it important to support the arts at times like these? Yes. With responsibility for fundraising, I’m at risk of being told ‘You would say that wouldn’t you!’, but the arts is one of this country’s biggest industries, so supporting the arts supports the economy; but it also runs deeper than that. The best art holds a mirror up to our society and makes us think about our own place in it.

I’m looking forward to seeing how contemporary artists respond to the changed world and how art historians and curators look at the work of the past in the context of today. At a more fundamental level, the rush to creativity at home showed how vital it is to us to create. The arts offer comfort and solace.

It has long been an ambition of the Gallery to find ways to connect with people who might not be able to come to us, and to share our art and knowledge beyond geographic or physical boundaries.

Lockdown has given us the time and focus to begin to make that ambition a reality and evolve our website to become a resource and knowledge hub for anyone interested in modern British art. It has been a moment to innovate and work with the small positives in an otherwise devastating situation.

I live near the Gallery, so I tend to visit frequently and I have the good luck to be a room steward and guide. In fact, I was going to be involved with the Barnett Freedman exhibition tours, and discovering his sheer zest for life had been a delight.

When the Gallery closed, all that was gone. But it wasn’t simply that; it was all the people who make up the Gallery; staff, volunteers, Friends, groups, visitors – familiar faces, interesting people – they would be gone too.

Of course we’ve been lucky during closure. There has been a steady stream of articles, news and views via the internet, all designed to keep us involved with the Gallery and each other. But we now realise that while closing was relatively straightforward, re-opening is likely to be much more complex.

While the Gallery has been closed, I’ve had the privilege to walk round the Barnett Freedman exhibition alone, like a personal Private View, enjoying the vibrant colours of his art and fascination with the circus.

Alongside are works by more of my favourites, Ravilious and Bawden. It’s helped me reflect, in these strange times, on the importance of wellbeing and access to the arts. How it has so much resonance in people’s lives and the importance of your own interpretation and how it makes you feel. It is important to me to be part of Pallant House Gallery and all that it stands for.

I miss the Gallery in many ways. I’ve been involved for 18 years – from just before it closed for the building of the Wilson wing. Then the Friends met regularly and the events continued. This time it’s harder to maintain that camaraderie which exists amongst the guides. But the Gallery has done sterling work to keep us feeling involved, sending emails, links to blogs and other online items of interest.

I’m looking forward to the day when the Gallery is open and guides can meet up and wander round the galleries re-acquainting ourselves with our wonderful collection. Thomas Merton said, “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time”. For me that sums up what we need right now.

As the doors were closing in March, I took a final look at one of my favourite paintings Thames Painting: The Estuary by Michael Andrews. I have always found the confluences of shifting elements within this work particularly moving. I look at this work every time I visit the gallery and throughout this period it has given me both pause for thought and hope for the future.