Terry Brett is celebrating 20 years of running Pyramid Gallery in York. He tells CHARLES HUTCHINSON about the art of giving.

TERRY Brett is celebrating his 20th year as owner of Pyramid Gallery with a party at Clements Hall, in Nunthorpe Road, York, on Saturday evening.

The concert will feature folk/trance band Kangaroo Moon, one of Terry's favourite acts.

"They've been opening Glastonbury on the Thursday for many years," says Terry, who makes a regular pilgrimage to the festival. "They perform with didgeridoo, tin whistle, fiddle, mandolin, drums and keyboards and create a psychedelic sound that's Celtic inspired and gets everyone dancing.

"Now, for the second time since I took complete control of Pyramid Gallery in 2008, they're playing at our charity fund-raising event in York. This time, though, I'll be sharing the stage with them as part of Ukulele Sunshine Revival, who open the evening at 7.40pm."

Tickets are available at £7 from Pyramid Gallery and proceeds will go to St Leonard's Hospice from an occasion that charts Pyramid's progress since 1994.

That year, Terry's then wife, Elaine, persuaded him to uproot the family and give up his career as a consultant in computer-aided design in Warwickshire to be a partner in an established contemporary art gallery in York.

Ups and downs ensued, the couple split amicably in 2007, and Terry bought Elaine out of the partnership in 2008. She went on to run the Northern Lights Gallery in Keswick, while he implemented changes at Pyramid.

"One of the first things I did was to introduce charity events under the Pyramid Gallery banner," he says. "All my life, I've volunteered for various causes. I think it's a behaviour that I picked up from my mother, who has spent all her life involved with charities."

The first event was a concert in the Hospitium building in the Museum Gardens in 2008.

"I wanted a celebration to mark the occasion of being totally in charge of Pyramid Gallery, so I booked a band that I had enjoyed dancing to at Glastonbury Festival, Kangaroo Moon," says Terry.

"In order to pay for it, I charged friends to come in and decided that any profits would go to St Leonard's Hospice. It actually set me back about £700, but a charity raffle raised about £200, which was all donated. Since then, I've learnt much more about fund-raising and I'm hoping to raise £4,000 for two charities this year."

There are many good reasons for a small business to run charitable events like this, suggests Terry.

"Pyramid Gallery has now been involved with 16 events, including an annual art exhibition in the gallery, an annual music event and several piano and trombone recitals with Russian concert pianist Nika Shirocorad and trombonist Barrie Webb," he says.

"Nika just appeared one day in the shop and we got chatting about her art and silk scarves. She was studying for an MA in fine art at the Royal College of Art at the time. Soon she was selling hand-painted silk scarves here and showing paintings in our York charity art event that coincided with the York 800 celebrations.

"Sometime later, she told me that she earned her living as a concert pianist, touring mostly in Japan, Russia and Sweden. So together with her colleague Barrie Webb, himself a musician with an international reputation, we started to promote small house concerts in York."

Charity events have become an important to Pyramid Gallery.

"In a way', everything in the business is a sort of charity. Every sale supports a British-based artist or craft maker as well as a staff member, who are themselves mostly artists," says Terry. "Even the rent on the building goes to the National Trust, to whom we have paid over half a million pounds.

"By running an event for charity, it allows me to indulge my passion for music, or just enjoy putting on an exhibition with no pressure about selling. When you do something for no personal gain, everyone has a different expectation; it takes the pressure off and becomes an enjoyment rather than an occupation.

"I get a buzz from seeing people enjoying themselves at an event that I've organised and then a very nice sense of satisfaction when I hand over a cheque to the charity."

Terry's second 20th anniversary celebration will be a concert by Nika Shirocorad and an art exhibition at the National Centre for Early Music on October 17. The beneficiary will be the Karen Hilltribes Trust, the York charity established 25 years ago by Penelope Worsley in memory of her son Richard.

"I've got to know Penelope since she moved into York and become a supporter of the ukulele band," says Terry.

"The charity she set up is supporting very remote villages in Thailand by finding a market for the silver crafts that the villages specialise in."

The October 17 concert programme will include solo piano works by Beethoven, Rachmaninof and contemporary composers George Crumb and Michael Finnisey. Tickets cost £15 from Pyramid Gallery or on 01904 641187 and the event will be opened by the Lord Mayor of York, Councillor Ian Gillies.