It was the night of Orange's snap lockdown and several days before Paper Pear's pop-up exhibition at the Corner Store Gallery was due to open.

The booked-out event featuring 140 works by different artists was meant to run for two weeks with a preview show which ran throughout Friday in order to allow small groups of people enough space to view the art in separate viewing blocks. That was the plan, at least.

Instead, Ms Day was back on the road by 11pm Tuesday, trying to get out of the region and back home to Wagga.

"I've likened it to going into hospital, having a baby and not being able to take it home," she laughed.

"It was strange. I got it looking all pretty and then I just had to drive away from it. It felt like... I was fleeing town.

"I did consider [doing] virtual viewings from there but I just thought it was safer to leave."

Now, along with Corner Store Gallery owner, Madi Young, Ms Day has been trying to "madly" catalogue every piece to get it online for the 100 people who had registered for the event before Friday.

"It's not the same as people walking in and falling in love with a piece, but I've had a fair outpouring of support so I think that it might work in my favour," she said.

With the lockdown sending so many businesses into disarray, other local galleries are once again relying on social media to remind customers that they still trading despite their doors being shut.

Jumbled and the Peisley Street Gallery also have online shops and will continue to pack and send items to customers throughout the lockdown.

During Orange's first taste of lockdown last year, Jumbled's Pip Brett began harnessing the power of social media to keep her business and very quickly found huge success.

The small business owner previously told the Central Western Daily that sales had skyrocketed while The Sonic wasn't even open thanks to the power of social media marketing as well as consumers becoming more eager to support regional businesses.

"By having an online element and a social media element and using email marketing and things like that, you don't have to rely so much on the local bricks and mortar offering," she said.

"People are becoming more conscious of who they're spending [their money] with ... instead of trying to find the cheapest deal, they're thinking about where and why they're spending money."

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