Our Terms and Conditions for Members

Applications for Full membership are accepted from 1st November and close at the end of January the following year. Outside of this time you may become an Associate member. All memberships expire on 31st December.

No selection process

The committee of Suffolk Open Studios does not operate a selection system. Suffolk Open Studios is an inclusive organisation and recognizes that selling work it is not every artist’s main priority. Nevertheless, the majority of Suffolk Open Studios members are professional artists, and the standard of work remains extremely high. We trust you, the artist, to decide whether or not your work will sit happily alongside that of our members.

Eligibility

To be eligible for membership of Suffolk Open Studios you must be a maker of original works of art/craft and have your studio/gallery located in Suffolk. The word original is defined as being art or craft designed and made by the relevant member. Galleries situated in Suffolk and Art Groups exhibiting in Suffolk are also eligible. Work that is the product of assembled components made by others e.g. jewellery, must be carefully labelled to avoid any misconception as to its originality. While digital artists are eligible to join, we do not currently accept work created by AI. We also do not accept NFTs. Please contact a member of the committee if you have any questions on this issue.

Artists producing their own original work in any medium are welcome. Our focus is on tangible work created ‘by hand’.

 

Membership Fees

A membership fee is set at the September AGM for the following year. Suffolk Open Studios is committed to keeping the membership fee as low as possible while achieving the maximum benefit for its members. To achieve this, we operate with a small volunteer committee made up of SOS artists, elected to various roles at the AGM, and rely on all members to help out wherever and whenever possible.

Member responsibilities

Whether you volunteer to organize one of the SOS members’ group exhibitions or simply commit to reading in full the communications and guidance the committee sends out, it all adds to the strength of the organisation and the shared success of our members. On the whole, artists are not lovers of rules. However, we do require members of Suffolk Open Studios to read and abide by all terms and conditions (including Conditions of Entry for exhibitions). Not only does this save the committee an enormous amount of time, energy and stress, but making notes of key dates, reading and following instructions, taking responsibility for the accuracy of any information submitted and being a contributing member of the organization (over and above your membership fee) are all vitally important in maintaining the quality of our public events and the high professional standards for which Suffolk Open Studios is known.

Commitments during the main June event

Full members of SOS must open their studios for a minimum of one weekend in June (on both Saturday and Sunday) between 11am and 5pm.

Please note that your studio should be open for both days of the weekend and the opening hours are 11am until 5pm. This ensures consistency and prevents disappointment for visitors.

If, due to unforeseen circumstances, a member is unable to open their studio as advertised in the Directory, they must inform the committee as soon as possible. It is good practise (and highly recommended) to also display external signage to alert potential visitors that the studio is closed. Failure to open as advertised has been a source of complaint from the public in the past and damages the reputation of Suffolk Open Studios, affecting all members. Artist and gallerists are therefore urged to handle such eventualities carefully to avoid damage to their own reputation and to that of Suffolk Open Studios as an organisation.

Associate members do not open during the June event, but may participate in, and are expected to help at, any exhibition that SOS organises.

Members undertake to update their listings in good time for the committee to send the data for printing and to be entered into the App. Members will be informed of the hard cutoff date by which time all profiles and images should have been uploaded and checked for accuracy. Members are responsible for ensuring that the correct data is in place and are given the opportunity to check their information one last time, at final proof stage, before the directory goes to print. Please don’t force the volunteer Directory Coordinator to chase you repeatedly to update your information. If your data is inaccurate or incomplete after the final proofs have been signed off, it will have a negative impact on any potential visitors, both to your studio and to the studios of other artists.

Suffolk Open Studios as an organisation will promote the June event to the best of our ability, but often the greatest success comes from members also making some effort to promote their own open studio days. Therefore, we recommend that members have a plan of action for marketing, publicity, and promotion which can include bunting, banners and posters as well as printed flyers or invitations, social media and email newsletters or mailing lists. Our SOS Guide to a Successful Open Studios Event will be sent to all opening members.

All members, opening and non-opening, are required to collect and distribute an allocation of SOS Artist Directories in their local area.  Here are a few suggestions of where you can distribute them:

Local Post Office, shops, galleries, art/craft shops, framing centres, pubs, cafes, notice boards, village hall, artists workshops, dentist surgeries, hotels, B&Bs, tourist attractions, garden centres, holiday letting agencies, estate agencies, tea shops, restaurants, hairdressers and give to your students to circulate. Also put some outside your own studio before the event.

The SOS Artist Directories are a big part of the success of Suffolk Open Studios and so we need to distribute them to as many places as possible where they can be picked up by members of the public. As a reminder, the printed Directories and mobile App are not just for June, but are in fact valuable year-round resources and useful guides to artists across the county. Please do not put any directories in the recycle bin! They can be returned to us at any of our SOS-organized post-June exhibitions.

Insurance

Members opening their studios or organizing a group exhibition for the June event, are responsible for their own public liability and other insurance cover. Each member has a responsibility to ensure the safety of their visitors. At no point does any duty of care transfer to Suffolk Open Studios.

Please note that Suffolk Open Studios is unable to provide blanket cover for home/private activities because it does not ‘organise and control’ the home/private exhibitions but is simply providing promotional services.

Members should also have their own insurance for the exhibitions run by SOS to cover any potential damage to, or loss of their work, as well as public liability insurance, in case their work causes injury to a visitor or damage to the exhibition venue.

The management committee of SOS cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of the information within the SOS directory/web site or for any complication in the event of using the SOS directory / website.

SOS has no responsibility or liability for any business that may ensue from your membership of Suffolk Open Studios.