Membership Open

Artists who commit to opening their studio/gallery space on at least one weekend in June 2025 may only join Suffolk Open Studios between 1st November 2024 and 31st January 2025. This firm cutoff is to enable us to collate all the data necessary for the printed SOS Artist Directory and the mobile App.

Artists who are not intending to open a studio/gallery space for the June event (Associate and Young person/Student members – not opening) may join at any time of the year (after 31st January you will need to contact us for the link to the application form).

ALL memberships will expire on 31st December 2025.

First, choose the membership that’s right for you

Full membership – for individual artists and galleries, working or exhibiting in Suffolk

  • Fee: £65
  • You commit to opening your studio/gallery space for the Suffolk Open Studios event on at least one weekend in June 2025 (Sat and Sun, 11am-5pm)
  • You will be eligible to participate in members’ group exhibitions
  • You will have a profile page on the SOS website with up to 20 images and unlimited text which you can edit
  • You will have a listing in the printed SOS Artist Directory with a featured image
  • You will have a listing in the SOS mobile App with what3words directions to ‘opening’ location
  • You will receive an allocation of promotional material for the June Suffolk Open Studios event
  • You will receive an allocation of SOS Artist Directories for distribution in the local area or to give to visitors
  • You are encouraged to promote your own workshops, courses and exhibitions on the SOS website ‘Events’ page
  • You will benefit from paid-for publicity and promotion of the June Suffolk Open Studios event
  • You are eligible for featured posts on SOS social media
  • You will be part of an inclusive, supportive and friendly group of like-minded people
  • We will inform you of any opportunities for artists of which we are made aware

Associate membership – for individual artists who live in Suffolk who do not have a studio/do not wish to open

  • Fee: £45
  • You will be eligible to participate in members’ group exhibitions
  • You will have a profile page on the SOS website with up to 20 images and unlimited text which you can edit
  • You will have a listing in the printed SOS Artist Directory
  • You will have a listing in the SOS mobile App
  • You will receive an allocation of SOS Artist Directories for distribution in the local area
  • You are encouraged to promote your own workshops, courses and exhibitions on the SOS website ‘Events’ page
  • You are eligible for featured posts on SOS social media
  • You will be part of an inclusive, supportive and friendly group of like-minded people
  • We will inform you of any opportunities for artists of which we are made aware

Young person/Student membership – opening – for individual artists up to 25 years of age, students or recent graduates (within 1 year)

  • Fee: £25
  • You commit to opening your studio/gallery space for the Suffolk Open Studios event on at least one weekend in June 2025 (Sat and Sun, 11am-5pm)
  • You will be eligible to participate in members’ group exhibitions
  • You will have a profile page on the SOS website with up to 20 images and unlimited text which you can edit
  • You will have a listing in the printed SOS Artist Directory with a featured image
  • You will have a listing in the SOS mobile App with what3words directions to ‘opening’ location
  • You will receive an allocation of promotional material for the June Suffolk Open Studios event
  • You will receive an allocation of SOS Artist Directories for distribution in the local area or to give to visitors
  • You are encouraged to promote your own workshops, courses and exhibitions on the SOS website ‘Events’ page
  • You will benefit from paid-for publicity and promotion of the June Suffolk Open Studios event
  • You are eligible for featured posts on SOS social media
  • You will be part of an inclusive, supportive and friendly group of like-minded people
  • We will inform you of any opportunities for artists of which we are made aware

Young person/Student membership – not-opening – for individual artists up to 25 years of age, students or recent graduates (within 1 year)

  • Fee: £25
  • You will be eligible to participate in members’ group exhibitions
  • You will have a profile page on the SOS website with up to 20 images and unlimited text which you can edit
  • You will have a listing in the printed SOS Artist Directory
  • You will have a listing in the SOS mobile App
  • You will receive an allocation of SOS Artist Directories for distribution in the local area
  • You are encouraged to promote your own workshops, courses and exhibitions on the SOS website ‘Events’ page
  • You are eligible for featured posts on SOS social media
  • You will be part of an inclusive, supportive and friendly group of like-minded people
  • We will inform you of any opportunities for artists of which we are made aware

Art Groups membership – for art groups of four or more artists collectively opening at one location as a single entity

  • Fee: £100
  • Your group commits to showing its work in a single studio/gallery space for the Suffolk Open Studios event on at least one weekend in June 2025 (Sat and Sun, 11am-5pm)
  • Your group will have a profile page on the SOS website with up to 20 images and unlimited text which the group can edit
  • Your group will have a listing in the printed SOS Artist Directory
  • Your group will have a listing in the SOS mobile App
  • Your group will receive an allocation of SOS Artist Directories for distribution in the local area
  • Your group is encouraged to promote its own workshops, courses and exhibitions on the SOS website ‘Events’ page
  • Your group is eligible for featured posts on SOS social media
  • Your group will be part of an inclusive, supportive and friendly organisation of like-minded people
  • We will inform your group of any opportunities for artists of which we are made aware

Friends of Suffolk Open Studios membership – volunteer supporters

  • Fee: £0
  • Volunteering opportunities at SOS events and exhibitions and supporting the committee
  • Opportunities to build CVs and gain work experience (18yrs or over)

Completing the online form

It can be helpful to gather some information and find a suitably sized image (both in terms of file size and dimensions in pixels) before starting the application process and filling out your ‘listing’. It can also be a good idea to write your answers in a document on your computer first (this can help with word counts and editing). The information can then be copied and pasted into the relevant fields of the listing.

You can, if you wish, complete the entire listing when signing up for membership – a detailed list of all the questions and how to answer them can be downloaded HERE – at least you won’t forget to come back and finish it later. Alternatively, you could just fill in all of the required fields (listed below) and then, once your membership has been activated, log in and edit your listing to add any missing information or additional images. If you do decide to add information later, please don’t forget! Remember that all listings must be complete by Sunday 9th February 2025 at the latest.

Below is a list of the 14 required fields that you will need to complete in order to progress to creating an account for this website and paying for your membership, thus finalizing your application and enabling you to log back in again later to edit your listing if you wish to. The online form is divided into four sections:

Section 1 – Category & Plan selection

  • Media type – once you have selected the most appropriate media type and cld the “Next” button, the available Membership Plans for that category will be displayed.
  • Choose a Plan by clicking the “Select” button, then scroll down and click the “Next” button.

Section 2 – Member Listing Information

In this section of the form you must fill in all fields where the title of the field is followed by a red asterisk. The other pieces of information can be left until after your membership is approved.

  • Name – this is your professional name – your artist name or the name of your gallery. It will be the title of your web page on this site.
  • Surname – this will be used for A-Z sorting in the Artist Directory and App. Use Gallery or Group name if applicable.
  • Brief summary – shown in the app – limited to just 8 words – you can change these later if you think of a better eight. This is what will show as a brief description under your name on the App e.g. Abstract artist, Watercolour & Mixed Media, Raku fired ceramics etc
  • Directory/App Statement – up to 25 words for the App and Artist Directory. Also shown as your artist summary on the website list. Take a look at the current Suffolk Open Studios App and this website to get an idea of what to write.
  • Biography/Details – only shown on the website on your profile/listing page. We would like you to submit as much detail as possible. However, you don’t need to write all of this now. You could simply add a few sentences and complete a more comprehensive biography later. Please don’t simply write nonsense, or drop in some Lorem Ipsum text, as this page will go live as soon as your membership is activated. Your biography will appear on the website when someone clicks on your listing and it is also ‘crawled’ by Google, so the more information you add, the more likely it is that people will find you when searching for various terms.
  • Email address – self-explanatory – but we do need an email address from you here
  • June 2025 Opening Dates – although this is a required field, you can edit your listing and change the dates later so, if you are not yet sure when you will be opening, you could just pick the most likely weekend.
  • Postcode –  for ‘opening’ members, this should be the postcode of your studio/gallery space or venue you will be using for Open Studios in June. For non-opening members it should be that of your home address. Among other things, we use these postcodes when sorting out the most effective collection points for the printed SOS Artist Directories.
  • Wheelchair Access – choose one option from the list.
  • Number of Directories – you can change this later, once you have given it some thought, but we hope you will request as many as you think you will be able to distribute
  • Directory Pickup Point – select the most convenient for you. Unfortunately we cannot guarantee that you will be able to pick up your directories from the place you select here, but we will try to assign somewhere as close to this as possible.
  • Terms and conditions – Please read the T&Cs for membership of Suffolk Open Studios as this gives you a good idea of how we work.

Now, be careful to scroll down to the “Next” button – I cannot tell you how many people have clicked ‘Clear Form’ by mistake.

Section 3 – Member Listing Images

You can add up to 20 images to your listing and choose which one is used as the primary or featured image that, for ‘opening’ members, will appear in the printed SOS Artist Directory. When filling out your application you only need to upload one – the others can all go up later when you edit your listing.

There are two criteria for uploading images – each image must be equal to or less than 1Mb in size AND equal to or less than 1500 x 1500 pixels in dimensions. When images fail to upload it is usually because one of these two criteria have been exceeded. If you have trouble uploading your images please contact us and we can always upload them for you. Opening members should remember that images in the printed SOS Artist Directory are cropped square – so please bear this in mind.

Create Login Credentials

You will then be asked to create login credentials by coming up with a username and by entering an email address – please make a careful note of both. You will then receive an email from us (check your spam/junk folder – it may say that the sender was “WordPress”). Click on the link in this email to set up your password (make a careful note of this too). You will need to set up login credentials in order to log back in later to update/add details to your listing.

Before you create your login, please add openstudiossuffolk@gmail.com to your safe senders list in your email software . Emails automatically generated by this website often end up in spam/junk folders. Also look out for emails that contain the word “WordPress” as sender.

Submission of the membership/listing form constitutes your application for membership and will be sent for approval.  You will also receive an email confirming that your listing has been submitted (once again please check your spam folder in case it ends up there).

Once you have submitted your membership/listing form and payment, your membership will be approved automatically and you will receive email confirmation when this has been done. As mentioned previously, there is no selection process for Suffolk Open Studios as it is an inclusive organisation.

Payment

Membership payments are processed through PayPal – this is the only option listed. You do not need a PayPal account. On the next page, choose “Pay by Debit or Credit Card” and then check out as “Guest”. Alternatively, if you are unable to pay online, please email openstudiossuffolk@gmail.com for details of other methods of payment e.g. BACS. We would appreciate it if as many payments as possible could be made via this website as this minimizes the time our volunteers need to spend processing applications.

When payment has been received you will receive an email confirming that your listing has been published and your membership approved.

You will now be able to log in to this website using the link below (in the yellow section – MEMBER LOGIN/OUT – Log in) and edit your listing. You have until midnight on Sunday 9th February 2025 to perfect it!

If you have any problems at all with this process, please email openstudiossuffolk@gmail.com or use the Contact Us form on this website.

Join Suffolk Open Studios by clicking on the button below to be taken to the Artist/Gallery Listings page to add a new Artist/Gallery listing.