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Open Studios 2020 Event Update


Bearing in mind the current state of the Covid-19 pandemic, which I have been monitoring closely over the last 3 months, it is with great regret that I have decided to cancel the event this year.

Initially the forecast was that the pandemic would peak in March, but it has now been moved forward to June/July, and the latest news suggests that it may last until next spring. We cannot risk running an event where visitors or artists may be infected, and there may be artists who drop out because they or their families have been infected.

Organising an Open Studios event involves a large cost in time and money, therefore we need certainty in many areas of the organisation, such as artist numbers, sponsors, advertisers, and the ability to attract visitors from the mainland as well as from the Island. The Government may also restrict events and travel, and we have news of other Open Studios events on the mainland that have taken the decision to cancel.

The number of artists involved directly affects the money available to run a viable event, and we have fallen well short of numbers at present. I also expect advertisers to not commit in these circumstances. I had considered a later event but with varying time estimates that is also uncertain, so I now propose to aim for an event next year.

There are a number of artist options:

You can retain your membership, keeping your presence on the website with your details and web entry. This is preferable for us as it gives an Open Studios website with some substance.

You can be reimbursed for your yearbook event entry fees, and your yearbook entry would be deleted.

We can also freeze your entry as it is, ready for next year. You would just have to renew membership next year, but the event entry fee would remain as paid and your entry can be adjusted.

We can retain your event fee for next year, but remove your current  yearbook entry.

Please let me know what you intend to do.

Pepper Creative, who run the technical/design part of the website, have agreed to maintain the site with a view to keeping its presence on the internet and to continuing to work on the Open Studios event when it is rescheduled next year. They will facilitate the changes outlined above.

Please don’t hesitate to ask me any questions. I know you will have to reverse venue bookings etc., but these are difficult times and action on this can not be deferred. I will take action to inform advertisers and other parties involved. Please let other artists in your groups know, as some may miss or not read this email. I will contact anyone who seems to be out of the loop.

Regards and best wishes,
Rob Hawker