An Artists Open House is a special example of an Open Studio whereby the studio is a residential venue, usually a house or a garden. The format of an Open House is very similar to an Open Studio, but the significantly lower cost of exhibiting in a residential venue than a studio or gallery provides more artists an opportunity to exhibit their work.

History

Artists Open Houses are perhaps best known in

Brighton and Hove Brighton and Hove () is a city and unitary authority in East Sussex, England. It consists primarily of the settlements of Brighton and Hove, alongside neighbouring villages. Often referred to synonymously as Brighton, the City of Brighton and H ...

in the UK as taking place alongside the

Brighton Festival Brighton Festival is a large, annual, curated multi-arts festival in England. It includes music, theatre, dance, circus, art, film, literature, debate, outdoor and family events, and takes place in venues in the city of Brighton and Hove in Engla ...

and Brighton Festival Fringe. In 1982 Ned Hoskins and Stella Cardus filled their home with Ned's and other artists work in protest at the lack of visual arts in the Brighton Festival. Hoskins and Cardus had started a new phenomenon. This became the Fiveways Artists Group, named after the area of the city known as Fiveways. They were soon followed by other groupings of Artists' Open Houses in other areas around Brighton and Hove, including Beyond The Level, founded 1996 (from city area The Level) and Kemptown Artists (from city area Kemptown). In 2008 there were around 1000 artists exhibiting work in over 200 houses, divided into 13 trails, together with many independent open houses. In 2002 the Artists Open Houses Festival broke away from the official and fringe Brighton Festivals to become an independent organization, often simplified to just ''AOH'', producing its own brochure and website.

Currently

In Brighton, the Artists Open Houses Festival still runs concurrently with the Brighton Festival and Brighton Festival Fringe. These three organizations, along with many other projects that happen during the three weeks of the festival, work together to create a diverse range of art available for display around the city. A similar organization in Cheltenham also runs for a week at the beginning of June. Originally called Cheltenham Artists Open Houses, but now known as Cheltenham Art Festival & Open Studios. The Helfa gelf/Art Trail that covers much of North Wales includes many Artists Open Houses amongst its participating studios. Also unlinked Artists Open House events happen in parts of England: Bath,

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, Leicester,

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

, Stroud,

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

and

Worthing Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Ho ...

, and in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

: Ayrshire, Dumfries and Galloway ( Spring Fling), to name but a few, all have ones of their own.

External links

* Artists' studios in the United Kingdom Arts festivals in the United Kingdom {{art-stub