California Artists Open Studio Events - Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County

All Studios Open:October 7, 8 - October 14, 15 - Encore Weekend - October 21, 22

Open Studios is a program of the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County. The Cultural Council is a private, non-profit 501(c)(3) agency whose mission is to promote and support the arts and artists in Santa Cruz County. Among its other programs are Grants to over 100 local artists and arts organizations, and SPECTRA, the award winning arts-in-education program.

The Open Studios Committee is an advisory committee of the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County. They meet year-round and work closely in partnership with the staff of the Cultural Council on all aspects of the event: developing the application form and guidelines, staffing the application check-in procedure, designing and facilitating the screening process and Preview Exhibit, and implementing many other elements of Open Studios. They also get a great deal of help from participating artists, who are required to give 4 hours of volunteer time.

New and emerging artists are very welcome as long as they can demonstrate a body of work within at least one medium that reflects an individual style or personal vision and fulfills the criteria of the event.

Open Studios was established by the Marketing Committee of the Cultural Council in 1985 to showcase the visual artists in our county while providing the public with a unique opportunity to collect art and learn about the creative process. Since there were (and are) few galleries, this event provided visibility not otherwise available to professional artists. While the community enjoys the chance to see art and to meet and learn from the artists during the Tour, Open Studios is essentially a marketing opportunity for serious professional artists. It requires a great deal of their time and effort.

Visitors continue to identify "quality of the art" as the chief reason for attending the Open Studios Art Tour, so it's important to continue to attract strong artists to the event. This means that there must be criteria for participating. Any artist may apply, but with under 300 participating slots available, not every application will be successful.

WebSite: www.ccscc.org/openstudios.htm

If you have information about Artist Open Studios as updates or new additions email us from below