SEOS - A Short History

The first initiative came in 1996 from a small group of people, mainly two Arts Development Officers, Beverley Whittrick (Tunbridge Wells) and Allison Wright (Sevenoaks) and two professional painters, Bryan Senior and Georgia Hayes. Open Studios events had existed for many years in other parts of the country and “proved a useful way of increasing artists’ contact with the public, other artists and increasing sales”. Interested people were asked to help get it going in West Kent. There were rather few names on the South East Arts Register so the steering group launched Portfolio to find more artists. The fee to members was £10 towards publicity costs. The local authorities printed 5,000 copies of a small, colourful guide with 46 entries and some rather unreliable maps.

West Kent Open Studios 1997 ran for two weeks with one week for the Sevenoaks area and the other for the Tunbridge Wells area. Of the 46 studios opened, several belonged to artists who still participate regularly: Jane Wharrad, Caroline Gould, Margaret Devitt, Juliet Simpson, Ray Story, Timothy Constable, Hilary Jackson, Lynn Strugnell, Sally Elbra, Anna-Mary Devereux, Alan Keeler, Alison Smith, Pat Savage, Gwyneth Thurgood, Richard Ball, Lawrence Jenkins, Mary Edwards, Pat Mallinson, Jean McCree, Jane Bridger, Bryan Senior, Susan Horsfield, Isabelle Moreau.

Cost of event: £6.6k. met largely by the A4E (Arts for Everyone) Fund. A volunteer committee was elected in 1997 to organise the next event, chaired by Pamela Brown. It was supported by council arts advisors from Tonbridge and Malling, Wealden South East Arts and Kent County Council to consider a range of topics including future growth, applications to the National Lottery, a selective exhibition and the production and distribution of a guide to the event, which was renamed South East Open Studios in 1998.

From the beginning, there was disagreement about how to achieve a high quality event open to everybody. The emphasis on “community” was helpful in attracting funds but it was also clear that although everyone wanted close ties with local authorities there would have to be a gradual move towards more and more self-funding. The fee rose to £20. There were some near disasters when expected grants were not made and printers proved unreliable. But the 1998 Guide had 130 entries, mostly painters but it also included ceramics, jewellery, textiles, furniture and stained glass. We tried to make sure that artists would be at work on something or even offering demonstrations. Tunbrige Wells Borough Council offered a website but this took a while to get going. We submitted an application to the Lottery for a period of three years (1999 – 2001) but it failed and we had to rely on four local authorities, Kent County Council and membership fees.

The number of participating studios increased steadily: The 1999 guide had a new format, new paint tube logo and 131 entries. In 2000 there were 138, in 2001 there were 164. The membership fee rose to £55 in 2002 but numbers still increased. In 2004, there were 224 studios. In 2005 SEOS was even bigger than ever with 250 studios (291 artists) taking part.