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Open studio events, where artists invite the public to visit their workshops and studios to see art in the making, have been mushrooming up and down the country in recent years. One of the longest-running, and largest, is South East Open Studios, which encompasses the whole of Kent and East Sussex.

South East Open Studios has come a long way since work began back in 1996, when professional painters Bryan Senior and Georgia Hayes started the groundwork with Arts Development Officers Beverley Whittrick of Tunbridge Wells and Allison Wright at Sevenoaks. Today, we take instant communication for granted, but ten years ago there were few databases to be tapped into. After much hard networking and forging of links, 46 artists working in the two areas were brought together, and in 1997 West Kent Open Studios ran for two weeks.

Following on the success of this first event, neighbouring local councils and KCC added their support. A volunteer committee was elected, and to reflect the increased scope of the event, it was renamed South East Open Studios. Entries for 1998 jumped to 130, and year on year numbers continued to rise steadily. This year there are a record-breaking 251 entries in the guide.

In those fledgling years, the overwhelming majority of artists taking part were painters, and they maintain their prominent position today, but have been joined by a wealth of artists working in other disciplines: furniture-making, jewellery, ceramics, textiles, photography, sculpture, stained glass and mosaics to name a few. With new artists joining each year, it is a testament to the success of the event that many artists participate year after year – in fact 13 of the studios taking part in 2005 were amongst the original 46 pioneers who opened their doors to the public back in 1997.

This year, South East Open Studios will run from 9 to 25 June. A free, full-colour illustrated guidebook with artists’ directory and map will be available from public libraries and tourist offices from May or the website: www.seos-art.org

Further press information at: http://www.seos-art.org/press/ SEOS Press Officers: Liz Garnett Tel: 01303 812678 lizgarnett@aol.com Helen Mayer Tel: 01303 276 416 hcmayer44@aol.com