FALL 2019 OPEN STUDIO TOURS
Tucson, Pima County & Southern Arizona Communities
We invite our creative community to apply to participate in the Fall Open Studio Tours of Southern Arizona, as an individual visual artist, artist groups, community partners and art spaces (gallery, art center, and creative business). Join hundreds of individual artists, and our creative communities who will participate in a series of community wide, self guided Open Studio Tours.
All participating artists must register on their designated weekend, determined by the
location in which your studio tour takes place.
Weekend participation divisions are made in the below categories
SOUTH (Weekend #1)
City and County (South of River Road, Orange Grove and Tanque Verde)
Bisbee, Vail, Rita Ranch, Sahuarita, Tubac, South Tucson, Central Tucson, Downtown
NORTH (Weekend #2)
City and County (North of River Road, Orange Grove and Tanque Verde)
Oro Valley, Catalina, Oracle, Marana, Casa Adobes, Catalina Foothills, etc
What is included in your free artist registration?
- Promotion of your Open Studio Tour on www.openstudiotours.com website
- Digital mapping of your Open Studio Tour on centralized e-map (online)
- Listing of Open Studio Tour details in event program, and in selected print advertising
- Promotional benefit of Open Studio Tours outreach on local radio, television, and in over 8 local print outlets
- Listing of Open Studio Tours on regional and local calendars
- Press Releases to over 150 local and regional news publications
- Open Studio Tours promotion in Southern Arizona Arts and Cultural Alliance, and Arts Foundation for Tucson & Southern Arizona email newsletter outreach
- Centralized registration for all artist information
- Marketing Materials (Posters, Postcards) and additional Open Studio Tours street signage available for purchase
- Artist Post Event Survey, and Economic Impact Data
- Social Media Outreach
- Promotional materials available in community centers, arts venues, cultural and community centers throughout Southern Arizona
- Attendee check in lists (to use during your Open Studio Tour to gather attendee information)
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How do I get involved?We invite our creative community to apply to participate as an individual visual artist, artist group or performance group, or a community partner (gallery, art center, and creative business)
Artist CollectivesMany artist collectives and guilds are valuable assets in organizing and encouraging community participation in the Open Studio Tours, as well as supplementing individual artist marketing resources and helping to develop amateur artists. If you are an artist collective, you can submit your information to be included as a featured collective on the main page, although all participating artists in the collective must submit their individual Open Studio Tour locations to be featured on the master event map. We encourage collectives to support their artists with additional marketing efforts and website support to help artists further showcase their work online. We can link individual artist information directly back to their collective web page.
Community PartnersCommunity Partners include galleries, artist centers, such as museums, theatres, or cultural spaces that will be open to the community during the selected weekend, FREE OF CHARGE, to showcase artists and performers and discuss their creative process. Creative Businesses and cultural spaces are invited to participate in a creative way. The artists who are creating the work must be present in the space throughout the duration of the weekend.
Visual ArtistsProfessional and amateur artists in all genres and mediums are invited to participate. Mediums include ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, glass, crafts, photography, and architecture, artistic disciplines and the applied arts such as graphic design, fashion design, interior design and decorative art.
Music & Performing ArtsWe hope to include musicians and performing arts venues in future season Open Studio Tours.
What is provided for me in my free artist registration?The Southern Arizona Arts & Cultural Alliance is partnering with the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona to bring this opportunity to artists throughout the region free of charge. With your free registration to participate in your selected weekend, all of your Open Studio Tour Artist information will be included on a central site www.openstudiotours.com with your basic artist information and studio tour details. All artists will be included on a printed and web-based map available on the site.
In addition, SAACA will increase awareness of the tours through heavy promotion on television, radio, print and in social media. Promotion for the tours will take place September 8, 2018 – October 14, 2018. SAACA’s main focus will be bringing the attendees to you, which allows you to focus on ensuring that attendees have a positive experience when they visit your studio. We at SAACA encourage you to promote your tour to your list of supporters and to use promotional items SAACA will provide (Including posters; flyers) and social promotion tools (Facebook images, logos, content, etc) to help you promote the tours in a collaborative way. |
Looking for a space to exhibit in?Are you an artist that is unable to showcase your art in a studio due to community restrictions, gate codes, available space, or any other restrictions? Fill out the Artist Inquiry Form. We will do our best to connect you with resources in the community for showcasing your artwork.
Requirements for participationThe participating artist(s) should be onsite throughout the duration of the Open Studio Tour and there should be no charge for the public to participate, view and engage in the studio session throughout the tour. You are not required to conduct a demonstration (because not all iterations of the arts are able to provide demonstration art in their medium), but you must have the artist present at all times during the studio tour, engaging with the attendees alongside their artwork display. Participating artists must produce and showcase their work in Southern Arizona. Artists or art works that are produced outside of Southern Arizona do not qualify to participate in the Open Studio Tours.
What if I am unable to feature attendees in my gallery or work space?For many varied reasons, artists may not be able to host community members in their spaces (i.e. key gate code or homeowner’s association prohibits it, small studio space, no parking available, not comfortable with people in my home or space). SAACA will work with these artists to help them find an alternate “Pop Up” space to exhibit, through partnering Community Partners or collaborating business partners (i.e showcase art in a local garden, cultural space, or artist collective showing, business office or shopping center). SAACA will help facilitate these conversations between the artist and the partner. SAACA will not facilitate the set-up and break-down of these activities or coordinate the Open Studio for you. It is up to the artist and the business or artist collective to coordinate the logistics.
Why should I participate as an artist?You’ll potentially:
• Connect with tens of thousands of arts enthusiasts around the region. • Build and maintain an audience for your work, and • Connect with clients, arts professionals, and other artists. Can I participate on multiple weekends?Yes, as long as you participate in a different studio location within the required zip codes. For example, your studio is in the northwest, so you register and participate there on Weekend #1. You belong to an artist group that is being showcased together in midtown, then you would participate in Weekend #2. You’ll have to register again at that location.
Do I have to participate in both days of the weekend?Artists are not required to participate in two full days of the weekend but must be open to the public for a minimum of 75% of the event hours.
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Need more artist resources? View our Open Studio Tour Artist Resource Page |
The Future...
We believe that artists and creative communities are an integral part of a thriving community, providing cultural interaction and individual expression and are the foundation of a healthy economy. To strengthen our collective artistic voice and to generate a sustainable source to fund the promotion of the artists and the Open Studio Tour season, we will work to gain a better understanding of the individual artists in the community and the economic impact of the tours to come up with a strategic plan for creating a diverse, sustainable and growth-based model for an Open Studio Tour season in Southern Arizona.
To help achieve these goals, we will invest in the following resources from the 2019 Fall Open Studio Tours:
1.Gather data on the number of attendees who visit studios during the four-week Open Studio Tour season. We will provide each artist with a check-in list to see how many people came to their studio during the tour. This information will help SAACA show the impact of the tour.
2. Artist Surveys. We want to hear from you! SAACA will send out to all participating artists a post-event survey. We would like to know how many people visited, how you let people know about your participation, what was the total value of art sold and whether you secured any commissions or possible commissions as a result of your participation. We would like to know whether you felt your participation was a success, perhaps relative to previous years where the tour was citywide. We are also interested in determining how we can help you in the future (i.e. financial resources, networking opportunities, supplies, marketing, professional development, etc).
3. Cultivating Sustainable Support. SAACA will actively work towards keeping the promotion of the Open Studio Tours free for the participating artists through continued cultivation of individual and community support.
The Open Studio Tours are a unique opportunity for visitors and residents to collect art and to gain a better understanding of the creative process.
To help achieve these goals, we will invest in the following resources from the 2019 Fall Open Studio Tours:
1.Gather data on the number of attendees who visit studios during the four-week Open Studio Tour season. We will provide each artist with a check-in list to see how many people came to their studio during the tour. This information will help SAACA show the impact of the tour.
2. Artist Surveys. We want to hear from you! SAACA will send out to all participating artists a post-event survey. We would like to know how many people visited, how you let people know about your participation, what was the total value of art sold and whether you secured any commissions or possible commissions as a result of your participation. We would like to know whether you felt your participation was a success, perhaps relative to previous years where the tour was citywide. We are also interested in determining how we can help you in the future (i.e. financial resources, networking opportunities, supplies, marketing, professional development, etc).
3. Cultivating Sustainable Support. SAACA will actively work towards keeping the promotion of the Open Studio Tours free for the participating artists through continued cultivation of individual and community support.
The Open Studio Tours are a unique opportunity for visitors and residents to collect art and to gain a better understanding of the creative process.