Split SOS into multiple weekends?

[ron_newman]

I'm sure I'm not the only person who felt totally overwhelmed by this weekend's Somerville Open Studios, with over 340 artists at more than 100 separate locations. I made the following suggestion to several of the artists whom I visited, and they seemed sympathetic:

Draw an arbitrary line through the city. Everyone west of the line exhibits on SOS weekend #1. Everyone east of it exhibits on the following weekend. Or maybe even split the city (and the event) up into three successive weekends.

What do you all think?

Comments

[eclecticavatar.livejournal.com]

A-Men! I've never gone because it's too overwhelming. Somerville has the densest population of artists in the entire greater boston area. Surely that deserves two weekends!

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

You're missing out. Seeing part is far better than seeing none.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

My feeling — and that of most of the artists we discussed this with — is that it would be very hard to A) Maintain the momentum and actually have people come out multiple weekends in a row, B) get enough added help on the orgainzers level to run it as a multi-week event.

That said, I wish that Vernon St. would hold their own event on a seperate weekend.

[ron_newman]

Vernon Street used to be separate -- and their event goes back several decades. At some point, they decided that they weren't getting enough visitors, so they hitched their wagon to SOS. Might be time to re-visit that decision.

Miller Street is another building that used to have a separate event, on a Friday evening. But they too are now part of SOS.

[fanw.livejournal.com]

I usually end up going to Vernon Street to see as many artists as I can, but then I miss out on the pedestrian wanderings for the rest of the artists. I really wish that Vernon street would have a show in addition to the Somerville Open Studios event, perhaps six months off so people aren't worn out with Art.

[desiringsubject.livejournal.com]

Brickbottom has a separate event as well.

[ron_newman]

Joy Street Studios have joined up with Brickbottom. For the past couple of years, they have done a joint event in November.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

I don't like the idea of two weekends in a row.

I do like the idea of something in February or March (with cocoa and tea!) I realize the rule of thumb is that people won't come to things in February, but I like the pedestrian nature of SOS.

[cos]

Perhaps have one in good weather, and another one in the late fall when weather isn't so great, focusing on the big multi-artist indoor spaces rather than walking around house to house.

One of my favorite open studios, the Waltham Mills Artists, is in November. They're all in two big mill buildings.

[fanw.livejournal.com]

Brilliant! Two consecutive weekends leaves the people on the second weekend with a smaller audience. If it's spread out we can really enjoy the fruits of our artists.

[julishka.livejournal.com]

brickbottom is in the late fall, as are about a bazillion other open studio weekends. you can hit open studio art every weekend from september through to december. it's crazy awesome!

i'd like more in the warm weather. traditionally springtime open studios are held before mother's day.

all that said, isn't it awesome that there are so many somerville artists that we have such a "problem?" i'd still like the all in one weekend aspect.

what would have helped greatly is if the maps had an alphabetical master list of all the artists, and then another list with them sorted by medium. the people i went with were looking for the glass artist who made those cat bottles which used to line the bar at the old lily's club on somerville ave. we thought he was in vernon st., but didn't run across his studio this year.

[ron_newman]

The map booklet was already 16 pages long, including advertising which I hope was enough to pay for them.

The lookup lists were available on the web site, but I'm not sure most people knew this. (And of course, not everyone uses the Internet.)

[julishka.livejournal.com]

yeah, but when you're out walking, and you find out people have moved you're not going to waste time running back home to look it up on the internet.

i understand the booklet was huge, but it really would have helped out a lot. maybe it would have changed the layout of the guide completely, i don't know, but it's frustrating when you realise that your favorites have gone & they've not updated the people who signed up on the previous year's mailing list. (or that maybe you've forgotten which building they're in & are having difficulty searching every single page...)

(maybe i was just burnt out & found the booklet temporarily overwhelming, but there were a few things i would have done differently to make that easier to read.)

[ron_newman]

Agreed. In another day or two, I'm going to e-mail the SOS and Somerville Arts Council folks a pointer to this discussion.

[ron_newman]

I don't think people would come out in February or March, and I doubt the artists want visitors trudging snow and mud into their studios.

But I wonder why Open Studios end in May and then start up again in September? Why not expand into early June?

[siderea]

To avoid tourist season? I don't know why one would want to (maybe most artist attend shows/festivals during the tourist season?) but that's what it looks like.

[cos]

I don't like the idea of splitting. If we could get the organizational effort and energy into having two open studios weekends, I think that would be great. But let any artist pick which one they want to do, or pick both if they want to do both.

[desiringsubject.livejournal.com]

The group I walked around with yesterday did a great deal of "Area A" I think it was. I think it might be worthwhile to have several during the year (NOT consecutive weekends) and make walking distance routes.

The neighborhood where I group up in NYC was a landmark neighborhood and once a year had a bunch of open houses just to see the architecture (which was, in a number of cases, stunning). And there was a walking route planned and handed out. So people just sort of went in order, like an architecture freedom trail. You could, of course, opt out or go a different way, but that was the set up. I think it makes sense.

"Davis Square Open Studios"
"Union Square Open Studios"
"Winter (or any other hill) Open Studios"

We've got plenty of squares and hills to name open studios after!

[ron_newman]

Cambridge has NoCa (North Cambridge) in the spring, and CAOS (Cambridgeport) in the fall. Both are relatively manageable, walkable events, organized separately.

However, if you're a Cambridge artist who isn't in or near either of these neighborhoods, you're left out.

[amethystmoon.livejournal.com]

An artist's view on why studio events happen when they do (and mind you these are very broad generalizations):

Summer is traditionally when artists travel, make use of good light, and do a lot of work.

November/December, artists have had time to complete some new work, and it's a good time to get holiday shopers. November also tends to still have some nice days left in it.

Winter is when you synthesize what you looked at and photographed in the summer, and have plenty of time to feel indoorsy-hibernaty and work like crazy.

Late April - May - weather's gotten nice enough for pedestrian traffic to pick up, and you've been working all winter.

I kind of like the idea of switching to open studios by locality (Davis, Union, etc.), but I think that most suggestions for splitting defeat part of the point - for one, they're trying to create a sense of community, and for another, you're more likely to get larger crowds by having all of the efforts of the people involved focused on promoting a single, large event than more small ones. It's kind of understood that with most open studio situations, it is impossible for anyone to see everything. I think you'll find that many of the participating artists and studios offer other open houses, participate in gallery crawls, or are involved with other showcase events.

Besides, many galleries and studios are perfectly willing to open their doors to you if you stop by while someone is there, or if you call and make an appointment.

[countlibras.livejournal.com]

I can see the reasoning behind not splitting between two weekends. I like the spring/fall idea. Or maybe they could at least start Friday night?

[ron_newman]

Adding a night to the existing event puts a significant burden on all the artists. They would have to stay open for three successive days.

[kjc.livejournal.com]

I would love to have an additional SOS event in the early fall.

I made a pretty serious effort this weekend, but only managed to see 27 studios (well over 30, maybe 40+ artists). And I was exhausted by the end of the weekend.

I would be happy with an arbitrary split or participation by whomever felt like participating in either.

I also think it would be fun if places like Ball Square, Davis Square, Porter Square, Union Square, Magoun Square, etc. each had an individual one-day event sometime during the summer.

I recognize that everything I've said is a helluva lot of organizing. Ultimately I'd like to see two official SOS events, 4-5 months apart (one spring, one early fall), and some area events, organized by the artists themselves and publicized through the SOS outlets, but with less of the organizational overhead (fancy printed maps, in particular).

I think the local businesses benefit from the influx of people wandering through their area and might be persuaded to pick up the costs of photocopying a one-sheet list of artists in a particular square for a smaller event.

[twe.livejournal.com]

I admit, I would love to see it run two weekends close together, if the artists could handle that, so that people who have the misfortune to be busy one weekend, or just not hear about it in time, didn't have to wait a whole year. A second event in the fall is not a terrible idea either, though I have always found the timing of this one the weekend before Mother's Day to be fairly clever.

I would also encourage people who know about Open House events at some of the larger studios to post them!

[ron_newman]

Brickbottom and Joy Street Open Studios are scheduled for November 18 and 19 this year. As far as I know, this is the only Somerville open studio event that is not part of SOS.

Other nearby events, also in the fall:

Cambridgeport Open Studios (CAOS), September 9 and 10

Arlington Open Studios, October 14 and 15. (No info on the web site yet, other than the date.)

lose vernon street

[cthulhia]

I simply don't go to Vernon street anymore. They used to be a different weekend, and I'm annoyed that they decided to poach off the in-residence artists, since lazy folks will just go to vernon street and miss out on the neighborhood folks.

I would prefer the warehouses have different weekends.

[noire.livejournal.com]

I'm an artist who exhibits at SOS (this was my second year) and I dislike the idea of splitting the event (several people who visited my studio discussed it.)

Yes, SOS is *huge*. That's part of why it has the momentum, energy and funding it has (which, btw, the artists pay for in part through our entry fees.) That's why it's a big deal on many people's calendars--which it would not be split into two or three weekends.

Some better cross-referencing might be helpful, but if you want an overview of what's out there, there is the Artist's Choice display at the Somerville Museum. It's open for several weeks before SOS, so anyone can go and get an idea of which studios are most interesting.

I went to the North Cambridge Open Studios and yes, it was very cozy and walkable, and there were very few people around though the weather was beautiful. It seems a very pale and low-energy second cousin to SOS although it is actually older.

There is something wonderful about seeing the beautiful, exciting map boxes go up, and then on The Weekend seeing large groups of people all over the streets of the city, maps in hand. Yes, you have to be selective. But honestly, most people are interested in particular media or type of art. No one wants to see everything.

We have some very nice galleries here in Somerville. I highly recommend Blue Cloud at 713 Broadway (and yes, my work is represented there.) The owner is an artist herself and especially likes to show the work of Somerville natives. So maybe if people want to look at more work by local artists, they could stop in to some of the galleries which are open year round. (And, btw, the prices at the galleries are not higher than SOS, or at least not appreciably so...)

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

I love the idea of splitting it up in some way. I've had an Open Studio two of the past three years (this year, it overlapped with opening weekend of my play), but before that, I was an attendee. I quickly learned to ignore all the big places like Vernon St, Washington St, and such, because I like SOS for the ability to get into home studios and other areas that aren't otherwise available for visiting.

Big one plus little ones

[me-bop.livejournal.com]

What about SOS at its usual time plus other events organized by the communities holding them?

That way SOS still showcases and builds the entire artist community, there's still this big event to look forward to, but the pressure is off for it to be the be-all and end-all event.

Smaller events (Davis Square Studios/ Section A Open Studios...) could be planned with a little help from the volunteer organizing committee, but mostly would provide their own momentum.

[courtney o'keefe (from livejournal.com)]

Thanks for posting the link to this, Ron.

The Vernon Street Studios (as well as other artist communities) has their own separate Open Studios in the Fall along with participating in the May event. I must admit that I like the smaller open studios because it gives me an opportunity to take my time and enjoy each artist without feeling as though I have to rush, so I can make my other numerous stops during the big SOS.