Hi Gil. Your exhibition at BMECP is called Limbo. Could you tell us about the ideas behind this theme? Limbo characterizes our present times, where Limbo conditions are, unfortunately, engulfing the lives of many of us.  Since the Brexit referendum Britain has been in a state of Limbo, with British people, industries, universities and art […]

Could you tell us a bit about Creative Future? Creative Future was established in 2007 with the aim of making the arts more diverse and representative of the world we live in. A national charity based in Brighton, we specialise in working with under-represented artists. We provide skills training, mentoring, exhibiting, promoting and publishing opportunities […]

Hi Idil Can you tell us about your New Grounds exhibition Fake/Make – where does the name comes from? The name comes from the phrase ‘fake it until you make it’ as many of us must have heard it at some point in our life. The phrase has a reasonably long history.  Its early uses […]

We are loving seeing the May 2019 AOH brochure cover illustration by Hannah Forward on posters, lamppost sleeves and dispensers all around the city  – as well as on the digital MAXX screen at the top of North Road. We think her brochure cover illustration is really clever and works brilliantly well on all the […]

Hi Lucy – it’s great to have you back in the AOH festival. Thank you – lovely to be back! Whereabouts is your Open House? studio55 is at 55 Woodruff Avenue Hove, BN3 6PH. It’s within a couple of minutes’ walk of Hove Park, about ten minutes on foot from Hove Station and on bus […]

Photo: Victor Stuart Graham, centre left, wearing shorts We are really sad to hear of the death of Victor Stuart Graham earlier this week. Victor exhibited his driftwood boats and assemblages at very many Artists Open Houses over many years and was greatly loved by so many people. We will all miss him. In Victor’s […]

Encounters  Winners of Best Artists Open House 2018 We visited the amazing Encounters, in the West Hove trial. Encounters were winners of the 2018 Best Open House Award. And here is a round-up of other really great Open Houses we went to last weekend: Ruth Mulvie @ 1 Courtyard Lane Ruth Mulvie is exhibiting her […]

We visited South Heighton pottery, near Newhaven, in the Coastal trail where, alongside Chris Lewis’s beautiful ceramics, there is a special exhibition of textiles and earthenware pots. These pots and textiles, which are from Africa, Asia, Oceania and Americas, have been collected by Chris over many years and have provided inspiration for his work. A […]

The House of Qualia sounds intriguing – what are the aims of your Open House exhibition? Qualia (singular, quale) is a technical term used mostly in philosophy and neuroscience representing individual instances of subjective conscious experiences. These experiences, such as a smell of a rose, taste of wine, colour or pain, are understood to be […]

Hi Sarah – we are really pleased to have you exhibiting in the Artists Open Houses festival this year! We love your exhibition of portraits of friends and famous people.Can you tell us a bit about how you chose the people you have pictures? Sometimes people make suggestions of famous people and I draw them.  […]

Welcome back to Artists Open Houses – how many years have you taken part in the AOH Festival? I’ve taken part in AOH for about five years now. I used to have a solo show in a tiny basement flat when we lived here part time, but since living in Brighton permanently for the last […]

Hi Evelyn. Your venue is called The Chocolate House – that sounds intriguing! Can you tell us something about it? I love chocolate not just eating it but also working with it. Chocolate is a wonderful and very versatile medium. I created Chocadyllic six years ago after making a friend “a proper chocolate cake”. As […]

You are taking part for the first time in Artists Open Houses this year in a rather unusual venue. Would you like to tell us about it? Yes! We are a family run independent funeral directors situated on the Preston Road in the Preston/Fiveways area of Brighton. We opened our office here in 2016 after […]

Hi Jo – is this the first time you’ve taken part in Artists Open Houses? Yes this is my first time. I also have the space all to myself so that’s really exciting! I’ve been lucky to find Dan and Jin – the owners of the house – to exhibit my work. Can you tell […]

Hi Clair! Your Open House BouSham has an unusual name – where does it come from? The name BouSham is a combination of my name Clair Boubli (Bou) and Shyama Ruffell (Sham). It originally started as a joke, but we kind of liked it and it stuck. The BouSham collaboration, with my life-long childhood friend […]

All Creation Groans by Amanda Greavette Your Open House exhibition is called Birthing a Better Future – can you tell us about the ideas behind this exhibition? The Birthing a Better Future exhibition was established to increase public awareness about the key issues and importance of the first 1001 days of life from conception to […]

Does your trail have meetings to discuss Open House preparations with trail members ahead of the festival? As this is my first year acting as the coordinator for Hanover Trail, it was really important to have a meeting for all of the houses on the trail. It is a great opportunity to pass on details […]

All AOH local trails have a ‘Trail Contact’ who is the first point of contact for Open Houses wanting to a join trail in their area. We asked Shyama Ruffell, one of a group of three Trail Contacts for the Seven Dials Trail, to tell us a bit about her trail and preparing for her […]