Anyone living within the BN postcode area can open their house as part of the AOH festival. You simply need to register your venue using the registration link on the AOH website during registration periods, i.e. from start of January to the end of February for the May festival. From mid September to mid October for the Christmas festival.
It’s not essential to join a trail but you may choose to do so as a trail can provide support and advice to newcomers. You may also receive more visitors, as many visitors like to follow trails, and benefit from extra publicity through e.g. trail flyers and social media campaigns (some trails charge joining fees to help with their trail publicity costs – all trail fees go to trails and not to AOH).
To do this you will need to contact your local trail contact (see trail contact page ) when you register. If there is no trail in your area, or your local trail is full for this year, you can still take part as an AOH Independent venue, which has its own brochure listings section and maps.
The Artists Open Houses festival is open to all and there is no selection process. So long as you fulfil the geographic criteria (BN postcode area) and are exhibiting your own and/or other artists’ work you are welcome to take part.
To open your house as part of the Artists Open Houses you have to live within the BN postcode area. You can live outside the area if you are a guest artist in someone else’s house.
You do not need to be a house owner to take part in the Artists Open Houses. However, please check that you are not infringing your rental agreeementor or, if living in shared occupancy premises, upsetting any neighbours.
Although the majority of venues are houses, some people, eg students or recent college leavers, may not have a suitable venue of their own. It is fine to make use of shops, bars or other commercial premises offered to you. Several institutions, eg schools, day care centres, also take part in the Open Houses festival, as do galleries many of which are artist-run galleries. Some artists prefer to open their studios than their houses and this gives visitors a variety of experiences seeing artists and their work in both their homes and studios.
No – artists and makers are welcome to take part in the AOH festivals at any stage of their career – even if they are just starting out.
Please see our Dates and Rates here: https://aoh.org.uk/dates-and-rates/
Also see: costs and benefits
You can find artists working in a broad range of media by going to the Artists Seeking Houses section of the AOH website: www.aoh.org.uk/showcase-your-work
If you would like to read a fully comprehensive manual covering all areas and issues you might encounter when opening your house for the first time, please have a look at the AOH Guide to Opening Your House: http://www.aoh.org.uk/AOH-guide
Please see the contact page for detail of Trail contacts.
(NB. Trails operate during the May Festival only.)
All Open Houses must take out public liability insurance to protect you in case of accidents to visitors while in your house.
Individual houses:
You can do this for a very reasonable fee via AN Air artists insurance: www.a-n.co.uk/air
We strongly recommend that you don’t do this via your own home insurance as this can cost you a lot of money.
Groups of houses:
You can become an SAA member and arrange insurance for a group of houses or venues, collectively covering against damage or loss, and for public liability. https://www.saa.co.uk/help/group-insurance/
By registering as an AOH venue you will benefit from the following:
l Your Open House listing will be appear in the AOH printed brochure (print run 35,000), distributed throughout Brighton Sussex, SE region
l Your Open House will be listed in the AOH printed leaflet map (print run 35,000) distributed throughout Brighton Sussex, SE region and London
l Your Open House listing will appear on the AOH website, with options to add additional online gallery images and video uploads: Last May’s festival saw over 23k visitors, with over 143k pageviews in the run up to and during the festival period and received 319k pageviews over the year as a whole.
l Website listings options include: Artists’ listings featured in the Artist and Media online search; individual Enhanced Artists Listings, allowing an image of each artist’s work, a link to the artist’s websites and their contact details, with priority on the Artist and Media online search
l Dedicated trail maps and travel information
l Year-round social media campaign, including Facebook, Instagram, regular newsletters and blogs
l Professional PR campaign, offering extensive local, regional and national media, press, TV and radio coverage
l Digital and TV marketing campaigns with partners Latest TV, Visit Brighton
l Joint marketing campaign with Brighton Festival and Brighton Fringe
l Reciprocal ads in Brighton Festival brochure
l Advertising in relevant local and regional arts and culture publications
l Reciprocal press, adverts, digital content and social media locally and regionally with arts partners including Brighton Art Fair, MADE, Brighton Photo Fringe, Pallant House Gallery, Fabrica, Phoenix Art Space and others
l Lamppost advertising
l Street stencils
l Bill board advertising
l Personal support and advice offered to all venues
l Online Guide to Opening your House
l Awards Event including: Best Open House and Brochure Cover Artist Awards
l AOH launch party
l Invitations to attend discussion and marketing information meetings
l The opportunity to join a local art trail
l The opportunity to buy AOH branded banner and bunting to advertise your Open House
Also see: costs and benefits
