We are three months away from this year’s IOM Art Festival and this newsletter provides dates, venues and other information regarding participation in this year’s event. It is also reminding members to renew your membership, particularly if you want to participate in this year’s Festival. Please read this newsletter carefully and respond to me by 24th February at the latest.
The Isle of Man Art Festival will be held over three weekends in May this year. This makes it easier for visitors to visit all venues and events around the Island during the Art Festival. It also enables artists to visit each others venues on the weekends they are not involved and offers greater flexibility for open studios and other venues to be open for longer if so desired.
Isle of Man Art Festival
The following venues have been organised by the Creative Network committee. As you will see, some venues have limited capacity so it is important to reply as soon as possible. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
PEEL AND THE WEST, INCLUDING KIRK MICHAEL _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DATES:- SATURDAY 2ND AND SUNDAY 3RD MAY _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
House of Manannan: Foyer only - space for 4-6 artists. Two display boards, 1 table and 1 chair per artist. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Another Peel venue – t.b.c. Possible exhibition space + demo space. The committee are currently making enquiries about another venue, however there is a great deal going on in and around Peel over this weekend as it coincides with Oie’ll Voaldyn and the Biosphere events. There will also be an exhibition at the House of Manannan, ‘The Art of Nature’, which includes some of our Network members. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SOUTH, INCLUDING PORT ERIN, BALLASALLA ETC. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DATES:- SATURDAY 9TH AND SUNDAY 10TH MAY ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Castletown Civic Centre: Space for up to 12 artists. N.B. This is an interactive venue with exhibition space and we encourage artists to demonstrate their particular media/technique. Hanging system available. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Old Police Station, Castletown: space for up to 4 artists, demonstrating and exhibiting. No hanging system. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Old Grammar School, Castletown: There are some restrictions to this venue e.g. steps for access, limited electric points, no wall-hung work. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
N.B. The South will also incorporate the launch and events (t.b.c.) re. the Land Art Trail between Castletown and Ballasalla. More information to follow.
NORTH AND EAST, INCLUDING LAXEY __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DATES: SATURDAY 16TH AND SUNDAY 17TH MAY __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
HODGSON LOOM GALLERY; Exhibition space only. Exhibition extends into TT fortnight. Exact dates t.b.c. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
RAMSEY, t.b.c. - Possible exhibition space + demo space. The committee are currently making enquiries about another venue. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
n.b. We also encourage artists to organise their own venues as well, e.g. Michael Starkey has organised Milntown for a small number of CN artists. Please let us know if you are working towards organising your own venue as several members have suggested they might, and if so, will it be a shared venue and which artists will also be participating.
OPEN STUDIOS:-
As always, this is a key feature of the Art Festival and we would like as many artists to open their studios as possible. Although you may just want to restrict your opening hours to coincide with the geographic weekends you do not need to – you can open every weekend and for longer than the weekend if desired, we just need to know opening times for the IOM Art Festival guide.
IOM ART FESTIVAL PARTICIPATION FEES:-
The fee remains at £30.00 per Creative Network member and entitles artists to free entry into the Festival guide, printed and online, social media promotion and includes free Festival venue costs.
The Festival entry fee for non-Creative Network members who may perhaps be sharing a venue with members is £40. This would entitle them to an entry in the Festival Guide and social media promotion, but not free festival venue costs, which they would pay a percentage of on a pro-rata basis.
CREATIVE NETWORK MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL REMINDER
We have 39 paid up members to date but last Festival we had approximately 70 so if you have not yet renewed your membership please do so a.s.a.p. . The fee remains at £20 and entitles artists to a profile on the Creative Network website, entry in the printed/online Artist Directory, free entry to Network events, social media and other promotions as well as entry to the IOM Art Festival.
PAYMENT DETAILS:-
Cheques (for £30 Festival fee only OR £50 for combined Network membership and Festival fees) should be made payable to The Creative Network, and sent to me, the membership secretary, Maureen Kennaugh, 41 The Promenade, Castletown, IM9 1BG.
Bank Transfer payment should be made to The Creative Network, Isle of Man Bank, sort code 55-91-07. The reference should be Festival Fees or M’ship + Fest Fees. Also, please remember to ensure that the payment includes your name as several payments in the past were received without knowing who they were from!
UPDATING WEBSITE ARTIST BIO AND IMAGES
As this information will form the basis of the Artist Directory it is important that you check the website and update your entry if necessary. You can include up to 12 images, which should be approximately 1 or 2 mb each and your artist bio should be no more than 150 words long and written in the third person. Also list your websites and social media pages for inclusion on the website and subsequently the Directory.
We require 1 photo for your main photo and then multiples of 3 to show in a square format gallery. Please title the photos in the image file name and include title and short description e.g. acrylic beach scene. All photos must be of high quality.
WELL, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR PATIENTLY READING TO THE END!
On behalf of the committee, we look forward to as many of you as participating in this years newly formatted Art Festival as possible and thank you for your continued support.
with kind regards,
Maureen Kennaugh Membership Secretary The Creative Network