The Festival and Fringe are full of quirky happenings and events, but the Artists Open Houses always stand out for us. Along with their curated partner festival House, they offer public access to all kinds of art in domestic settings. We spoke to Judy Stevens, the director for both, and Helen Cann, a committee member and marketing organiser.
So, the open houses have been running for 30 years now.
Helen: Yes, that’s the basis of the guerrilla marketing we’re running this year. We’re inviting people to come up with art based around the number 30 and post it on the website, which we’ll be using to advertise the open houses with.
Judy: Ned Hoskins first opened his house 30 years, then over the next couple of years it spread out into the first Fiveways trail, and on from there.
It’s really come together over the last few years.
Judy: To start with it was all part of the Festival, then over the years it came over to the newly created Fringe. But it broke away because it wasn’t featured in the brochure – the trails were all producing their own leaflets which was just about fine for the people who live here but it was impossible for people from outside Brighton. So seven years ago we brought it all together with one brochure, all using the same logo and house banners – that branding and identity also gave it a wider awareness.
As with the curated Festival and free-for-all of the Fringe, House and the AOH offer a similar variety.
Judy: Yes, there’s no criteria for the open houses, that’s part of its beauty. You get students, schoolchildren, marginalised artists, and it covers all areas of the city; from Portslade out to Lewes, Ditchling and Newhaven. Other cities and other countries have similar events but we’re the original and also the largest – there are 154 houses taking part this year.
And it’s not just houses – I’ve seen exhibitions in church halls and more traditional gallery spaces.
Helen: It is actually mostly houses. I really love that about it – it’s less intimidating, especially if you don’t know much about art. You can just go in, look around and have a cup of tea. For such a creative city Brighton has a real lack of gallery space, and the artists have to pay commission on sales there, sometimes as much as 75%. It makes it a bit crazy.
Judy: Yes, it’s the artists controlling their own exhibitions rather than a gallery making money out of them. It’s about artists finding a space to exhibit their own work.
Helen: It’s so random, some houses look like a gallery where everything’s all nicely framed, then you get others with a guy sitting next to his picture saying, “please like it” – its really cool, like Russian roulette.
Cutting out the commission must make the art more affordable and make a positive difference to sales potential.
Judy: Well, we’ve done two visitor surveys which both said the open houses created over £1m of turnover…
Helen: I used to make a grand over three or four weekends. A lot of artists make half of their turnover for the year here.
The non-curated side of the programme usually includes some interesting concepts.
Judy: Yes, it’s not all art in frames on walls. This year we have a ceramic artist who’s turning her whole house into a ceramic installation, and it’s actually crossing over with House. Her partner is a sound artist who’s made a sound installation in response to her ceramics – you get an iPod when you walk in – it’s a great crossover between the two. Another good one is a woman who’s whitewashing her walls every night, then during the day people come in and draw anything they like.
Helen: Audience involvement is a big thing. A lot of it in the past was looking at art on walls and buying – there’s obviously a big place for that but it’s important to have a fun element to it all as well, basically anything goes. Last year in Hove a guy painted a picture on an easel and just sat next to it saying, “is it art?” It’s really interesting; I like the idea of that. Is it? What makes it ‘art’?
That must throw up some extremes.
Judy: Yes, I used to do one a couple of years ago, mostly normal things on the walls for Christmas presents, but we gave over our sitting room to an Indonesian artist who brought in a dirty old bath, it had soap in it with bits of hair stuck all over it. And people became furious. It’s brilliant that people got so cross, that art has the power to infuriate and spark some interesting debates.
WORDS BY NICK COQUET
PHOTO ‘RIDER SPOKE’ BY BLAST THEORY
