About Open Studios
This year is the 20th annual Silicon Valley Open Studios program, and here is what you can expect!
- Dates: First Three Weekends in May
We are continuing with our standardized dates: our program will run the “First Three Weekends in May” from here on out. Standardizing on these dates will help the public to remember when our program occurs, and we hope it will draw greater crowds to our studios over time.
Click here to find out what towns will be emphasized during each weekend. - Publicity & Advertising
In 2004, we gained over 24 press clippings in 3 weeks and a similar level was achieved! This is an astounding amount of media coverage for our program, and we hope to increase the press for 2005. (List of clippings from 2004)Advertising. We have budgeted to put advertising for our open studios event into the San Jose Mercury News, METRO Magazine, and other high-level news periodicals. We hope these ads draw even more attention to our program!Street Banners. We will be producing almost 30 new banners to go across busy public streets and hang on street lights. The street banners are designed to greatly increase awareness of our program during the open studios weekends.Open Studios for Schools.This valuable program is intended to educate students about fine art, including how artists live and work, offering a free educational opportunity for beleagured students. In 2005 we adopted the 49er Academy as our pilot program and some of our Open Studios artists taught in the program. We are currently assessing our how this program will be organized in 2006 and beyond.Media Training Seminar. As a result of last year’s Media Training seminars, many artists who followed the training were very successful in gaining media coverage for their open studios and other events. Our public relations consultants will perform one of these seminars for the 2005 program. Artists who participate are expected to maintain a media contact on behalf of Open Studios during the program year. - PEEK Exhibit.
In 2004 and 2005, we conducted 5 fee PEEK Exhibits in prominent local businesses and spaces in the month leading up to the Open Studios to increase public awareness of SVOS and the individual artists who participated. Plans for more PEED exhibits in 2006 are underway. - Online Registration and Artist Directory
Our online registration process has empowered artists to ensure the accuracy of their information in the Online Artist Directory and Map Guide. All information entered by artists on the secure portion of our website is stored in an online database; and we generate the content for the Map Guide and Online Artist Directory directly from this online database–vastly reducing volunteer interaction with data. For 2005, we added a thumbnail image for each artist that will appear on results pages whenever people search our website to find artists, as well as on a home page for the Online Directory that shows all artists’ work. We also added the flexibility for artists to designate up to three price ranges for their work. - Additional Web Presence with MesArt.Com
Working with partner MesArt.Com, we can offer you another web page to display up to 9 images of your artwork for 6 months…for FREE! MesArt.Com has worked hard to gain web branding in the entire Bay Area including Marin County, the East Bay, San Francisco, and San Mateo & Santa Clara Counties. (Details)