Notes from AOH Artists meet up and Review Tuesday 14th June. Members present Jenny, Jo, Patrick, Giselle, Tania, Alison, Jess, Mig, Alex, Helen Louise started the meeting with an overview of visitor numbers over the AOH weekends total visitor numbers - 582 Weekend 1 - 145 Weekend 2 - 112 Weekend 3 - 151 Weekend 4 - 174 total sales £1428.00 Studio Income ESP commission on sales = £142.80, Members’ fees for taking part = £140.00 Total studio income from AOH = £282.80 Studio Expenditure = £320.00 for AOH listing ‘Loss’ of £37.20 Cath and Louise felt that AOH had been a really positive experience Everyone agreed that they all enjoyed being part of AOH with the studio but highlighted that AOH was a lot of work for Cath and Louise. C and L agreed that it was not sustainable for them to cover every weekend in the studio and proposed that AOH could be much more member driven going forward. C and L are happy to cover some of the AOH sessions but felt that the members did so well at explaining how the open access studio works that it would be possible for two members to cover a morning or afternoon AOH slot together. C and L would still hang the work and prepare the studio for the weekends. Everyone seemed ok with this suggestion. We discussed ideas for next year's AOH and these are some ideas that came up: Suggestions for AOH next year : Members could organise a rota for studio cover - (L and C happy to cover some sessions also) using the members forum as a means of communication - it’s free and already set up plus everyone knows how to access it as it’s in the members are of the website. Prior to AOH L&C will organise a members meeting to cover things like - how to use the sum up machine and how to record studio sales. Members felt less confident in talking about other members work to AOH visitors Patrick suggested possibly having Artists information on the wall/ table display by their work that can be referred to. Jo suggested having a members spotlight on Instagram in the run up to Artists Open House to create a buzz before the weekends and introduce the artists and their work. Alex suggested having a members get together for a “show and tell’ type event to get to know each others work/working practices. Majority of members thought it would be good to have an AOH private view event. Having a members gallery on the website - possibly to sell work? L thought selling work would be difficult with regards to responsibility of packing and sending members work and contacting members to do this. But agreed to look into the idea of having a members gallery with contact details (L to ask Allan, who does the website ) General suggestions for future exhibitions/members thoughts: Members taking it in turns to do an Instagram take over (if they want to) L suggested a blog take over - which raised the question of does anyone read the blog and do we need it on the site? Members events evening with GF smith papers, inviting Matt the rep along - showing samples and talking about paper. Future exhibitions - L reminded us that we would be applying for Press and Play this year at Phoenix. Patrick suggested an exhibition at the Fishing Quarter Gallery - ESP to find out more. Any other suggestions/feedback please let us know on here or via email. Thanks for reading

We haven't been able to have a grand opening but maybe after June 21 all being well we can have a Studio Social - anyone got any ideas for this?

we have 3 spaces left if any of you would like to join- email us to let us know and we'll send out further details- Cath XX

This is a discussion for all you Fabric printers - Now that Fabric land on Western Rd is closed down what's your favourite Fabric shop in Brighton to buy cotton/canvas for screen printing? I know that it's possible to order on line but sometimes you just want to go into a shop to see the fabric, look at the weave and work out if it's right for the project you're working on. Ditto fabric is really good in Kensington gardens but quite expensive - any shops you can recommend?

It's always difficult to know what paper to use to create an edition of prints to sell. Regular cartridge paper is fine whilst your learning, testing out colours or a new print idea but printing on a quality piece of hand or mould made paper is a whole other level in terms of how the ink saturates and sits on the paper. I was just about to order my regular paper when I came across this article and I thought - I bet some other studio members would find this an exciting read or maybe that's just me! But if you are interested here's the link https://www.jacksonsart.com/blog/2018/08/15/choosing-a-silk-screen-paper-by-legion-paper/