Cornwall Open Studios 2020: My first year as a participating artist

After a busy few weeks, preparing and then participating in Cornwall Open Studios 2020, I’ve now got a few minutes to sit down with a cup of tea and a piece of cake and ponder the experience.

I was quite surprised that I actually decided to participate, given my wildly reclusive and introvert tendencies. But I’m an experimenter at heart, and curiosity won over. I promised myself I didn’t have to do it again if I didn’t want to!

There was a lot of prep work to do, not just in terms of getting the studio ready {that took days!}, but also in spreading the word about the event and making sure it would be a safe and happy experience for visitors, given that at the time of writing the coronavirus is still having a significant impact on daily life.

I decided to make opening my studio ‘by appointment only’, which had the double benefit of ensuring safety {and my undivided attention} for visitors, and allowing me to dip my toe in the waters of open studios in an introvert-friendly way!

I talked about the event on Instagram and in my Notes from the Studio in the weeks leading up to the event, inviting people to contact me to book appointments to come and see the work.

I was fortunate to also be featured in the local press a few times {more here and here}, and ended up with a lovely arrangement of one to three visitors or groups of visitors a day, some of whom I knew already.

That’s nothing compared with ‘usual’ numbers, but it suited me very well and I enjoyed being able to share and discuss the finer points of my work, make some sales, and even end up with a super opportunity to sell my work further afield, which is fantastic.

I thought the event was brilliantly organised, especially considering it was first postponed, and then had to be reorganised in line with the effects of the virus.

I haven’t yet decided whether I’ll participate again next year, but it was definitely a worthwhile experiment and I’m glad I took part. It was nice to think of all the other 200+ artists opening their studio doors across the county, and getting to see what was going on via the Instagram hashtag.