Letters – A lack of professionalism?

From Sarah Wiseman,
Gallery Director, Sarah Wiseman Gallery

read with interest the articles about the pressures and development of open studio events in the UK (AP issue 147, 4 June). As a gallery owner I enjoy going to these events as it is often an ideal way to discover a new artist who is just getting ready to exhibit their work. With this in mind last weekend I embarked on the Arts Unwrapped open studio trail in London that has been spread over three weekends. However to my displeasure, on arriving at various studios in far flung industrial estates around the East End of London, I found that many of the artists had decided to stay at home and enjoy the sunshine rather than open their studios to the general public as advertised. This extreme lack of professionalism is discourteous not only to the visitors who could be bothered to turn up and support them, but also to the artists who had turned up to open their studios. Most importantly it puts egg on the face on the funding bodies who support them, Arts Council England being one of them in this case. How can one justify asking for more money for the arts when it is treated so casually? Therefore the challenge, as I see it, is making the artists who opt to take part in these events take them seriously and professionally, whilst ensuring that they respect the generosity of the bodies that fund them, and the time of the general public who decide to visit them.