Arthouse Festival looking for studios to open their doors (From Wandsworth Guardian)

Arthouse Festival looking for studios to open their doors

10:56am Friday 14th December 2012 in Freetime By Amy Dyduch

Artists are being urged to sign up to showcase their work as part of an annual open studios festival.

The Arthouse festival, run by Richmond Council’s arts service, promotes creative communities and will take place over the last two weekends of June next year.

This year’s festival was the biggest yet, with more than 500 artists opening up their homes, studios, classrooms and gardens to exhibit their work to thousands of visitors.

The event allows people to see exactly where works of art are created and meet the artists.

Councillor Pamela Fleming, cabinet member for community, business and culture, said: "We are very lucky in this borough that we have such a large number of exhibitions, art viewings and shows put on at the borough’s myriad venues, but rarely do we get the opportunity to see and experience the spaces in which the art we so enjoy is created.

"The Arthouse festival gives us the opportunity to see deeper into these works, to see where they were produced and see what inspires them."

Next year’s festival will also include a group exhibition at the Riverside Gallery, in Richmond, before the open studio weekends.

Applications are open until Monday, February 18. For more information, visit richmond.gov.uk/arthouse.