2025 Open Studios Guidelines

We’ve divided this into sections so it’s easier to navigate.

  • New for 2025

  • Step 1 - Decide how you want to take part in Open Studios

  • Step 2 - Prepare your text

  • Step 3 - Prepare your images

  • Helpful tips about images

  • How do I save my registration form?

  • Step 4: Register for Open Studios 2025

2023 Open Studios : Nikoletta Monyok

New for 2025

From the Open Studios socials and your completed surveys we’ve gathered your feedback and made some changes:

  • Directions - character limit is now 85 characters (including spaces)

  • Opening Times for Open Studios are now 11am-5pm, not 6pm. Artists can extend their opening times, but all artists must be available to open their studios between 11am and 5pm on both weekends - 14th & 15th and 21st & 22nd June 2025

  • Artist Open Evenings - we will trial this again, so that you can all visit each others’ studios.

  • Skill Share sessions - we’re testing the idea of artists supporting each other by sharing skills.

Step 1: Decide how you want to take part in Open Studios

For Open Studios you can take part:

  1. As a solo artist

  2. As a group (2-4 artists or 5+ artists)

  3. As a young artist (30 years and under) for 50% discount

  4. Or as an artist in Cam, Dursley or Wotton-Under-Edge for 20% discount

There is one form for all artists, and a sliding scale of fees.


Not sure if you’re sharing or not?

Emma Leyfield at Three Storeys by Kazz Hollick

Don’t worry! On the form there’s the option to tell us, however you will need to pay the full fee and then be refunded the difference. We aim to refund you within 30 working days of you informing us.

So, for example, if you're based at a larger studio such as Victoria Works or Three Storeys, but you're unsure if it will be 2-4 artists, or 5 or more artists, you should pay the £234 fee and be refunded the difference when you confirm how many will be in your group.

Do you have a space you’ll like to share for Open Studios? Let us know on the form and we will put you in touch.

Based in Cam, Dursley or Wotton-Under-Edge?

Although in recent years Open Studios has been more centred around Stroud town, we're very keen to invite more of our art community based in Cam, Dursley, Wotton-under-Edge and the rural spaces in between. We've been working with Cam & Dursley Creatives, plus Under the Edge Arts, to collaborate and connect our community more.

So if you have a studio in Cam, Dursley, Wotton-under-Edge or in between get in touch for a 20% discount off registration fees.

Need a studio?

You don’t need a studio address before you register, so you can register for Open Studios and insert 'TBA' in the address section.

However, we need a lot of time to help you! The sooner you contact us, the quicker we can help you find a studio before the routes are set. Locations need to be finalised by March in order for the directory to be designed, and it can sometimes take several weeks to find the right place for you. So if you need a studio for Open Studios, contact us as soon as possible.

In order to get an Young Artist discount:

For the purposes of the Open Registration form Young Artists are classed as artists 30 and under, and you complete the same registration form, but with a discount code.

You will need to send us a bit of information about yourself and then we will send you the Young Artist discount code. Please email kazz@sva.org.uk with this information :

  1. Your date of birth

  2. If you have recently graduated, give us a short description of your course (what you studied, where and when), or other relevant experience to your practice

  3. Any links to work that you'd like to share with us.

Have more questions?

Take a look at the FAQ page for more answers, or email us.

Step 2: Prepare your Text

Before completing the registration form you will need to prepare:

  1. a short description of your work or art practice (up to 165 characters)

  2. directions to your studio (up to 85 characters)

We recommend looking through previous directories on the Archive page to get an idea for descriptions and images that work really well. You can also take a look at the registration form to see what’s needed.

TIP : We recommend typing your text in a Word document, Google Doc or similar. This is so you can use their ‘character count’ tool, then copy and paste the text into the form.

Step 3: Prepare your Images

Your images are crucial for representing your artwork and practice. As artists and designers ourselves, we take a lot of care to ensure that the directory displays your artwork to the highest quality, which is why we have all of these following guidelines.

Your images need to be:

  1. Three different images : Once your images are submitted in your registration our designers choose what works best for the layout and next to other artwork, so having three choices from different images is essential.

  2. Representative of your practice : You should include images that represent your practice and that you’d be happy to have included in the directory for Open Studios in June. Even though we understand the challenges with preparing artwork months in advance, we cannot change your images later in the process.

  3. Images that don't have important detail at the very edge - this is because the design takes the images to the "bleed edge" for printing. So if your image ends up on the side edge of a page, then it may get cropped into slightly by the printing. All images have an edge along the top, so please be aware that you will lose 3mm off the top of the image. In printing terms it’s called the “bleed edge”. There’s more information and a diagram below.

  4. High quality for the directory and website, so they need to be between 1mb and 10mb, and a high number of pixels (i.e. you cannot just scale the image up because the quality is then lost). If you don’t have a suitable camera, ask fellow artists for advice, or email Kazz.

  5. Cropped as a square : if they’re not cropped, our directory designers have to spend extra time doing this for you, and may crop into your artwork in a way that you wouldn’t.

  6. Named and numbered so we know the artwork is yours so rename your files with your surname first, and in this format : CHEN.A.1.jpg. This is so we can identify who has provided each image.

  7. Between 1mb and 10mb so we recommend making the images at least 1500x1500 pixels, and you should find that the file size is above 1mb. The form will not accept files over 10mb each, so please take note.

  8. Either .jpg or a .png files.

  9. Different to previous years of Site Festival publicity so that it’s different every year!

TIP : If you’re unsure about your images, email them to kazz@sva.org.uk for her to check beforehand.

Helpful Tips about images

Why do I lose 3mm of my image when the directory is printed?

The design takes the images to the "bleed edge" for printing so we ask for images that don't have important detail/features at the very edge of the images.

So if your image ends up on the side edge of a page, then it may get cropped on one side by the printing. All images have an edge along the top of each page, so please be aware that you will lose 3mm off the top of the image. In printing terms it’s called the “bleed edge”.

For example, if you end up on the left page layout, then you will lose up to 3mm on the left edge and 3mm on the top edge. If you end up on the right page layout then you will lose up to 3mm on the right edge as well as the top edge.

Why do I need to rename my image files?

We receive around 300-500 images from artists, and the only way we can identify who they belong to is from their filename.

So if you submit your image called “IMG.2057” we won’t know that your image belongs to you!

Give me an example of renaming filenames?

If your name is Alex Chen, then you would call your filenames...

  1. Chen.A.1.jpg

  2. Chen.A.2.jpg

  3. Chen.A.3.jpg

If your name is Saskia Dell then you would call your filenames…

  1. Dell.S.1.jpg

  2. Dell.S.2.jpg

  3. Dell.S.3jpg


What if my image file is too big for the registration form?

If you’re getting an error message it might be because your image file isn’t between 1mb and 10mb. If you are not sure how to resize your images you could download software such as Photoshop, ordownload free software such as Gimp from Gimp.org, or there are many online websites. We found this one to be easy to use, and you don’t need to pay for it : www.canva.com/photo-editor

Please note:

  • The images must be different to those used in previous Site Festival Publicity. 

  • SVA reserve the right to replace poor quality images. 

  • SVA reserve the right to crop images to fit the required dimensions. If you cannot submit your images as a square crop, then SVA will crop your image in the way we believe shows your work in the best possible way. Please also remember the 3mm bleed guidelines.

Need help with preparing your images?

If you are not sure how to resize your images you could use software such as Photoshop, or free software such as Gimp from Gimp.org, or there are many online websites. We found this one to be easy to use, and you don’t need to pay for it : www.canva.com/photo-editor

There are many different softwares available for preparing your images, and many different devices to produce them on, so we recommend researching what works well for you.

We may be able to help in the SVA office if you are unsure about your image quality or other technical issues, email kazz@sva.org.uk to arrange an appointment.

How do I save my Registration form?

We use Jotform for the registration form, and they have a ‘Save’ button at the bottom of the form.

  1. Once your email address is on the form, which is one of the first questions, you can save the session. Head to the bottom of the page and find the ‘Save’ button.

  2. You can either create a Jotform account (with Google, Facebook, or with an email address) or the smallest writing at the bottom of the message says “Skip Create an Account”

  3. Once you’ve clicked that option, it should say “Your form has been saved as a draft” and you can enter your email address to send it to yourself.

  4. Check your emails (especially check the spam folder because it might go in there), and you can continue the form another time. Hooray!

Step 4: Register for Open Studios

Find the Open Studios 2025 registration form, and if you need any help email kazz@sva.org.uk to arrange an appointment.