Arran Open Studios preview exhibition Friday 11th July – Monday 14th July 2025
Inevitably, we get so preoccupied with setting up the exhibition that we forget to take photos. We have included some here to give a flavour of the preparation and the event. Any volunteers for that task next year??
There’s lots of planning and preparation: enrolment of artists, gathering details on their submissions, creating a rota for ‘manning’ the exhibition and lots more, before we get to the point of hanging the work and opening the doors to all you art lovers.
It’s 8.45am on Thursday 10th July and our committee members roll up at Brodick hall, cars packed with various important items: hammers, spirit level, screws, hanging systems, the visitors book, the visuals like the banner and the flags saying ‘exhibition here today,’ the flowers to adorn the hall, the paint to touch up the plinths, which have been in storage since last year, and of course the tea, coffee and biscuits.
We buzz about bringing everything in including the display boards which are heavy. Thankfully we have Rob, Dave, Andy, John and Richard who carry them all into the hall.
Meanwhile, a few of us get to work painting the plinths where needed and touching up the display boards.
Raine Clark artist/printmaker, who recently moved to the island, is there with arms full of flowers which she arranges in vases around the hall.
We set up the boards and tables we need and time for a cuppa and biscuit before the artists taking part begin to arrive with their work.
It’s always a bit daunting, not knowing exactly what will arrive. We have a rough idea of sizes and media but it’s always a wonderful surprise to actually see the work. So, we move from not knowing what kind of mix we have to grouping work together. Some by colour, some by subject matter and of course some by size.
There’s a real mix this year of both 2D and 3D and it’s looking like an interesting collection.
We begin to place work in clusters where we think they will be hung or placed on plynths. A few pieces immediately gel together. Rob is high energy. He gets things going fast. Some of us ponder longer. We’re grateful for his bold decision making.
‘We can tweek things as we go along,” he reminds us. We soon get a base to work with. After several pieces are moved around we come to our final decision on the placing of the work and we can stand back and admire, take a few photos and we are all set for opening the following day.
Over the 4 days we had 370 visitors and many lovely comments both about the work and about how the exhibition has been set up. Thanks to several volunteers we manage to man the exhibition in pairs throughout the weekend.
One highlight is our get-together of Artists on the Sunday, a lovely chance to chat and welcome some new members.
Finally, on Monday, the exhibition closed and within an hour, it was completely dismantled, all the artists having collected their work.
Thank you to them all for participating and thanks also to everyone who supported us and came to the exhibition. We enjoyed putting it together for you and creating the best exhibition we could to show the variety of visual art, a mix of crafts and fine art, 3d and 2d, created on this small island. It was also great to have some work fromArran High School students included in our exhibition again this year. Thank you to art teacher, Jill Howison-Hunter for arranging. Thanks also to Moira Small for taking our booking and to Wyllie, the hall keeper. To the Arran Pipe Band who give up their usual Friday evening practice session in the hall for us each year, it is much appreciated. Not forgetting the Baptist Church who very kindly use the Ormidale Pavilion for their service on the Sunday instead of the hall.
Until next year.
But first! We have the main event, Arran Open Studios 15th-18th August, when we welcome the public into our studios. We look forward to seeing you then.
