Purpose aims and objectives
The overall purpose of POS is to contribute to strengthening the economic, cultural, tourism and heritage environments throughout Perthshire.
To make this contribution, POS aims to:
- Support Perthshire creatives
- Increase the number of residents and visitors who get a sense of place through traveling around Perthshire and ‘Seeing the Inspiration.’
- Strengthen Artists marketing skill base.
- Increase cooperation and support between individual artists and Perthshire-focused organizations.
The objectives of POS are to:
- Organize and promote an all-year-round Perthshire Creative Trail.
- Organize and promote an Open Studios Festival in Perthshire that supports economies of scale.
- Develop marketing/promotional skills of POS members and their access to the benefits of membership.
- Endeavour to work in coordination with other organizations with similar goals.
How we got here
Perthshire Open Studios (POS) has been running for over 13 years. Entirely volunteer run, the open studios festival event across Perthshire attracted visitors and residents, supporting economic and cultural growth as well as cultural benefits. In 2021, 143 venues and 198 solo artists participated in POS. Previous research shows that for every pound spent on organizing the festival each year, £15 is spent in Perthshire.
A decision was made to take a pause in activity to review both internal and external challenges facing the organization and to consult with artists across Perthshire.
With the retirement of a number of leading volunteers on the committee and following the very difficult years of COVID 19 the future looked bleak. In the spring of 2022, a small group came together to try and find a way forward in the current environment.
The result of the consultation showed that artists in Perthshire were keen to continue to hold an Open Studio Festival but that they also want an all year-round attraction, more support for the galleries who sell their work and help to maximize the success of their micro enterprises.
POS is now focusing on three events a year - an all year-round creative trail, a September open studio festival and a summer exhibition. In addition to developing training events for artist looking to spread the word about their art. It was also agreed that it was important to work with other artist organizations in Perthshire.