The Artist's Open Studios Whanganui (ASOW) event has run annually since 2003. In that time the economic impact for artists and the region has grown substantially. The 2004 Open Studios sold $22,500 of art and put more than $300,000 into this city. This 2015 Open Studios and Glass Festival generated
$183,000 in art sales and brought more than $2m into this economy.
The AOSW Trust is responsible for organising this event. In 2015 AOSW joined the Wanganui Glass Festival. They partnered with the Wanganui District Council and Visit Whanganui to improve marketing and administration. The success showed with 10,500 local and travelling visitors, almost double the total previous year's visitors.
Sarah Williams, the event facilitator did a sterling job. The AOSW Trust employs one paid facilitator and will be advertising this position for 2016. AOSW Trustees Enaj Lee, Clayton Bunker, Rick Baum and Jacqueline Brand-Holt are looking forward to the 2016 Open Studios and Glass Festival Event. With 72 studios and more than 100 artists involved there is an incredible commitment in creating art and preparing the studios for visitors.
Some important matters need to be discussed, including sustainability for the artists and the partnerships. It has been suggested that ticketing would help with marketing and administration costs but how does this directly benefit the artists? A gap is widening between economic growth for the community and sales for the artists; that suggests the event is attracting the visitors for the experience but not necessarily art buyers. Surveys showed that most visitors from outside of Whanganui were drawn here by word of mouth, family and friends and social media. What this tells us is that the growth of this event has not only come through ratepayer funding but because the broader community of Whanganui as "The Arts Destination of New Zealand" is more aware of the open studios and supporting it.
On Thursday, September 10 at 7pm at the RSA in Hill Street the AOSW Trust will host an annual review to discuss the 2015 and 2016 events. Artists and general public are welcome.
