Thank you to the artists for participating in our on-line survey. While we would have liked better response (about half of you took the time to fill it out), we were grateful for the information received and it helped the board make decisions about the future viability of the tour.
 

WE'RE BACK FOR 2021 AND FEELING OPTIMISTIC

 

2021 Tour Dates — October 2-3 & 9-10

With all the vaccinations going on, it seems as though we'll be able to gather publicly once again, and won't it be a lovely thing. Will we be wearing masks? Probably. Will we still be 6 feet apart? Possibly. It's certainly an improvement over 2020. It looks like we can safely make plans for 6 months out, barring any unforeseeable mutant strains, pandemic outbreaks not covered by the vaccines, or cosmic disturbances. So that brings us to getting it done.

 

For this year only, the board has decided to open the tour up to participants going back to 2018. We hope that you share our enthusiasm for a return to normal, and that you'd like to open your studio once again to the public. If you want to open by appointment only, no problem. Require masks, it's up to you. Your studio requirements and information will be customized to your WAST web site page. 

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We are currently hammering out details. 

To reduce the artist participation fees, we will not produce a brochure this year. It is a big expense and we can be more economical by driving traffic to the web site. We believe a logical replacement for the brochure is a smaller rack card (or possibly a trifold brochure) to be strategically placed around the county as we've previously done with the brochure. It will serve as an announcement for the tour and direct users to the web site via a QR code for more information. Additional marketing materials may also include a poster, social media presence with Facebook and Instagram, plus paid advertising in these venues. We will seek local media coverage through Cascade Weekly and anyone else who would like to list us in their publications. 

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We have 3 upcoming gallery/museum shows that are moving forward. 

As in previous years, The Jansen Center, Whatcom Museum, and Allied Arts have all committed to WAST artist shows for 2021. Jurying is decided by each venue and the Studio Tour does not guarantee participation in these events. Dates and details will be announced when we have them on our Artist Only section of the web site.

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We need people.

Getting enough volunteers has sometimes been a challenge for the tour board, and this year your help is as important as ever. We are a mere 6 individuals with families and full time obligations. We need you to bring your A-game in social media, organizing, and distribution to help us put on the tour. 

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Here's what we need your help with —

• Create and expand our social media presence (frequency, content, placement)

• E-mail marketing. Use your e-mail client list to help promote the tour. A simple "Whatcom Artist Studio Tour is back for 2021!" subject line with some brief text and link to the web site in the body of the e-mail would go a long way to getting the message out there

• Organizing our gallery and museum shows including coordinating with venue organizers, coordinating deadlines and deliveries

• Distribution of marketing materials (poster, trifold brochure) to local businesses. For this we need a few people who can work together to get them out there

• Sponsorships. Since we won't have room for advertising in our printed marketing materials, we'd like to seek sponsorship or ad sales for the web site.

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Visit the link below to an easy to fill out form that will cement your undying love, er commitment — to this year's tour, that and a $100 deposit. We say deposit, because we're still hammering out our expenses and haven't assembled budgets. It seems a little premature perhaps, but final fees are determined by the number of artists who sign up. For now, we've scrapped the $65 membership until we have a complete view of how that can be structured in a way to offer the most benefit to tiered members.

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Tour Application Link

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We hope that you'll share our enthusiasm for the tour this year and join us in moving forward. Please fill out the application and submit it and your payment no later than May 15.

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All fees may be paid by Check or Credit Card (PayPal). If you elect to use a Credit Card the cost of credit card processing will be added. You will be shown this cost before submitting your payment.

 

Mail checks to

Whatcom Artist Studio Tour

PO Box 5921

Bellingham, WA 98227

 

The fee includes expenses for —

• A website listing for each artist that includes five color photographs of work, a studio and e-mail address and a personal website link​

• Participation in pre-tour group show jurying. *Participation is not guaranteed as the jury process is performed by the respective galleries

• Participation fee will also include date overlays for street signs, and street signs if we can’t locate enough from prior years

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Make Tour Payment here

(but only after filling out the application above). Thanks and we hope to see you on the tour!

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