For many artists a new year means new year resolutions and to-do lists of aims and things to be achieved throughout the next 12 months. For many this also includes decisions about which open competitions to target and prepare entries for. With this in mind we are pleased to include our annual six-page open competitions guide (see pages 72 to 77) in which we highlight our round-up of all the open competitions we think deserve consideration, with all the relevant details and entry deadlines.
Open competitions are important for the opportunities they offer to help raise your profile, see your work exhibited alongside your peers, win valuable prizes, network with other artists at the private views and be seen by galleries looking for new artists to represent. As our In Conversation artist this month, Rob Adams (pages 14 to 17) acknowledges, although social media can be a good sales tool and makes it relatively easy to ‘get your work out there’, it can also, as he says, make it ‘very hard to rise above the crowd’. Which is why acceptance by, and success in open competitions can be such a positive experience.