The Artist's Year Book 2006

The Artist's Yearbook 2006 is edited by Ossian Ward and published by Thames and Hudson (and I've put a link to it in the business section in the right hand column - near the bottom!). It relates entirely to the UK art world and includes advice, information and contact details about:

• commercial galleries and dealers
• public museums and galleries
• art material suppliers and services
• framers and printers
• studios and exhibition spaces for hire
• art education and courses
• art fairs and festivals
• art prizes, open competitions and residencies
• arts boards, councils and funding opportunities
• societies and other arts organisations
• art magazines and PR contacts

Information is usefully disaggregated into regions and the internet making any searches in the larger sections a little bit easier. Over 2,500 organisations are listed. What I do when I come across books like this is pick them up in the book shop and then look for very specific things which I know about to see if they're included! While I found some omissions I also came across many more things that I never ever knew about. Overall, a very useful book to own.

This book shouldn't be confused with the Writers and Artists Yearbook published by A&C Black which is much more focused on resources for writers and is pretty lightweight in terms of resources for fine artists. My 2005 edition has listings which are useful for:

Illustrators

• art agents and commercial art studios
• card and stationery publishers which accept illustrations

Photographers

• picture agencies and publishers
• card and stationary publishers which accept photos
  

The information it contains about websites for artists is very summarised compared to the offered by the Thames and Hudson book

I'm happy for people to provide a brief summary of any other similar digests of information relating to other countries as a comment on this post - your views on how useful you have found them would also be very helpful.

Technorati tags: art, art business, art marketing

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