Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Call for Entries: Society of Women Artists 164th Annual Exhibition (2025)

This is about the call for entries for the Annual Open Exhibition 2025 of the Society of Women Artists (SWA).  
The SWA seeks works of the highest standard within its specific field. The SWA continues to promote female artists and prides itself on the very diverse nature of the work shown during our Annual Open Exhibition from both our non-members and our members.
Below you can find a summary of how to enter and relevant terms and conditions - although you do need to read the complete set of details.



All the images below are from the Annual Exhibition in 2024.

SWA Annual Exhibition: Call for Entries


The Society of Women Artists exhibits at the Mall Galleries on an annual basis (although not a member of the Federation of the British Artists).  This year the exhibition will be held there between 24th June to 28th June 2025 (5 days ONLY).

The DEADLINE for entries is 8th March 2025. If you enter, you can find out whether you have been successful if you visit the SWA website on or after the 29th March 2025.

In this post you can find:
  • details of the exhibition
  • who is eligible to enter
  • what types of artwork are eligible
  • how to enter 
but, first, why enter this exhibition?

Why enter the SWA Annual Exhibition?

East Gallery, SWA Annual Exhibition 2024

The Society of Women Artists have been on an important journey of improvement in recent years. It's one which can provide lessons for other art societies - in a variety of ways.

In general the artwork has improved over time and the number of younger artists now exhibiting with the Society has improved.

There's also a keen sense of the exhibition being a place where women artists can exhibit work on themes with meaning to women - which might get overlooked by panels where men make up the majority of the members.

West Gallery, SWA Annual Exhibition 2025

However, last year they had a very significant hiccup which led to me making a number of recommendations in my review of their exhibition - see Review: 163rd Annual Exhibition of Society of Women Artists (2024)

 One of which was to either 
  • book the space for longer and have the exhibition every other year (as, for example, the Society of Botanical Artists do)
  • and/or make sure the exhibition was online during the exhibition (and before and after too!)
I know the space is a lot more expensive now than it used to be but to my mind, the amount of expense and effort is really not worth it if it's only open for five days. For example, take less space, hang it much faster and stay open for a full week. Plus there are alternative venues....

I do know also that they need to be 
  • much more discriminating in how many pieces they hang - reducing the number hung overall so that visitors can see it all easily - and, 
  • if they want to be better off financially - to focus much more on affordable art - which people do buy!
One of my comments - of great relevance to those entering art via the open entry - is show below where I have emphasized the really important points re the finanicials for the Society
if you want to hold annual exhibitions - particularly at the Mall Galleries which is not cheap - you MUST focus on the financials.
  • Do encourage artwork in the affordable price ranges
  • Provide guidance to artists about sale prices (I preach about this on a regular basis)
  • Check high prices by size and calibre/background of the artist - you have some very good artists exhibiting - but not all are.
  • Do NOT accept artwork with silly prices and no evidence that this had been achieved by this artist in the past
  • ALWAYS hang quality artwork in quality places - so it gets noticed!
  • be aware of the walls which are NOT normally used for hanging! 

Find the full details of how to apply and the General terms and Conditions on this page
Below is a summary of that page - with some facts rearranged.

Who can enter

  • The exhibition is INTERNATIONAL i.e. open to artists in the UK, EU, and outside the EU
  • There is no stated restriction on who can enter. However, this is an exhibition of work by women artists!
  • Women artists under the age of 35 are judged to be "young artists" and can submit work at a reduced fee.

What you can enter


What follows are the rules of what you can submit and what you need to know before you get on to the 'how to enter' section.

Up to 6 works may be submitted but a maximum of four works can be displayed.
 
Categories of work which are acceptable:
  • Paintings, pastels, drawings;
  • Mixed media
  • Sculpture, in all media;
  • Ceramics, glass and metal not of a utilitarian nature.
  • Fine art printing methods (not giclee or large volume print methods). 
  • Photography not accepted. 
  • Works previously exhibited with the SWA or at the Mall Galleries are not eligible for entry.
All artwork accepted and exhibited
  • MUST be for sale, except by prior consent from the SWA.
  • EXCLUSIVE for the duration of the exhibition - which means that the commission is still payable even if it is listed and sold via another platform during the exhibition.
All information provided by you must be true and accurate including that the work submitted is wholly of your own creation.

The SWA reserves the right to disqualify any work if the artist has failed to adhere to the Terms and Conditions and the relevant rules. 

Artwork prices should include 
  • the commission of 45% for non members and 
  • 40% for members 
  • on the Charity Evening, the SWA will also be donating 5% of the sale price to the Charity Breast Cancer Now.

Minimum Sale prices for works (excluding courier costs): 

  • £150 for etchings or lithography or drawings
  • £200 for 3D works
  • £350 for everything else.
  • Any work priced lower than the minimum for its category will be put up to the minimum price with out consultation with the artists
Please also note that all retail prices MUST include VAT if applicable and ALL artists liable to VAT are responsible for paying their own tax direct to HMRC.

All costs of transport to a buyer will be payable by the buyer 
  • accurate costs will need to be quoted to a buyer before a sale is concluded. 
  • So you need to know what the cost of packing and shipping is before you enter - or ASAP after you get selected.
[Note it does not say this in the Call for Entries - but this is how it needs to work if transactions are to be compliant with all relevant regulations for trade and ecommerce]

How to Enter


This is the page where you can find details of how to enter and the terms and conditions

ENTRY:

  • Entry is digital and online 
  • Artwork can be submitted at https://societyofwomenartists.oess1.uk.
  • deadline for entries is noon on 8th March 2025
  • log back in on 16th July to find out if you have been successful

ENTRY FEES:

Submission Fees 
  • £20 per work, irrespective of size or medium, to be paid at the time of submission (SWA might want to note that some other societies are now differentiating fees by the size of artwork - which I actually think is sensible - why should a small fine art print pay the same fee as a large oil - which takes up more space on the wall)
  • Young artists (age 18-35 years at time of exhibition) submission fee is £10 per work and
  • FREE to all SWA members.

IMAGES:

The quality of the image of the artwork is critical to

In relation to your entry:

  • You should make sure your image is accurate, sharp and cropped properly (i.e. exclude all backgrounds and frames)
  • Image files should be JPG or PNG and no more than 5MB large. Upload time will depend on your internet connection speed so please be patient.
  • If you are having problems uploading your images, please use image editing software to resize your image to approximately 1600 pixels wide and then save as a new file. Image file names should not be too long and should not contain any invalid characters such as ' " & % * ( ) < > / \ ~ # + =
  • The SWA recommends The Royal Academy's excellent guide to aid you with photography. This is a PDF of the RA Guide How to Photograph your work

REFERENCE: TECHNICAL

Many artists have found my sections / pages helpful in relation to:

Previous SWA Exhibitions


Posted by Making A Mark on Tuesday, January 21, 2025
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