Call for Entries: New English Art Club Annual Exhibition 2025

I should have written about the Open Call for Entries to the New English Art Club weeks ago! So apologies for that. 

This is a reminder that the DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES is Friday 14 March 2025, 12 noon

Most of this post is about how to enter - but I'm starting with two important considerations as to whether and why you might want to enter.

• whose artwork gets hung
• what prices artwork sells for

View of the East Gallery at
the New English Art Club Annual Exhibition in June 2024

Who gets hung

There have been two major changes in recent times. 

• For a very long time (i.e. most of the time I've reviewed the exhibition) the open entry artists who got hung used to be dominated by members of other national art societies who also wanted to be members - but that has changed 
• The ratio of artworks by members to non-members has changed and become more like other FBA Art Societies exhibiting at the Mall Galleries. (I bleated at PVs for years about "you can't call an Open an Open if 80%+ of artworks hung were by members!")

Last year the 409 artworks which were hung were distributed in the following percentages. This conforms to the now more usual notion that at least one third of artworks need to be from people who are not members of national art societies

Bottom line - there's now a much better chance of an open artist getting hung than happened in the past. 

While some open artists get more than one artwork exhibited, the majority only get one selected - so make sure you enter your very best!

Pricing is VERY important

The Messanine Wall always has a lot of small and affordable artworks

Another important thing you need to know before you proceed to consider "how to enter" concerns pricing of your artwork. 

This is important. You could waste your time if you want to sell but don't read this first.  

Below are two charts which indicate what artworks sold for in the 2023 and 2024 exhibitions across different price ranges. The second differentiates between members and open artists.

• the 2023 chart compares artworks sold to artworks hung across various price ranges. Note that sales drop off once you breach £1,500 which I've identified for a long time as an important threshold for sales (i.e. not a lot above this, and these are mostly by members)
• the 2024 chart indicates that OPEN ARTISTS do better in the £500-£1000 price range and pricing above £1,500 is tantamount to not minding spending a lot of money on entering and transporting an artwork TWICE (to and from the galleries) for no sale.

2023: Comparison of artworks sold to artworks entered - by price range

2024: Comparison of sales by members and open artists across price ranges

What is NEAC about

Yout can read about the New English Art Club on its website - specically in the History Section

The NEAC Annual Exhibition is a showcase not only for its members but also for aspiring artists: with a history going back more than a hundred years, it is an opportunity for work to be seen alongside some of the best artists today.

The exhibition offers several prizes and awards, worth over £10,000, including The NEAC Climate Emergency Prize.

Open Call for Entries

There a lot of monochrome artwork - drawings and prints
plus some very small and some large artworks

What can you enter

The main requirements are:

• All works MUST be an original creation by the artist (i.e. original = you must be able to assert copyright)
• Work must have been completed in the last two years 
• Work must NOT have been exhibited in London previously. 
• Works should not be larger than 2.4m along the longest dimension.
• You can enter a maximum of six works each, from which up to three works per artist may be selected.

Acceptable media includes 

• paintings, 
•  drawings, and 
• original framed prints (excluding photography). 
• sculpture is NOT admissible.

Artists are advised to use plain, simple framing. Metal frames, unprotected glass edges and clip frames are inadmissible. All fixtures and fittings must be removed.

You can see photographs of the artwork selected for last year's exhibition on my Making A Mark Facebook Page in the following albums

• NEAC Annual Exhibition 2024: West Gallery 35 items
• NEAC Annual Exhibition 2024: East Gallery 19 items
• NEAC Annual Exhibition 2024: North Gallery 35 items - more drawings and prints in this one

You can also see it online as a "past exhibition" on the Mall Galleries website

You can also read my review of the exhibition - Review: NEAC Annual Exhibition 2024

Who can enter

• Artists over 18 in the UK, EU and outside the EU may submit.

It can be a waste of time entering if you are an international artist and don't know about shipping art to international exhibitions and VAT registration.  

See my Art Business Info for Artists website and specifically

• International Art Shipping: How to ship / export art to other countries
• How to ship art to exhibitions

Plus note also that 

• all international submissions will be selected ONLINE ONLY, 
• ONLY selected international artists will need to ship their work to the gallery on a date to be announced

How much does it cost to enter?

My advice to those submitting via the open entry is to submit just one - and make it a stunner!

• non-refundable submission fee of £20 per work, 
• for artists aged 35 or under this drops to £14 per work 

The submission fee includes free admission to the exhibition (normally £6).

Submission fees support the not-for-profit programme at Mall Galleries. The gallery is home to visual arts charity, the Federation of British Artists (Registered Charity Number 200048).

What's the timeline

The opening at the of the NEAC Annual Exhibition in 2024
at the Private View at the Mall Galleries

• Submissions close: Friday 14 March 2025, 12 noon
• Notification of pre-selection: Friday 21 March, 12 noon
• Receiving Day (for pre-selected ONLY): Saturday 12 April, 10am to 5pm
• Notification of final selection: Thursday 17 April, 12 noon
• Collection of unaccepted work: Thursday 24 April, 10am to 5pm
• Collection of unsold work: Thursday 26 June, 10am to 5pm

The Private View (invite only): Wednesday 11 June, 6pm to 9pm, official opening at 7:30pm

The Annual Exhibition is open between Thursday 12 June and Saturday 21 June (10am to 5pm daily)

How to Submit

The exhibition's entry process is

• online only
• organised by the Mall Galleries on behalf of NEAC.
• managed on a third party basis by OESS who process digital submissions and notify artists of the results of selection.

The process is TWO stage for UK artists

• digital submission - which leads to pre-selection after which you send artwork for review
• physical submission - for pre-selected ONLY

The process is ONE stage only for all international artists i.e. artworks are selected for hanging from the digital submission only.

*International Artists: All international submissions will be selected ONLINE ONLY, therefore selected international artists will need to ship their work to the gallery on a date to be announced

These are the stages

• Upload your work to our Open Exhibition Submission System (OESS) by 12 noon on Friday 14 March 2025
• Images must be in JPEG or PNG format and under 5MB. 
• Log in to the OESS from 12 noon on Friday 21 March to see if your work has been pre-selected
• If pre-selected, deliver your work for final selection on Saturday 12 April, 10am to 5pm, to Mall Galleries, 17 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5BD Works should be delivered unwrapped with the relevant form and labels, which are downloadable upon notification of pre-selection.

Notification re. Selection

• Log in to the OESS from 12 noon on Thursday 17 April to see if your work has been selected for the exhibition
• If unaccepted, collect your work on Thursday 24 April, 10am to 5pm