OPEN EXHIBITIONS 2026 REMINDER #1: (Mall Galleries Jan - June 2026)

This is my 2026 List of summaries of ALL the current Calls for Entries for Open Exhibitions by the National Art Societies in the UK and Ireland published to date.

#1 TODAY: I'm publishing the first half of the list - about the national art societies based at the Mall Galleries who have exhibitions in the period January - June 2025.

#2 TOMORROW: I'll publish the second half of my list - of other FBA and national art societies and major art competitions.

# SUNDAY: I'll summarise the key things OPEN ARTISTS need to know regarding 

• why open artists can sell well if selected for open exhibitions
• what they need to know to do so

Calls for Entries by FBA Societies

TIP: Being exhibited in an important national exhibition is an excellent way of marketing yourself and your art.

I've seen a lot of amateur artists develop into professional artists and become officers - and even Presidents - of leading national art societies in the 20 years that I've been writing this blog.

 
Below are SUMMARIES of various Calls for Entries by Annual Exhibitions by the national art societies which are members of the Federation of British Artists.

• They are all holding exhibitions in the period January - June 2026
• Their exhibitions are all held at the Mall Galleries
• This is the page where you can find all the Open Calls for Entries

(Note: Tomorrow's post highlights the other FBA Art Societies and other national art societies. Not all who hold exhibitions at the Mall Galleries are members of the FBA.)

My summaries are NEVER ever a substitute for you taking your time to read ALL the Terms and Conditions of Entries very carefully. I've provided links to where you can read these below. REMEMBER!

• You can get selected and then not hung if you mess up.
• I recommend you remember to pay particular attention to framing / presentation for exhibition
• delivering artwork; and
• VAT before entering or pricing. (see note at end)

Royal Society of British Artists

Note - this one closes tomorrow at NOON!

• Website: https://www.therba.org/
• Call for Entries: https://www.mallgalleries.org.uk/open-calls/royal-society-british-artists
• Deadline for Entries: Friday 9 January 2026 (that's TOMORROW)
• Exhibition: 26 February - 7 March 2026
• Venue: Mall Galleries

You can read my blog post Open Call for Entries: Royal Society of British Artists - Annual Exhibition 2026

OPEN EXHIBITION 2025 REMINDER #1: (Mall Galleries)

I'm publishing a list of summaries of ALL the current Calls for Entries for Open Exhibitions by the National Art Societies in the UK and Ireland which have been published to date.

#1 TODAY: I'm publishing the first half of the list - about the national art societies based at the Mall Galleries who have exhibitions in the period January - June 2025.

#2 TOMORROW: I'm going to show you how well non members do at selling artwork at some of the Mall Galleries exhibitions IF:

1. they get selected
2. they price their work correctly
3. You may be very surprised! I'll be speculating on the reasons why....

#3 TUESDAY: I'll publish the second half of my list - of other national art societies and major art competitions.

Calls for Entries by FBA Societies 

Being exhibited in an important national exhibition is an excellent way of marketing yourself and your art. I've seen a lot of amateur artists develop into professional artists and become officers of leading national art societies in the nearly 20 years that I've been writing this blog. 

However, I've been remiss about writing Calls for Entries posts of late - so this is by way of making up for this.

Below are SUMMARIES of various Calls for Entries by Annual Exhibitions by all the national art societies which are members of the Federation of British Artists. 

• Their exhibitions are all held at the Mall Galleries 
• They are all holding exhibitions in the period January - June 2025
• This is the page where you can find all the Open Calls for Entries 

(Note: not all who hold exhibitions at the Mall Galleries are members of the FBA)

My summaries are NEVER a substitute for you reading ALL the Terms and Conditions of Entries very carefully. I've provided links to where you can read these below.

• You can get selected and then not hung if you mess up. 
• Pay particular attention to 
• delivering artwork and its presentation for exhibition and 
• VAT before entering or pricing. (see note at end)

Royal Society of British Artists

Royal Society of British Artists
 Open Call for Entries - Annual Exhibition 2025

• Website: https://www.therba.org/
• Call for Entries: https://www.mallgalleries.org.uk/open-calls/royal-society-british-artists
• Deadline for Entries: Wednesday 8 January 2025
• Exhibition: 26 February - 8 March 2025
• Venue: Mall Galleries
• Who can enter: Any artist aged 18 or over may enter, from anywhere in the world.
• What can you enter:  
• Painting, sculpture, drawing and original prints.
• nothing larger than 2.4m (longest dimension)
• all work must be for sale
• NOT previously exhibited in London
• original creation of the artist
• Pricing: 
• minimum price of £300 
• Prints only – framed £180, unframed £120
• 45% commission + VAT charged on all sales
• Entry Fee: 
• non-refundable submission fee of £20 per work 
• £14 per work for any artists aged 35 or under

Reasons to enter:

• lots of prizes - many of which are awarded to open artists
• RBA has a strong commitment to favouring the development of young artists

Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours | 213th Exhibition 2025

WHY are Open Calls for Entries Deadlines extended - and what does it mean?

Are you ambivalent about the phrase 

"Submissions for our Open Call are now EXTENDED until ...."

Back in April, Kris Mercer Art said something on her FB Page which I very much identify with - but didn't see at the time. 

Ok. It's gotta be said. My pet hate is this line: Submissions for our Open Call are now extended until ....
Does that mean the submissions so far have been rubbish and you need more or what!
I have made sure that I have got everything together, submit, then only to find that they extend the deadline.
I'm sorry but what is so difficult about picking a date and sticking to it?
If there are artists who haven't yet submitted but wanted to, basically, tough. Get your act together and submit on time and please, please, please organisers stick to the deadline.
Thoughts please Making A Mark

However I saw it some several weeks later and responded AND made a note to make it the topic of a blog post - which I'm addressing today 

I responded to her comment as follows

It means the submissions they have received so far have underwhelmed.

Or they've not been very good at marketing this year.

Or somebody messed up the website and/or social media.

or somebody made the requirements just too onerous for anybody to bother

Or all the above. Take your pick! 

An Open Call Extension suggests.....

... a number of things

This is something of an expansion on my shorthand response above.

Does AI mean Open Exhibitions / Art Competitions need to rethink digital entries?

Last week I reshared a post on Facebook (see below) which highlighted how many images are now created using "artificial intelligence" aka AI. 

It occurred to me that ALL those organising open exhibitions and/or art competitions MUST now to factor the proliferation of AI into 

• the calls for entries
• the rules and regulations
• the submission process
• the vetting process
• the judging process
• plus briefings on legal decisions for all those in charge

It simply will NOT be acceptable for all entries to be judged on digital images - only to find that a selected entry is a digital print when it arrives for exhibition.

Below I remind organisers of open exhibitions by art societies and art competitions of things they need to think about

• starting with a very salutary lesson in what happens when you get it wrong - see The AWS Gold Medal Controversy (2008-2010)
• a reminder about normal challenges for organisers in relation to copyright
• some initial thoughts on the implications for art competitions and open exhibitions - by way of a checklist!

The AWS Gold Medal Controversy

Unfortunately, the Gold Medal winning painting in the 2008 exhibition, “Impermanence” by Sheryl Luxenburg has generated a huge volume of controversy. In question are the ownership of the image, the originality of the piece and even the authenticity of the medium. Many have questioned the American Watercolor Society's position on this problem and wondered in their communications to us whether our society is taking these questions seriously. Statement in 2008 by the AWS

Should anybody need reminding - here's the link to my post about the debacle at the American Watercolour Society about an "artwork" which won a Gold Medal . 

Was the gold medal winning painting at the centre of the American Watercolor Society controversy actually painted - or was it a giclee print?

See below for links to posts in September 2008 about the AWS Gold medal controversy - in reverse order of posting

FBA Calls for Entries could be improved and a lot simpler

I think the FBA Method of communicating Calls for Entries needs a rethink and revamp.

The method currently used for 

• communicating Calls for Entries 
• for the Annual Open Exhibitions of Societies 
• belonging to the Federation of British Artists (FBA) 
• needs, in my opinion, a complete rethink 
• to improve communication with artists and generate more entries.

I've made a point of writing "calls for entries" posts for all FBA societies each year - for very many years - because of the issues I know arise with:

• artists not understanding what they need to do
• artists locating part of the information - but not all of it
• artists not having one document they can print off and read at their leisure 
• and/or use as a practical fail safe checklist when submitting their entry

I'm currently writing a post about the Call for Entries for the 2023 Annual Open Exhibition by the NEW English Art Club - which is very popular. 

To do so I'm having to refer to three seperate websites - which all say things slightly differently - with some of the really important information buried on another website.

This is because:

• The art society "owns" the exhibition and is responsible for selection. Plus promotes the exhibition on its own website.
• The FBA and its commercial arm - the Mall Galleries - are responsible for:
• the legal contract around the call for entries and making sure everything is done properly
• has a Call for Entries Page - which does NOT provide 
• either all the "need to know how" information on one page 
• or in one document
• processing the administrative aspects
• receiving the artwork
• hanging the exhibition
• processing sales
• making sure unsold work gets collected
• The FBA / Mall Galleries also contract out the digital submission side of the FBA Call for Entries to OESS - which is the third website

To be perfectly honest, I go round and round in circles trying to work out whether all the website sites say the same thing - and trying to make sure I've not missed anything.

Mostly it stays pretty much the same from year to year - but changes do occur - BUT ARE NEVER HIGHLIGHTED i.e. there is no "what's different this year" - which is one of the things I try to highlight.

PLUS Links to really critical bits of information can be very easily missed i.e. 

• way down the page - often near the bottom
• links are NOT highlighted or capitalised or bolded in any way.

I don't think this is good enough. I think it could be done much better. 

My challenge to the FBA is to have a think about how they can make the Calls for Entries better for artists for the benefit of all concerned.

The Bottom Line

I do NOT understand why the ALL the "Call for Entries" information is not made available in 

• ONE DIGITAL / DOWNLOADABLE DOCUMENT
• which is identical AND available and PROMINENT on all three websites i.e.
• NEAC - as sponsor of the exhibition
• FBA/Mall Galleries - as organisers of the administration and hangers and host of the exhibition
• OESS - contracted to process the digital entries and notify artists about outcomes
• Incorporating a complete 'failsafe' checklist for artists to use as they prepare their submission
• Plus the roles of ALL relevant agencies - and who to contact about what - spelt out very simply and clearly in the digital document.

In my opinion there's 

• just far TOO MUCH legalese and rolling over of longwinded documents - without a proper review of whether this form of communication is working effectively (i.e. the documents rarely change much - and yet could be constructed much better) and 
• far TOO LITTLE consideration given to the fact that a significant number of artists are dyslexic and/or struggle with 
• written documents 
• small print 
• very pale links to very important information.

I'd very much like to see 

• A RADICAL OVERHAUL OF CALLS FOR ENTRIES
• to deliver one coherent, consistent document - reviewed and updated every year
• which is easily accessible by all artists 
• as one document - on all relevant sites.

Is that too much to ask?  

Anybody else think this has got to be an improvement on the current process?