Lizard Art and Me- Being a Member of an Art Cooperative

Some of you may know that almost exactly 1 year ago I became a member of The Lizard Art Cooperative. This blog is about my experiences of being in an art cooperative, what you can expect and the opportunities it has opened up for me.

In March 2015 I submitted my work to the Lizard Art Open Spring Fair. I would really encourage any aspiring artist to find out about any local open exhibitions and have a go. It gets your work out there and who knows what opportunities may arise from it!
Luckily all 3 of my pieces were accepted and it was great to see my work up in this lovely gallery in the heart of the Lizard in deepest West Cornwall!

I was then asked if I would like to put forward my name for consideration membership alongside other local artists. The maximum number of members is 15 and the criteria for being a member is to be based on or near The Lizard in Cornwall and to bring something different to the group. 
I was absolutely delighted to be accepted into membership and started exhibiting from April 2015

Lizard Art rents the lovely Stableyard Gallery on the Trelowarren Estate near Helston, 'The Gateway to the Lizard'.It is a beautiful rural setting with a restaurant, craft gallery and beautiful walks all on the estate too.
Each member has a space approximately 2m wide in which to hang their work. This changes position with each new exhibition. 

We have a Spring Art Fair to start our season off each year which is open to all Cornwall based artists. We then have 3 members exhibitions running from April until the end of October when we shut for the winter months

We take turns in stewarding the gallery which is open daily throughout our open season. I think this is great as we get a chance to meet the people viewing our work and the people coming to the gallery always have an opportunity to meet with one of the artists.

As this is a cooperative, any funds raised by the charging of commission goes straight back into the gallery and this winter we were able to put a fantastic new lighting system in.

Being part of Lizard Art has been great as it can be quite isolating working as an artist. We meet together once a month to organise the running of the gallery, but also socalise too. It's been very encouraging!
Also it has been a great discipline to paint for the exhibitions as we aim to put new work in each time

Each year we support a charity and this year our chosen charity is The St Petroc's Society which supports the homeless in Cornwall. We have produced a pack of 13 of our member's postcard and are selling them in a pack to support this cause.

Being part of Lizard Art really has been a great experience and I hope it will be for a long time to come!
If you would like to visit Lizard Art, the gallery address is :
Lizard Art Stableyard Gallery,
Trelowarren Estate,
Mawgan-in-Meneage,
Helston,
Cornwall
TR12 6AF 
01326 221778