About Somerset Art Works

Somerset Art Works (SAW) exists to promote the visual arts and create opportunities for visual artists in Somerset by advocacy, promotion and development.

SAW is an artist-led organisation and Somerset’s only countywide agency dedicated to developing the visual arts. SAW organises the annual Somerset Art Weeks with an alternating focus of Open Studios followed by Exhibitions & Events Festival reflecting the really rural nature of the county.

Since 2002 SAW has worked with a wide range of partners to provide opportunities to take contemporary artists out to the community, to develop new audiences for the visual arts in rural Somerset.

The core of SAW’s philosophy is to provide opportunities for artists and makers to make new work and in the process to engage with a variety of organisations, landscapes, communities, and to network with other artists.

Somerset Art Works offer an integrated membership service of support for practising artists: providing bursaries, organising commissions, supporting collaborative working, providing network and exhibition opportunities.