Contact | Hazel Imbert & Sarah Sepe 01903 531 942 emptyshops@openhouses.org.uk

We are Hazel Imbert and Sarah Sepe [Open House M on your songsheet]. As discussed at the recent Creative Breakfast, we've done some investigation on a couple of ideas, and we are proposing two profile raisers for this year's Open Houses and Gardens.

The first idea is to make a partnership with a local business, in which a piece of art is displayed on their premises, and in return, their business is promoted in your Open House. There is no financial sponsorship, and each display is negotiated between the two partners. There should be a visual link, e.g. an A4 poster explaining about Open Houses, alongside a supply of the trail map brochure. I tried out the proposal at my gym, Curves, and not only were they delighted to participate, but I will have several new visitors to my Open House, who are also interested in the trail, and who didn't know about OHs before. There would need to be a way of keeping a common list to avoid repeated approaches to businesses. If this idea appeals to you, please let us know.

The second idea is heavier duty; it involves taking over an empty shop in Worthing town centre for the weekend preceding the Open Houses opening - i.e. July 11th, and running it over the two weeks. The shop would act as an information point to promote the Open Houses and Gardens, a selling space, a gallery, and a demonstration/workshop area, to attract interest. There would need to be a group of at least 10 of the WOH&G participants, willing to commit time and (some) money, items for sale and display, as well as ideas for using the workshop/demo space. We have drafted a proposal, and we are happy to email it to anyone who thinks they would like to get on board. Before making an official proposal, we would need a commitment from enough people. To give you a rough idea, two people in the shop for the proposed opening hours ( 3 Saturdays 10-4, Mon -Fri 12-4 ) would be 116 person hours. If there were 10 houses involved, that's under 12 hours per house over the two weeks. There would need to be a fighting fund to cover utility bills, insurance, and any other agreed set up costs e.g. a banner. We understand that costs for short term use should be very low, even if council tax business rate is payable. The shop would retain 10% on sales for the fighting fund, and at the end of the project, any remaining funds would be divided equally among the participating houses, after the bills were settled. If this worked well, we could do it again at Christmas!

If you are interested, please let us know, and we will email the draft proposal for your comments. We also welcome any comments on either of these ideas, and we thank you for your kind attention.