Saa Art Supplies Painting & Drawing Channel

It's all about Art opens at the Business Design Centre in Islington today and is open tomorrow and Saturday. It's organised by the Society of All Artists.

It's all about Art

This is a three day event between 23rd - 25th July at the Business Design Centre in Islington (download a PDF location map ) inbetween Liverpool Road and Upper Street and a couple of minutes walk from the Underground station at Angel, Islington.

Hours are 9.15am ot 5.00pm each day and he price of a ticket for non members is £9.00 on the day. (They had discounts for members and tickets bought in advance).

This is where the Artists and Illustrators Magazine used to hold their art events and many is the time I've departed from those clutching all sorts of goodies bought for discounted prices!

The old Artists and Illustrators event used to be HUGE I'm assuming that the SAA event is going to be similar - but possibly lower key? I'm going to go and find out tomorrow when I'll be visiting in the afternoon to see what it has to offer.

It comprises:

FREE painting demonstrations, FREE workshops and other activities relating to a variety of media and by professional artists from the Painting & Drawing Channel on Sky Digital
an area devoted to products from the SAA Home Shop catalogue - you can see the sort of brands involved in the product logos displayed on the website.

If you're interested you can find out more on the It's all about art page on the SAA website. Personally I thought this could have been a tad more informative. I couldn't work out whether all the artists were appearing every day and, if they were, what times they were on.

There's also the SAA Artist of the Year 2009 Exhibition and a display if the artwork which made the final. The presentations for the winners of the 2009 competition will be held on Saturday 25th at 1.00pm.

Society of All Artists

The Society of All Artists has been around for quite a long while. They've developed a range of activities and offers for the hobby artist over time.

One of the things which is worth knowing about is that they offer insurance for exhibitions. This is the website page which provides more information about insurance. The level of insurance offered depends on the level of membership and at gold membership they also offer third party liability insurance which is very useful for solo exhibitions in spaces you have hired if the hire fee does not carry insurance cover for your exhibition.

They have also negotiated Membership for Art Clubs (which includes Public Liability Insurance).

The basic individual membership package offers:

product supply: a promise to supply products at competitive prices plus up to 60% discounts on certain products plus a 100% no quibble guarantee free postage and packing (UK mainland members) plus a Freephone Orderline (for UK members)

We accept any return for any reason and will refund or replace the product. If a product is broken or damaged we pay the return postage, if you just don't like it, you pay the return postage. A full refund will be paid by the same method as we receive payment.
SAA - Product returns guarantee

6 issues of 'PAINT' their newsletter
FREE or Reduced - entry to art shows
FREE £500 Insurance - for paintings at exhibitions (UK Only)
Access to Tuition - workshops, demos, etc
SAA Loyalty Points
FREE Entry to Competitions - including SAA Artist of the Year
FREE Legal Helpline - for all legal matters

You can also find helpful details on the website of

their art forum
Local groups are run by volunteer Regional Society Co-ordinators (RSCs), they organise meetings, demonstrations, visits to galleries and exhibitions.
professional tutors for various media and subject matter on the website.

Over to you:

are you a member of the SAA? What do you think about SAA?
have you bought products using their services?
what do you think of their insurance deal?
have you used any other services eg accessed tutors or used the helpline?

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