Spring Fling Open Studios (also known as Spring Fling) is an

open studio event An open studio event is an event in which, for a limited time, artists and makers open their studios to the public. It can be thought of as a number of studios that are not normally an open studio, becoming open within a locality and within a time ...

based in

Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway ( sco, Dumfries an Gallowa; gd, Dùn Phrìs is Gall-Ghaidhealaibh) is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland and is located in the western Southern Uplands. It covers the counties of Scotland, historic counties of ...

, Scotland. Every Spring since 2003, 70 - 100 selected artists, makers and designers across the region open their studios for visitors to visit, speak with the artists and purchase contemporary artwork and design. It is the most successful event of its kind in Scotland. Spring Fling develops new and creative projects for each year's main event as well as manages a year-round programme of workshops, talks and networking events. The next Spring Fling will take place 23–25 May 2020 with almost 90 artists and makers taking part. Some studios will be open on the evening of Friday 22 May.

The Main Event

Since 2003, Spring Fling has grown from a small local event initialled by the

council's arts team to a well-recognised, artist-run premier contemporary art and craft event in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. 70 - 100 artists and makers, either locally based or with connections to the region, will open their actual studio or set up temporary studio spaces to welcome thousands of visitors. Spring Fling is well known for its wide range of artists from established and internationally known artists to new graduates and fresh starters; this has brought a varied audience to the event. During the 2012 event alone, there were over 10,000 visitors to Spring Fling studios and in 2013, it was estimated that Spring Fling brought almost £1million to the local economy.

Spring Fling / Wigtown Book Festival Residency

Spring Fling started its residency programme with the WASPS artist studios in

Kirkcudbright Kirkcudbright ( ; sco, Kirkcoubrie; gd, Cille Chùithbeirt) is a town, parish and a Royal Burgh from 1455 in Kirkcudbrightshire, of which it is traditionally the county town, within Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The town lies southwest of C ...

in 2009 and has been running a residency programme with the

Wigtown Book Festival The Wigtown Book Festival is a ten-day literary festival held each autumn in Wigtown, Dumfries and Galloway, south-west Scotland. The festival was first held in 1999 and has grown to be the second biggest book festival in Scotland. In 2007 the Wig ...

since 2010. Each year, an artist is selected to be the residency artist at Wigtown Book Festival in Autumn and at Spring Fling in Spring the following year. Artist Astrid Jaekel was the artist-in-residence at the Wigtown Book Festival in September/October 2013Wigtown Artist-in-residence
/ref> and will be a participating artist at Spring Fling 2014 in May.

References

Events in Scotland 2003 establishments in Scotland Spring (season) events in Scotland {{Scotland-stub