Southbank Bristol Arts

For information on how to become a member and join in with SBA events, please visit the Taking part in SBA and its events page. To find out why you might want to, please read on!

Member benefits

Registering to become a member of the Southbank Bristol Arts organisation (SBA) gives you several benefits. These are described below.

Participating in the Arts Trail

The benefit that many artists would gain the most from would be the ability to participate in the annual Arts Trail. You will need to register as member of the SBA each year to join in with the Arts Trail.

Regular newsletters

SBA provides regular newsletters (by email and on the website) that should prove useful and informative to artists in and around Bristol.

The newsletters often mention opportunities that may help artists to show, publicise or sell their work.

Use of the SBA website

All SBA members can get an account allowing them to add information about themselves that will help to advertise themselves and their art to anyone who views the SBA website.

Specifically, anyone with an account on the SBA site can post member news items, to publicise shows, etc. or blog entries (see below for details) whenever they like. They can also post an artist details page, where they can give a description of their art, performance, etc. and illustrate this with an image (see below).

Artist details pages

Artist details pages are shown before, during and after each Arts Trail, allowing visitors to the SBA website to view the artists who show in the Trail by name, by venue on the Trail, and by the artists' preferred media.

As an example, the artists from the 2007 Arts Trail can be viewed in an A-Z list, with images or can be found through a list of venues or a list of art categories.

An example of one artist’s details can be seen here. The links at the bottom, right of the page allow people to navigate through the artist details by categories, such as "Other" (the venue that Example Artist was showing their art in) and "Photography", which is their category of art. Following these links will take you to pages displaying other artists in the same venue or involved in the same category of art.

For more information on how to add your own artist details for the 2008 trail, please see the How to add artist details (2008): Requirements and Creating your details pages.

Member news pages

Members who get an account on the website can post member news items, to publicise information on things they are up to that others may be interested in.

This is a good way to mention shows that you or groups you work with are having, or events or opportunities that you might like readers to get involved with.

An image can be attached to each news item if required and links to other relevant websites (your own, or a gallery's site, for instance) can be added.

An example member news item entry, showing an image and containing links to another website can be found here.

Blog pages

Members who get an account on the website also have their own web log (otherwise known as a 'blog'), which is designed to be used as a space to discuss things related to yourself or your art. You can add entries whenever you like, and they will be displayed (chronologically) on the SBA Blogs pages.

An image can be attached to each blog post if required, to illustrate the blog post and links to other websites can be added.

An example blog entry, showing an image and containing links to another website can be found here.

Other advantages of using the website

The artist details, Member news and Blog pages you put on the SBA website are not only a valuable resource at the time of writing, adding them means that their details are shown for the year that you are a member and they may also remain accessible after the year is complete.

This means that people searching the web (using Google, Yahoo or similar) can find your details year-round. You can re-edit pages you add any time you while you are a member of the SBA.

If you do not have your own website, this is probably the easiest way for you to get a web presence, allowing people to contact you about your art, increasing the likelihood of sales or commissions.

If you do have your own website, you can put a link to it on any pages you create, together with any other contact details you may wish to leave. This will drive more traffic to your own website. A reciprocal link between your pages on the SBA site and your own website should also boost your page rankings with search engines.

Members who get an account on the website can also be emailed directly from the site. You can turn this feature off if you prefer, so there is no need to be concerned if you do not wish to be contacted.

Joining the SBA and taking part in its events

For information on how to become a member and join in with SBA events, please visit the Taking part in SBA and its events page.