What to Expect

Artist FAQs

APPLICATION OPEN: December 1, 2025 - January 10, 2026

NOTIFICATION: Second half of January 2026

FINALIZE REGISTRATION: February 14, 2026 - Your space will be reserved upon receipt of your fee.

STUDIO TOUR DATES: May 30-31, 2026, 11am - 4pm

We're excited to promote the work of creatives from a variety of backgrounds who work with diverse media. The emphasis of the tour is on raising visibility of the arts and providing opportunities for our community to connect to the arts. While we encourage artists to have work for sale, the primary intention of the tour is not to be a studio sale but rather a window into your creative process and works. The studio tour is free to all visitors.

Participating studios will be open Saturday, May 30 and Sunday, May 31 from 11am-4pm. Artists can choose to open their studios on both Saturday and Sunday, or just on Saturday. The South Sound Studio Tour Board will provide publicity materials including emailed newsletters, blog posts, an online map, and a printed brochure map for the tour.

As a participating artist, you should present your work professionally, while still enabling visitors to see as much as possible about how the work is made. Depending on your location, you may expect to see anywhere from a few to as many as 300 visitors in your studio, eager to see work, over the course of the tour. Please be aware that some visitors may bring children or dogs. Please be sure dangerous tools or materials are out of reach and clearly marked. If you do not want dogs in the studio, please indicate this clearly with signs.

You should be prepared to chat with visitors about your work, and to answer questions about your creative process. This is a great opportunity to get to know people in our community, to build friendships and share what you love doing. It may be helpful to have a friend or helper there to assist with sales while you are engaged in conversation, enabling you to take a break from the studio. The days can be intense, while exhilarating. New artists are encouraged to practice a short (one minute) "elevator speech" about your work.

Insurance:

Participating artists are encouraged to have general liability insurance or a simple "event insurance" policy to cover the days of the tour.

The SSST Board is eager to help artists new to the tour to have a wonderful experience! If you have any questions, please contact us at olyssst@gmail.com.

  • Visit the APPLY page, complete the online application, and submit three high resolution images of your work. This year each participating creative needs to apply individually – this includes studio hosts and guests alike.

  • We are looking for creatives with their own studios who love to share their creative process and work. If you don’t have your own studio space, we will do our best to help arrange for you to share space within another studio location, so please still consider applying. We welcome creatives from all social groups – this includes emerging artists, as well as mid-career and mature professional artists. If you are a creative working in Olympia, Lacey or Tumwater and serious about your creative practice in any 2D or 3D medium, please consider applying for the tour.

  • The SSST application calls for high quality images of some of the works you plan to show on the Tour. If you are juried into the 2026 Tour, these images will be used for publicity purposes. Check out these resources: Photographing 2D work & Photographing 3D work.

  • Yes! Sharing your studio space with other creatives allows for more people to participate in the tour, builds community and tends to increase the number of visitors to your studio. This year each participating creative needs to apply individually – this includes studio hosts and guests alike.

  • This year each participating creative needs to apply individually – this includes studio hosts and guests alike.

  • We are looking for creatives with their own studios who love to share their creative process and work. If you are a creative working in Olympia, Lacey or Tumwater and serious about your creative practice in any 2D or 3D medium, please consider applying for the tour.

  • You can choose to participate on both Saturday and Sunday, or just on Saturday. Simply indicate on your application which schedule you’re choosing. (Please note: Due to publishing costs and deadlines, your schedule choice can't be changed after acceptance.)

  • Not necessarily. Tour visitors love to learn how artworks are made, so if an actual demonstration is not feasible or desirable to do, please consider having an informative display that gives an idea of your process.

  • For 2026, the participation fee is $35 per artist – regardless of your schedule choice to participate one or both days of the tour, or if you are a studio host or guest. If the cost to participate is prohibitive please contact us.

  • YES! While we encourage artists to have work for sale, the intention is not primarily as a studio sale.

  • No.

  • You are free to use any point of sales that you prefer – this includes cash, check, Square, Venmo, Paypal, etc. We suggest getting a Square card reader to easily handle bank card transactions through the Square app on your phone.

  • The applications are reviewed by a panel consisting of the South Sound Studio Tour Board Members and two visiting jurors. We aim to curate a diverse representation of varied art mediums and creative works of the talent in our area. If more creatives apply than can be accommodated in the 2026 tour, it may be necessary to decline some admissions. If this happens, we encourage the artists to reapply for next year’s tour.