In the light of the Government statement on Coronavirus measures on Monday, the Committee has decided to cancel all Royston Arts Society events and activities for the next four months or so.
We are cancelling the following:
Art Demonstrations; we have cancelled the art demos in April, May, June and July. We have no demos planned for August or September. This means that the next art demonstration will be held on 9th October. We plan to re-book the cancelled demos for dates in 2021/22
Painting Sessions; we are cancelling all painting sessions in Market Hill Rooms during April, May, June and July. We do not have any painting sessions in August. So the next planned painting session will be on Tuesday 1st September.
Members Exhibition; we will cancel the Members’ exhibition at Royston Museum and Art Gallery that was planned to run from May to July. We will refund the entry fees that have been paid by artists that have already submitted their entry form.
Library; we will be shutting down the library display until further notice. Those members with paintings on display will be contacted separately to tell them when to come and pick them up. We would hope to open again in September/October.
Autumn Exhibition: we are hoping that the Autumn Exhibition will be able to go ahead as normal at the end of September. Assuming that things are starting to return to normal we will send out the entry forms in late June. The Committee will be reviewing the situation before that date and we will keep all members informed.
The RAS Committee recognises that these cancellations will be disappointing for members. However we feel that there is no other option.
These cancellations will save RAS a considerable sum of money, through cancelled room bookings and demo artist fees. We plan to return the money saved to current members by reducing the membership fee for the 2021/22 membership year. In the meantime, if you haven’t yet renewed your subscription for 2020/21 we very much hope you will still do so by the 31 March deadline. (Please see previous post below.)
The Committee will also be mulling over whether there are any other ways that we can provide useful events/activities that do not involve person to person contact. We would be grateful for any ideas you might have.
Stay safe and keep on painting!