Standen House & Gardens 2022

Dear Artists/Members,

Venue: Standen House and Garden, West Hoathly Rd, East Grinstead, West Sussex, RH19 4NE

An introduction to Standen

Standen House and Garden is a beautiful National Trust property with an annual footfall of approx. 180,000. For those that don’t know it, it is a fascinating place originally created as a family home in the 1890’s. The architect Philip Webb worked closely with Morris & Co. so everything is very much in the Arts and Crafts style. The house and grounds are open to the public and there is a very nice tea room, all attracting lots of visitors. The garden will be open 7 days a week.

We will have a trail suitable for outdoor sculptures of all sizes (smaller pieces must be displayed on decent weatherproof plinths or they would be lost in the surroundings), there is also potential for a limited number of small indoor pieces (again on plinths supplied by the artist) to be housed in the conservatory/orangery (this space is part of the house and would be slightly separate from our main trail).

The trail we envisage will take in a mixture of intimate spaces and more exposed areas. There is a terrace with potential space for exterior wall plaques. There are plenty of trees, lawns, flower beds, a small pond for a limited number of water themed pieces and a vegetable/kitchen garden. It’s a big space and we think we could display up to 150 pieces (depending what you all send in on your applications!), to give us plenty of choice you can apply with up to 5 pieces each.

It will be a stewarded exhibition, with 2 people on duty every day so if you apply you must be willing and able to steward (training will be given). The sales desk will be in a gazebo at the entrance to the garden. Stewards jobs will include handing out guides to every visitor, chatting to people about the sculptures, checking and cleaning the sculptures and hopefully taking lots and lots of sales!

Please also note that you will not be able to drive right up to your sculpture location on set up/takedown, there will be help on hand in the form of the garden staff and a tractor for large/heavy pieces but we will need to know in advance (write it in the comment section of the application forms please) if you need help.

Very much looking forward to working with you all!

Kind regards,
Alison Catchlove