Nothing is free so what on earth is this site really about?

Thanks for dropping in on our site.

I am Bernie Cook, by way of an introduction I thought I would try and explain what this website is all about.

www.artists.ltd.uk is one of a great many sites established to promote artists. It offers artists of most if not all possible persuasions and schools an opportunity to promote themselves at no cost (other than a bit of work setting up their entry)

The website differs from most other such websites in that it is not the 'primary business' of the company that operates it (Artists Ltd) so in simplistic terms "It doesn't require to make any money to continue".

Artists Ltd as a company offers services which are non-internet based as its primary proposition. These services include for example: Art Storage and Transportation, Exhibition and Function Organisation and Promotion and the Supply of Artist Materials.

So the Artists Ltd website was not primarily established to be a generator of revenue and so it is, and will remain a free service to artists.

The Company in its current form is a new venture but the Directors of the company all have established businesses in the Art world.

We view the provision of the site and its facilities as being symbiotic to what we do in our "day jobs" not as a "me too directory proposition" - it is all together different.

We therefore encourage whole heartedly anyone involved, however tenuously, to promote their own work, company, gallery, event at absolutely no-cost to themselves.

We do not view other websites or materials suppliers as "competition" to what we are trying to do with this site and are more than pleased for them to add entries to the Services Directory promoting their own commercial ventures.

Very shortly we will be inviting members to participate in our first exhibition which will take place at a country house estate in darkest Yorkshire.

Participation for exhibitors will again be at no cost although we will charge a commission on any work which is sold.

We are already in negotiations for another two venues where we will be also staging similar events.

So, the idea here is that by encouraging artists to contribute to our site they stand to gain some free promotion and exposure and it will help Artists Ltd - and there's the "symbiosis".

The artist’s directory has facilities built into it that submit the individual artists submitted keywords to the Internet Search Engines (such as Google) which will help in the promotion of not only the artist themselves but of course the website in general.

The artist is at liberty to put anything at all they wish on the site (subject to legal considerations of course) so if you wish to sell your work through the site then please feel free to put a link to an existing Ecommerce site you may have or alternatively if you put contact details on the site you can deal with the site yourself, via for example a Paypal account.

If you do make an entry in the directory please do take the time to load up some work and some information about yourself. This will aid the Search Engine indexing and remove the "Coming Soon" from the search results page.

So in summary, IT IS ALL FREE, it is a unique proposition, it isn't financed by the Arts Council (and therefore not subject to external control or financial implosion when some grant runs out) so please make use of it.

To me, one of the most exciting components of the site is the School's Directory. We have had discussions with a number of people in Art Education and they were all very keen to have a facility which would allow them to locate local artists who would do school visits as there is currently no register of such people. I am delighted that so many artists have indicated on the registration form that they will discuss visiting a local school which is fantastic.

There aren't many schools registered as yet but we are actively promoting the site at Educational Exhibitions and Conferences and I am sure that this will gain momentum.

Finally, if you want to discuss anything about this site, suggest new features, your ideas please do get in touch.

Kind Regards

Bernie Cook
Director

Artists Ltd.
01423 855700
bernie@artists.ltd.uk

ps I wouldn't mind at all if you put a link to www.artists.ltd.uk from your own website.