Your Voice, Our Progress: A Look Back at the LSA Members' Survey
Last autumn, many of you shared your valuable insights in our October/November 2024 Members’ Survey. We listened carefully to what you said were the most important benefits of being an LSA member and what additional offerings you’d like to see.
Although, in the period since, we’ve had to tackle the unforeseen challenge of relocating the Art Room, we’ve worked hard to remain focused on reflecting your views in the progress we’ve made. It’s important to say too, that nothing would happen without the army of volunteers who make the LSA what it is.
Priority 1: Exhibiting Your Work & Networking with Fellow Artists
You told us that exhibiting your work and networking with other local artists were the most important benefits of LSA membership. We’ve been working tirelessly to expand these opportunities.
What We’ve Done:
- Sustained and Expanded Gallery Spaces: We’ve worked hard to maintain our two gallery spaces and create even more exhibition opportunities.
- The Art Room’s New Home: With the incredible support of many members, we successfully moved the Art Room to its fantastic new premises in the Royal Priors. In just four weeks, we refurbished the space and triumphantly reopened with a fabulous textiles exhibition!
- Exhibitions that are open to all: We’ve continued our regular four-weekly exhibitions in the Art Room and successfully hosted two open exhibitions at East Lodge. Between them, these have showcased around 1400 pieces of work made by our members.We’ve worked to make the selection process transparent and widened the number of people on the selection panel. We try hard to balance the aspiration of many of you that we should build our reputation as an organisation that showcases high quality work, with the desire for as many members as possible to have the chance to exhibit.
- Expanding Our Reach: Look out for us at Art in the Park (AiTP) where we’ll again be hosting two marquees and a gazebo, showcasing even more member work.
- Exciting Plans for Jephson Gardens Gallery and Studios: We’re currently developing a new plan for East Lodge, now proudly renamed the Jephson Gardens Gallery and Studios. The new team of Alastair Gamble, Ede Kovacs, Soolie Burke and Susan Cable are busy streamlining operations to enhance your experience at the gallery and studios. Finally, we’re preparing to relaunch the gallery and studios under our new name across all platforms, complete with fresh stories and photos!
- Natural Networking: Our galleries naturally foster networking opportunities. We try hard to make them welcoming and inclusive for all of our members. Through volunteering and attending private views, members regularly connect with fellow artists, share ideas, and build valuable relationship.
Priority 2: New Benefits You Asked For
You also shared what additional benefits you’d like the LSA to offer. Your top requests were: joint exhibitions and curated group shows, educational courses and workshops, and more studio spaces. We’ve worked to try to make progress on all of these.
What We’ve Done:
- Group Exhibition Opportunities: The Jephson Gardens Gallery and Studios (formerly East Lodge) continues to be available for booking by groups of artists, encouraging collaborative exhibitions.
- The Art Room’s Special Focus Weeks: We’ve developed special focus weeks at the Art Room, providing unique opportunities to concentrate on specific art forms and curate themed exhibitions. So far, we’ve successfully held Printmaking Week, Textiles Week, and Heat Week, with Oil Painting Week planned for September. These weeks are combined with engaging demonstrations showcasing the skills and techniques involved.
- Dedicated Workshop Space: We’re thrilled to have created a dedicated workshop space in our new Royal Priors premises. It’s quickly becoming established, with several successful courses already completed and a broad range of workshops run by LSA members already advertised.
- New Studio Spaces with Springboard Studios: Our new Springboard Studios initiative has provided much-needed studio spaces for six members, with five spaces already taken! Our first studio artists have made the space warm and inviting and we’re really pleased that we’ve been able to make progress towards meeting the demand for dedicated creative environments.
Priority 3: Promoting Visual Arts and Members’ Work
You asked how the LSA could better promote visual arts and the work of its members, specifically through participating in national arts events, engaging with the local arts community, and increasing our social media presence.
What We’ve Done:
Strong Local Engagement: While we haven’t participated in national arts events recently, we’ve significantly deepened our engagement with the local arts community:
- We collaborated with WOS (Warwickshire Open Studios) to host their Summer Exhibition in the Art Room.
- We supported the successful WOS Plein Air Event.
- We partnered with the Leamington Photographic Society to host a thrilling joint competition.
- We actively participated in SPARK, further connecting with the local creative scene.
- We have collaborated with Art Friends of Warwickshire in promoting art.
- We continue to foster artistic talent by providing workshop opportunities for members to learn new skills or improve their creative practice.
- We also highlight individual artist achievements through “Artist Spotlight” features and celebrate successes like Fiona Metcalfe’s selection for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.
- We’ve maintained strong relationships with the Warwick District Council Arts Team.
- We collaborated with the Leamington History Group on two new, exciting books.
- Enhanced Online Presence: We’ve invested significantly in building our web and social media presence to showcase your work more widely.
- In just the last 3 months we have seen over 50,000 views for our social posts…and grown our followers by 12%.
- Since our new website went live in April 2024, we have seen an increase in website traffic by 34% (April – June YOY source: GA4).
- Since our workshops went live (June 2025) we have taken orders in excess of £2,000…that’s a lot of your workshops sold!…53 to be precise!
Beyond the Survey: More Achievements
In addition to directly addressing your survey feedback, we’ve been busy with other important initiatives:
- Growing Gallery Visitors: A key success over the past year has been expanding public access to our artists’ work. We estimate that we had over 14,000 visitors to our Jephson Gallery and 18,000 to the Art Room over the year.
- Bursaries: We have developed and implement our bursary progamme to offer valuable support to emerging and established artists within our community.
- Supporting Young Carers: We initiated a fantastic collaboration with Young Carers, providing creative outlets and support.
- Schools Exhibitions: We successfully hosted two vibrant Schools Exhibition with Trinity and Aylesford , fostering artistic talent in the next generation. Also we supported Coten End School with providing equipment for their exhibition.
- Community Engagement: LSA actively supports community projects, such as The Esther Project, which uses creativity to support women facing life challenges. We supported the Refugee Week Art exhibition with Warwick District Council by providing equipment for their exhibition.
- As Trustees, we are also always mindful that we need to ensure the organisation is viable and fit for the future. Listening to members is critical in doing that and it ensures that the heart of the organisation remains strong.
- Growing Membership: We’re delighted to report a healthy growth in our membership figures, demonstrating the increasing value and appeal of the LSA. Our membership model isn’t just about subscriptions; it’s about fostering a vibrant community of artists.
- Members are at the core of what we do, creating the art we exhibit and sell. The commissions from these sales directly help to fuel our operations, showcasing how our members drive our financial health. Growing and retaining this community ensures a continuous supply of exceptional art and directly aligns with our charitable mission to cultivate artistic talent.
- The increased activity and sales from these expanded opportunities have also contributed to our robust financial health, ensuring we can continue investing in our community.
- Volunteers. This incredible progress wouldn’t be possible without our dedicated volunteers, who contributed close to 28,000 hours to make these initiatives a reality.
Help Shape Our Future: Complete the 2025 Membership Survey
Following up on last year’s survey results, we’re now excited to invite you to participate in our 2025 Membership Survey!
We’re currently refreshing our 2025 delivery plan, and your perspective is highly valued. This survey provides a critical opportunity to directly incorporate your views into our strategic planning. We’re committed to listening to our members and aligning our efforts with your feedback.
To help us make valuable year-on-year comparisons and effectively track our progress, the survey questions are consistent with those from last year. Your insights are essential for our continuous improvement.
The survey will be available from until September 30th. We truly appreciate you taking the time to complete it.
