the legacy is now...click on link below for the Belper Art Trail 2012 legacy site.

i've added images from the art trail to the corridor arts facebook page and set up the next legacy blog for the Belper Art Trail 2012. the details of artist's works pictures can be seen here.

this blog is pretty much reached it's intended state of legacy.

the new Belper Art Trail 2012 blog can be found here.

Belper Art Trail 2011, venues.

we've added images of the venues that took part in this year's trail.  


after the summer holidays, work starts on concluding this blog and thoughts turn to future endeavours...

monday morning feeling.

i met nansy this morning to install her work in the oxfam shop. kings street felt very morning after the day before, the memory of the energy present in the street yesterday leaving me feeling lost and out of sorts.

while at the food festival yesterday i felt there was something missing, some connection between the trail and the festival on the day.

i'll sit with the feeling for a while.

we now have the final descriptive sentence for the art trail...

In the 2011 pilot year, we have 9 artists across 7 venues, a peripatetic work and a performance.

the snee snaw in the art trail

we've been able to add a snee snaw performance to the art trail. it'll take place in the belper river gardens on sunday 24th from 2pm till 4pm.

for more info about the snee snaw: click

house keeping and invitations

i've been feeling a little 'behind' with the trail organisation for the last 10 days and i'm pleased to say that today i am feeling on top of it all again. the penultimate work is being installed tomorrow and the final piece will go in on monday, the double booking of that last shop meaning there is a delay, oh well, no worries.

on the corridor main website the guide and map are available to download. both are formatted for smartphone useage. the thinking behind it is that after say downloading at home or out and about, the smartphone can become a source of information about the artists and what venues are in the trail. chris has done such a lovely job with the map, including the essentials like where to get coffee and cake.

the downloads are available here...

this afternoon we've set up a facebook event to promote the trail, so far there is just over 1,100 people who now know that the trail is happening now. we urge all of you to invite your friends too...spread the word ! let's experiment into seeing how many people we can all get to know about the trail via social media. the great thing is they will be able to download (for free) the Art Trail guide. so even if they cannot make it to Belper, they can find out about the work and the people taking part...

The Trail takes shape

yes indeed the trail is taking shape very nicely thank you. yesterday was the main installation day. just a couple more left to install, as a result of finding another shop after the empty shop became unavailable and the double booking of another window.

there are images of the works installed on the blog. to see the full effects of the paintings in the gas showroom, you need to be in the showroom. this actually goes for all the works, you really need to see them for yourselves to appreciate how they all look in situ.

we've struck up an accord with sally in the gas showroom, she's very impressed at the level of work being dispayed, to the point that she's contacting the belper news to do a feature.

Belper Art Trail 2011 - venue 7

Primsisters:

Julie Clare.

Belper Art Trail 2011 - venue 6

The Black Swan:

Julian Woodcock.

Belper Art Trail 2011 - venue 5

The Book Shop:

Julie Clare.

Belper Art Trail 2011 - venue 4

Oxfam:

Nansy Ferrett.

Belper Art Trail 2011 - venue 3

Hunk Dory:

Jayne Sanders.

Belper Art Trail 2011 - venue 2

Briggs Sayer & Co:

Emma Parkin.

Belper Art Trail 2011 - venue 1

The Belper Gas Showroom:

Jenny Aitken

Paul Hirst

Julian Woodcock

risks

i wrote some time ago about risks within the art trail. this morning we've had another reminder of risk. the shop that has been empty for months and on our radar for displaying stuff has now become a hot bed of activity for something as yet unknown.

as we waited for the agent to arrive this morning to give us the keys there was a feeling of something not being right. at the 10 minute point, of waiting for the agent to arrive with the key i rang him. he was in duffield. i'm expecting a phone call back from him to explain where the landlord is with stuff.

christine and i are rapidly realising we don't have an empty shop right now. contingency plan b will swing into operation, once i've run around the library displaying the international distress signal...

Julian Woodcock in The Black Swan.

the first installation of work has happened this morning. i met julian neatly at 10 o'clock and a really interesting morning ensued. i've also met with jayne and introduced jayne to julian. i enjoyed greatly the conversations around julian's work.

for the record....julian in installation mode...

bringing it all together.

with less than a week until 11th, i turn my attention to the art trail again after 3 fairly solid weeks concentrating on my arts council funded snee snaw project. i am quite tired from the performance on sunday, however the later stages of co-organising the art trail is giving me some space from the snee snaw. i reflect that in later years that maybe leaving it all to the week before might not be such a good idea.

having said that, i contacted the participating artists and their collective responses to mounting the exhibition has been brilliant. we're on course for the exhibition to be viewable by the 11th. i acknowledge the help and support of chris and all of those other artists exhibiting at this year's belper art trail.

in terms of learning about mounting the trail, i am certainly doing that and there is a slight risk that the downloadable brochure might not be ready until the 14th july.

as a pilot scheme, i feel i am learning loads and i can't wait to see all the work installed in all the shops.

on a personal note, i have been over ambitious with attempting a new piece of work for the trail. i had hoped to show the new work in lester and nix. it is looking very likely that i will be unable to show any work this year, as the involvement with organising the trail this week leaves me no viable time to make the new work. the work was going to be thinking about the artist as potential. in this case i have not reached a potential i had set out for myself. i hope to make this new work in the future and show it at another opportunity.

I'm thinking of a strategy to include lester and nix in the trail, even though i am unable to show within the premises.

oxfam bookfest.

little did i expect the slight hiccup that occured this morning. one of the shops in the trail has double booked the first week of the art trail for a national campaign week, so the work going into oxfam will be available to be seen from the 19th july.

here's a link to the bookfest blog site

getting a step closer.

the trail planning is ticking over nicely. i remain busy in my own practice with the snee snaw.

we're at the point of putting the exhibition for the art trail together on paper. it's exciting and daunting and fun and i'm looking forward to doing that part of the process and stuff.

on a personal note, i'm starting to wonder if the new work i plan for the art trail will be possible to realise in time, with the snee snaw and realising the art trail organisation on my plate already, will i actually be able to make the work in time...?

time will tell...

we're in good shape.

i've added some more words to the artists page this morning. i'd like to write a post this morning, but i can't decide what to say really.

that old dillema, to blog or not to blog and what to say if one does...

what i can say is a big think you to the so far confirmed artists, it'll make the next food festival meeting so good to tell them about our progress.

My Words of the Day

autonomous(au¦tono|mous)

adjective:
(of a country or region) having the freedom to govern itself or control its own affairs:
the federation included sixteen autonomous republics having the freedom to act independently:
school governors are legally autonomous(in Kantian moral philosophy) acting in accordance with one‘s moral duty rather than one’s desires. Compare with heteronomous.

integrity(in¦teg|rity)
noun
[mass noun]
1 the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles:
a gentleman of complete integrity: the state of being whole and undivided:
upholding territorial integrity and national sovereignty: the condition of being unified or sound in construction:
the structural integrity of the novel: internal consistency or lack of corruption in electronic data:

working at the weekend

i find myself working at the weekend. well that's not exactly correct as what i'm actually doing is editting and adding words to this legacy blog for the art trail while cooking and preparing brunch. i would rather play on this blog adding stuff and stuff than watch ebay continuously waiting for another bidder on an item i have for sale.

now my funded project within my practice has begun, the art trail has become a thing of beauty that i tinker and play with when not in full practice mode. i've added some additional pages to this site, they are for listing the artists and venues of the art trail. i very much get a sense of a work in progress for the whole thing. my funded project to receive funding had to be planned and thought through before any decision could be made about the award. with this project, it is very much in real time and i remain aware of the risks involved in this approach. the benefit of it of course is that in subsequent years of doing the art trail, the basis of knowledge about it will be from this pilot year, so there is everything to gain.

i've placed my own words on the artist page. they are short and to the point. the work will be made during an upcoming residency in derby. i'm quite excited about having an opportunity to show something only a few weeks after having it made. from talking to some of the other artists, there does seem to be a spirit of new beginnings and possibility.

i'm looking forward to how all the work sits together.

it also remains that i view this site as a work in progress and will only be complete once it becomes a legacy of the event. which is a round about way of saying that at any point it's viewed, there's still more to be added to it. so the list of artists added today is not the final list...

Oh The Excitement

Things are hotting up, as we get closer to actually doing instead of just talking about it...

I've realised I need more curatorial experience and knowledge (luckily Andrew has plenty that I can learn from with all his international exhibitions experience!) But I have also booked to go to a symposium run by re:place, curating the rural. Should be interesting, with several artists speaking and an opportunity to connect with the people who run it. I will take the opportunity to gather as much information as possible.

It seems that everyone we talk to loves our idea and has lots of advice on ways to proceed, which could become overwhelming if we're not careful, especially as Andrew and I both have our own arts practices, and our doing this aswell. Ideally, next year< I would like more people to be involved in the organising and have more say in what happens, then it becomes more of a collaboration and artists community event. As we are using this as an opportunity to connect with other artists and build our own community

another added feature.

with a week to go to the artist submission deadline i find myself being very excited by another feature added to the organisation of the art trail.

from a meeting on monday, i left thinking about a guestbook feature. a way of collecting feedback and doing this in a manner that is paper less. i'm happy to say i've found a way of doing this and have set it up this afternoon. this is so exciting for me as it's another feature of the art trail that we're able to roll out in our pilot year.

details of how to use the paperless guestbook will be revealed nearer to the event.

conversations

the belper art trail is becoming a starter of conversations. yes indeed, this week i have been part of several conversations with the art trail at the core.

i've noticed today that chris' a-n- blog has featured in the artists talking monthly update email from the magazine editor.

at the weekend we sent out the invitations to artists to take part and there has been a good initial response. in a conversation with one today, we explored the possibility of simply having an a4 piece of paper with marks made on it, for this year the exercise is to test and prove that a trail of work in belper is possible. in terms of curatorial weight and excellence, let us have a few years to set up the process of placing works of art in property.

the art trail for me remains about possibility, collaboration and community.

More meetings, emails and conversations.

Another food festival meeting tomorrow, I still get nervous before these, despite any work I may have done. This morning will be a sit down and email all the artists, a job we should've done a week ago. But life, as usual, has been running away with me.

After talking to one of the artists who has agreed to take part, she was stated she was pleased to be having an opportunity to make some work for herself, not just her community work. Although our art is the core of us, we are all too quick to neglect the actual making in favour of the things that demand our time. It so important to not loose sight of why we became artists. For me that is the need to express myself through the physical act of making something.

risks

as we enter may, i am all too aware of the risks associated with attempting this project.

a large one is that of time being spent on the project being in line with those working on it during the day light hours. potentially the risk is that i cannot spend as much time on the planning as those who daily jobs allow for time to be spent on it.

i hope that all parties are able to accomodate my risk and be patient and supportive as this project develops.

we are at the point of approaching artists that we would like to be part of this pilot year. as discussed before, there is a risk that we do not reach our target figure. time will tell of course.

waiting...

i keep wanting to do something on this project.

the main thought is getting details and information from those participating artists and shops and getting more information onto the webpage. being realistic and honest, as we all approach the long weekend of easter and the large public wedding, i can't help feeling i should leave all what i want to do until we get into may.

evolution of thinking about setting up the trail

when chris said to me that she wanted to set up the trail, i was instantly behind her as it was a great opportunity to so something with an art centric endeavour in belper.

we've been thinking about it and considering it since last september/october. it was before christmas that we decided to attempt 10 artists and 10 shops, as a pilot tester project. on the face of it, this is straight forward, we ask 10 shop keepers to take part and 10 artists to participate. with chris and i wanting to display, that only leaves 8 to find.

lately in my personal practice, i have been struggling to get responses from people with whom i'm attempting new things with. not across the board, just a few isolated instances. what i am experiencing is affecting my well being and clarity of thinking.

in the last few days, i've realised that the internal way i was thinking about putting the art trail together was affecting my well being also. i was thinking about it in terms of an uphill struggle, to realise the intentions. i think the source of the uphill notion is born from an exposure to all the public sector and art sector cuts and redundancy and stuff that is very pull downy for want of any other better way of saying it.

so to turn this around in myself, i need to think about the art trail in a different way. here's the foundations of the art trail:

chris and myself's intention is to mount a trail of art work in belper with the food festival as a pivot of the exhibition. the trail to be spread from the a6 to the market square. this is the first time we've done this in belper, so we're not asking for any funding, as we must first prove what we can do. we have the support and backing of a really supportive and helpful food festival committee. we will put on a display of work in belper

here's my evolution of thinking:

between chris and myself we can put work in as many shops as we can get to our target of 10. by talking to the people who run the shops we can achieve the intention of 10. by talking to members of the artistic community in belper we can replace our work for that made by others. with the help of 8 members of the artistic community in belper we can achieve our 10 in 10 goal. this shift in my thinking helps me to enjoy being part of the art trail.

to my knowledge between chris and i we have spoken so far to 4 members of the artistic community. we have more on our list to talk to too.

i think there is a little bit of a panic in me driven by the unknown, for this is the first time in belper that we have attempted this. i can work towards reducing the panic by continuing to talk and answer questions and be realistic about this, the first year of the trail. we need to do it once to establish a real foundation, to then build on it in subsequent years.

Belper Art Trail 2011 | Project blogs | Artists talking | a-n

Belper Art Trail 2011 | Project blogs | Artists talking | a-n

Lovely Sunny Derbyshire

I'm very excited about having this blog to write in, I will be recording my thoughts and the experience of setting something up in the town I live in.

I love Belper, it's full of creative, interested and genuine people. There are a lot of artists based here, so it feels good to have an opportunity to show off all we do and maybe an excuse to go to one of the excellent pubs to discuss the whole thing.

So far we have some interesting premises to work with, the offer for an installation, six windows in the Black Swann on the Market Place to consider and a spiritual shop on the A6, so a really good mixture of venues to suit our different artforms.

making a contribution

i'm happy to be contributing to the 2011 Belper Art Trail. i look forward to seeing this project evolve and look forward to meeting with and working with contributors and collaborators from belper.

the legacy site.

we're up and running, here at the legacy site.