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

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...

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.

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.

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.