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.

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.

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...

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

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.