setting up the trail day 4 ... .... .... questions, questions questions.

the recurring questions in today's installation endeavours were to do with has the teasing out the whose work is where got to a point of saturation?    the answers were as subjective as viewing the artworks themselves.  

we're working on the notion that until the trail goes live on july 8th the "who is where" is effectively unknown, except for downloading the trail guide in which you can read all about why the works are the artist's favourites.  i must also remember that we have that special preview event at the north mill on sunday when the artist will be available to chat about his work. i'll have more news about that tomorrow.

just tangettally for a moment our friends moon bullet are at the geogre and dragon on saturday. their style and delivery is a beautiful evolving thing. when we first saw them it was a punk ska thing. i see now that it's a funky punk thing. if you're free saturday night they are well worth a look. the beer is good at the pub too.

for lunch today i visited the river gardens. once again i had the joy of seeing the water level much lower than in previous visits. in some respect i prefer the look of the water course lower than higher.  what are your thoughts ?

today's discovery #belperarttrail

i had some time to wander before the last install of the day today.  i took some time to look at the things that ordinarily i perhaps wouldn't have the time to look at, like the station for instance.

as i walked to the venue to meet the artist and the staff of the shop i strolled along a street that i'd not ever had cause to walk along before.

to my amazement at the bottom of the narrow street complete with really old street furniture i came across the mural as shown in the accompanying picture.  i stood with it for a while and took in the magnificence of the image. i started to wonder who "gibsons" were and what all the products were in the window.

i took in the surrounding environment. the glow in the dark stars, the lady sitting in the window at a sowing machine and the small cctv cameras.

i returned to looking at the image. i started to wonder when it was made, who had made it and why was there a strip of wood near the base of the image.

happy with a discovery to accompany the other enjoyable memories of the day of introducing artists to business owners and being part of artistic fusions i happily (almost skipping ) strolled to the expectant shop.

in keeping with the slightly teasing nature of the blog as to who and where the trail combinations are in this year's trail i met the artist whose work is the only work this year to be situated on the first floor.  to discover where that is there's a trail guide available from the link on the right......

so there i am in the shop, chatting away about stuff and would you believe it .... the artist whose work we were about to install had been part of the mural creation. the coincidence was astounding.  we chatted about the mural and it's creation and i learnt a bit more about it.

still wanting to not be a spoiler... i'll leave it for the artist to tell the story of the mural for herself .... over to you ......

we've started installing #belperarttrail

yes indeed i met charlotte this afternoon and spent a very pleasant time installing her work.

during the process we were congratulated for taking the initiative of organising the trail and i humbly said thank you on behalf of us all.

in the carefully cropped image we see charlotte and part of her work.  to find out where her work is situated and why it's her favourite download the guide to the trail available at

www.corridor-arts.org.uk/abcd/belperarttrail

#belperarttrail about strategy for audience development.

what we'd like for the audience is an experience of walking through belper from venue to venue and for that to be enjoyable from point of view of viewing interesting and diverse art works with time between them to discuss the work and the built environment.

and there's the wonderful art paradox.  for all our work and effort we can only hope and wait that as many interested parties get to see and experience the trail.

as we've progressed to the trail being live the notion of discovery has appeared. we hope that this in turns develops some excitement in the prospect of that walk through belper.





to reflect the notion of discovery, on our facebook profile page we're revealing a cover image that can be used to promote the trail.  thanks to debbie at artsderbyshire for inspiring the idea.

another part of the teasing strategy about the trail is revealing the venues and the artists and leaving the connections between them to be found in the guide and in the venues themselves. 

to gauge a realistic visitor figure we will use the download figures from the guide and map as one of the strands of data gathering for trail visitor numbers. in reality there may never be any way of knowing really how many people saw part of the trail. another paradox of mounting an exhibition in this way.

at a personal level this strategy is exciting..... and i feel the risk also. risk?  i'm pushing this strategy in the group and there is potential for it to backfire on me and the group.  there's a little bit of pressure that again paradoxically could go either way.  it's becoming a fine line between information overload and information drought.  there's only one way to find out what it really turns out to be and that's to make a strategy and see the it through.

i for one am looking forward to the trail being live and finding out what people think about it.

i've remembered a recent conversation with the drop inn.  they're going to be working digitally and i got myself in a pickle with thinking that involved an electrical supply.  it is in fact digital prints and as they said "80% digital, 20% surprise".

personally i'm becoming interested in surprise...  discovery. in my own practice that's what i want to research next.  on reflection i think that my own practice is impacting on the trail.  with so many people involved i hope that the intention of discovery.... and favourite... and discussion... are present for the audience, in their own ....

journey of favourites

#belperarttrail june 8th peer to peer meeting

following on from the creative roadshow that chris spoke at last week we have a peer to peer meeting scheduled for saturday 8th june at strutts centre beginning at 2pm and running till 4pm.








the peer to peer meetings are for practioners in any medium who wish to talk about what they do to an interested group of people and engage in conversations and exchange of ideas and thoughts.

the format works at it's best when things that you've made are brought along to show and discuss.  we can offer you a safe place to talk about your work and experience constructive words and feedback about what you do.  it's also a place to gain advice on topics and to ask questions of the group to test out ideas/creative concerns/ or simply where to get something done.

we charge £3.50 and that includes a hot drink.

we look forward to welcoming returning and new participants.

discovery day belper

sunday 28 october. it was cold and ulitmately wet, but that doesn't matter right now.

the celebrations were centred on the belper river gardens where various activities informative stalls and folk friendzy entertained.

with some friends we took in the wool based activities in the north mill. i sat down next to a lady i'd never met before and within moments i was making a pom pom and having a really lovely chat with her.  

folk friendzy's second performance of the day was in the river gardens near the swiss tea rooms.  braving the rain we strode out into the gardens to discover the troupe in the bandstand. despite the rain they were still going to perform.

something then quite unexpected happened. a lady in a green top arrived and we were hastily introduced to her and she started into a monologue about her dad and the east mill.  i think the lady is an actress from belper, possibly last seen in belper at the short play festival.

her piece began as a quite lovely account of things to do with the mill and working there.

as it progressed it twisted and turned and became about contemporary community and use of cars.   i noted that the piece was telling us that people don't form into community so often now as it had been in the past.  something that i thought was a little misplaced with folk friendzy as an audience as they effortlessly promote community. the performance continued and finished.

we then watched the girls adapt their dances to the band stand.  the rain poured down and under cover i watched the dance out develop a special atmosphere from seeing something that hadn't been intended to happen. well done to all involved.