#belperarttrail at the 2013 food festival

what a magnificent day it was.

we knew from previous festivals that being present in the crowds is a great way to meet and chat with people, both who already knew about the trail and those that didn't.





our stall was on king street just opposite the council building and it proved to be a good location for all day shade.

postcard by jo kirk

as the festival opened there was very early sales for the crisp stall next door and much humour generated by the names of the beers on the other side. on  a personal note i spent the first two hours preferring that our stall was in an area that had other stalls offering information and opportunity.  

as the day progressed the ill feeling eased as i saw a pattern emerge of a steady increase in interest in the art trail.

the other pattern i definitely noticed were the groups of people taking a map. year on year i saw alot more groups of four taking a map and leaving the stall in full on discussion about the trail and the whereabouts of the venues.

mid way through the day we were joined by artist jo kirk who headed up the activity to "make a postcard from belper". we had lots of children and several adults who took some time out to create their very own postcard. we all enjoyed the smiles from the children at their creations and the deliberation that were started when asked "who are you going to send this to?"

postcard by andrew martyn sugars

throughout the day we received much feedback and i'm happy to report that it was almost unanimously positive.  here's a small selection of the comments that i can remember:

"a lady from the walking group told me about the art trail"

"i'm from matlock and i go to wirksworth quite a bit"

"can you go round this in the week? there's too much to do"

"there's an art trail as well"

"it''s really inventive"

"what a great idea"

"fantastic"

postcard by jo kirk

shortly before 2pm the current mayor of belper came over and said hello.  i can't remember talking so easily to a person in public office. she had many praising and encouraging words and has offered a photo opportunity with any of the works in the trail for the artists and venues.  i asked her about the track day fund raiser for the drop inn. her photo came out of her bag and we chatted at length about the endeavour.

so looking back on the day as a whole, i did start off being a little disappointed at the low level of interest in the trail. i accept now that actually the day was a food festival after all and those early visitors were looking to buy quality food.

as the day progressed there was a steady flow of interested people and overall there was an increase year on year in interested people.

just before we packed up for the day we spoke to one of the exhibiting venues. they reported that they were pleased to have opened (normally they did not open on a sunday) and had seen a lot of visitors and had made sales "it was a good day"

as i said yesterday to so many people, the trail is on today and the works are on show until next sunday.

postcard by jo kirk

[edit] we also spoke to a gentleman who was the quality control manager of the north mill. we spoke at length about the mill and what he did and personally i really enjoyed listening and talking with him.[edit]

greetings from ........ belper

is a participatory activity that we're running at the belper food festival this sunday.

it's come about as a result of the june peer to peer meeting at which we met artist jo kirk. 





at the meeting she brought to the table an idea of a postcard based participatory activity to do at the food festival.


between us we've developed the proposition of making a postcard to send to a friend.

on the stall at the food festival between noon and 2pm will be jo with postcards, stencils, a rubber stamp, pencils and felt tips.  in fact all the components to make a "greetings from belper" postcard that you'll be able to take away and send to a friend. the activity is both for children and adults.

we think that making a postcard is a perfect accompaniment to our journey of favourites themed art trail.

on the stall on sunday we are also going to be handing out trail maps and the strutt's north mill entry discount vouchers.

we look forward to seeing you on sunday :)

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 ......

news ! #belperartrail

we're really happy that as a result of a discussion at the most recent peer to peer meeting, we'll be having a participatory activity on the belper art trail stall at the belper food festival on sunday 14th july.

it's fabulously a last minute arrangement so i post more details near the time. what i can say is that it's an activity that is connected to the idea of journey.

in other news the trail starts in 14 days time with the installation process spanning 9 days.

on wednesday look out for a story in the belper news about a special preview event happening at strutt's north mill.

this coming weekend is the open garden weekend and there will be information about the trail at each of the venues. we're hoping for fine weather for this most excellent annual gardening event.








also on wednesday of this week we'll be launching the trail map and guide on the main corridor arts website. 

with the guide you'll be able to start your own journey .....