Fundraising Night

Tickets are now on sale for our Fundraising Night on 3rd July. It's going to be a fantastic night of Ska and Reggae, and DJ Bamboo and the Fresh Prince of Saltaire is keen to spin some vinyl. Caroline Street Social Club, on Caroline Street, Saltaire, is a great old school venue; come anytime from 7.30pm.

You'll be able to buy tickets from the Spa on Titus Street and Magic Number Three on Victoria Road, both in Saltaire. Tickets are £5 in advance or £6 on the door. If you are buying them in advance, please could you pay by cash or cheque, as it would help Ray and Georgia out enormously.

We'll be launching the Friends of Saltaire Arts Trail, too; so if you'd like to become a Friend make sure you sign up on the night, as we'll have a few little extra goodies to give away.

Come and help make it a great night; it's all in a very good cause. We look forward to seeing you there...

Selection made

We had a fantastic response to our call for artists for both the Open Houses and the Makers' Fair. The deadline for applications is now past and after much careful consideration we have selected the artists and practitioners that will exhibit in the Houses and Makers' Fair. The quality of the applications was excellent again this year, which made the selection process incredibly difficult. But we are pleased with the results and are beginning to get a little bubble of excitement at the thought of September...

Open Exhibition

For those artists wishing to exhibit in the Open Exhibition, application forms are now available to download from the website. The exhibition will be displayed under the magnificent glass-vaulted roof of Shipley College's Exhibition Building. It's a fantastic location to exhibit, as you can see above. We've increased the number of artworks that artists can submit to three this year, which we think will give the exhibition a little more depth. So, if you fancy applying, Chris is waiting for your application form...

Janet Bolton

I am delight to say that Janet Bolton has agreed to exhibit her work at the Arts Trail this year. She is an extremely popular textiles practitioner, who has been making charming work for over 30 years. She has been on the Crafts Council selected index of makers since 1985 and her work is in many private collections, including The British Council Collection, The Crafts Council Permanent Collection and the Embroiderers Guild Museum Collection. Janet is very keen to come and talk about her work, so we are in the process of trying to make that possible...

Final call for artists

There's just over two weeks to go now until the deadline for applications for both the Open Houses and the Makers' Fair. The programme looks fantastic again this year, so, if you'd like to be a part of it, make sure you download an application form from the website and get it to us by 5th June.

The events are coming along nicely. 15 houses have been confirmed so far for the Open Houses. We've got a long list of classic films that we'd like to show, including, Rita, Sue and Bob, too, The Dresser, Room at the Top...; all literary adaptations and all filmed in Yorkshire - all we need to do now is choose our top four. And there are some great leads for both the textiles exhibition and the lecture series, which we are following up. So, all in all, it is looking like a very full and inviting programme.

As soon as we firm anything up, we'll let you know...

Every Tree Tells a Story

Looking for something to do with the kids this half-term? We will be holding a free drop-in workshop in the magnificent setting of Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, in Bradford, on Friday 29th May from 12pm - 3pm.

In September, as part of the Children's Mini Trail, the Every Tree Tells a Story project will feature a magical tree around which will be poetry and story-telling workshops. So, we have our tree but it is bare and we need it to blossom with fantastic tree-inspired creations. At Cartwright Hall on the 29th, the kids will be able to create leaves, birds, acorns (anything to hang in the branches a tree), made out of textiles and other recycled materials, with which we will decorate the tree.

To compliment the workshop, the Lister Park ranger will take the children on guided tours of the award-winning Lister Park to discover and investigate the wonderful diversity of trees, birds, bugs and insects...

It should be a great free day out for the kids and for you, so come along and help the Every Tree Tells a Story project burst forth...

Cartwright Hall Art Gallery
Lister Park
Bradford
BD9 4NS
Telephone: 01274 432711

Fundraising Night

We are going to be holding an Arts Trail fundraising night on Friday July 3rd. It'll be a fantastic night of ska and dub reggae, with DJ Bamboo and the Fresh Prince of Saltaire on the decks playing some of those old-fashioned records. It should be a lively event and a lot of fun, so come along and bring your friends. The venue will be Caroline Street Social Club, on Caroline Street, in Saltaire from 7.30pm; £6 on the door and £5 in advance. Advanced tickets will be available in Saltaire, we'll let you know where soon.

Salts Mill

I had a meeting with Maggie Silver at the end of last week and she has generously agreed that we can hold our lectures in Salts Mill. We are absolutely delighted. Salts Mill currently houses the world's largest permanent collection of the work of David Hockney and, if you haven't been, it's a fantastic place to visit. As you can see, it's a spectacular building, built in 1853, spectacular partly because the architects were so lavish in their use of glass due to the repeal of Window Tax in 1851. The Arts Trail will benefit enormously from being able to use the wonderful facilities at the mill - we now hope we can attract some great artists to come and talk...
Images courtesy of Education Bradford's NGfL.

Lectures

Last night, I had an extremely constructive conversation with Amanda Chinneck, who has agreed to co-ordinate the lecture series we intend to put on this year. She has a passion for contemporary art and textiles, having worked at the Crafts Council and now as Exhibitions and Displays Manager at the National Media Museum, Bradford, and she has produced a short-list of some very interesting artists we'd like to approach to speak at the Arts Trail in September.

All the artists we've chosen use textiles in some way within their work. It might be in a cultural and historical context, like Yinka Shonibare; as mark making, in the paintings of Michael Raedecker; or in the agit-prop art form of banner making, like David Jacques.

We have a short-list of six from which we are looking to find two to speak in September. I am going to see someone this afternoon about a venue and, if they agree, the prospect of these lectures is very exciting indeed.

Animation

I was looking up various bits and pieces earlier on today, seeing what I could find, when part of the name of one of my lecturers at college popped into my head. It took a bit of time to bring Suky Best to mind but it came eventually and so did finding two very different animations. The first is hers, Early Birds, a hand-drawn rotoscoped animation commissioned for Channel 4, and the second, which also appeared on Channel 4, is just totally charming and is by Barnaby Barford, called Damaged Goods.

We have put a call out for artists today for both the Open Houses and Makers' Fair. This is when the Arts Trail starts to pick up momentum - seeing the applications coming in and examples of some of the fantastic work that is being produced. It's a time of promise...