Children's Mini Trail

Artworks, the fantastic Bradford-based organisation that delivers innovative projects using creativity as a force for change, will be providing a children's activities workshop as part of the Mini Trail this year. Messing around in a 3-dimensional play environment, children will be encouraged to hide and explore in dens and tunnels; they will be able to make their own flags and bunting; and also decorations, which will be used to decorate the area.

That and the amazing projects that the Thornton Grammar School students have been coming up with are going to make a very fab and very wonderful Mini Trail.

Scope for September

Things are progessing nicely as we work our way towards September. With the planned move to May, in 2011, this September's event will not be a usual Arts Trail. We will instead be offering a taster or a showcase of what you can expect when you come in the early summer of 2011.

We have 7 areas that we are going to focus events around, which are: Participation, Outside Art, Evening Events, Exhibitions, Open Houses, Families and the Makers' Fair. So, in September, there will be an event in each of these categories to whet your appetite.

Being a showcase, it means that we are highlighting different aspects of the Arts Trail, including the Open Houses. We will be opening about 7 houses and will be selecting the artists from those that have exhibited in previous years. 5 of those houses will be 'selling' houses and 2 will be ones that will show work that is of a more non-commercial nature. As a consequence, this year we will not be putting a call out for artists. This is a one-off because it is a transition year, and a call will go out again towards the end of the year for artists to exhibit in the Open Houses in May 2011.

There is a tremendous wealth of artistic talent in Yorkshire and our purpose when we move to May is to showcase that in the fullest way that we can. This is one of the key reasons for the move and September is a stepping stone on that journey.

Makers' Fair

Just to let you know that the Makers' fair application forms are now available to download from the website.

Last year was a fantastic event, our most successful yet, with sales over the two days totalling around £9,000. It's a popular event with the general public and with the makers who take part.

If you hand-make 3-d objects, whether its jewellery, textiles, wood, books, or something completely different, we'd love to hear from you...

Makers' Fair application forms

Just to let you know that the Makers' Fair application forms will shortly be available online for download. Keep an eye out for them...

Exciting times for the Arts Trail

As some of you may or may not know, we have been asking some questions about the future of the Arts Trail.

The first fledgling Arts Trail grew out of the Saltaire Festival in 2007. Since then our relationship with the Festival has been an extremely fruitful one and we are proud to have been working in close partnership with it for these last three years. Now in our fourth year we feel that there is enormous potential for the Arts Trail to develop into one of the most exciting and engaging visual arts events in the region showcasing the myriad ways that the visual arts can transform our lives. So, from 2011, the Arts Trail will be moving to May (the exact date to be confirmed) to become an event in its own right.

In May 2011, our aim will be to fill every nook and cranny in Saltaire with art, partnering with key organisations from around West Yorkshire to bring you an event we hope will inspire you.

So, this year, in September, we will have a core Arts Trail bringing you the best of the Arts Trail and letting you know what we are planning for May 2011. It's an exciting time and we are looking forward to a bright and colourful future.

Yinka Shonibare

How do you confront serious issues like global conflict as an artist?

Here's a video of Yinka Shonibare discussing an exhibition he had in 2006.

Sumptuous, visually attractive work provides an entry where he hopes his audience will engage on a deeper level.

Thornton Grammar School

Towards the beginning of this year, Thornton Grammar School approached us to say that they had been looking at the Arts Trail as part of their Creative and Media course. They want to use the Arts Trail as 'real life' experience for their students. So, those students on the second year of the course are designing and developing events that will be integral to this year's Mini Trail. It's about the whole process taken from the initial idea through its development to the finished product.

And the Arts Trail is extremely pleased to be in a position where we can help the school and the pupils realise some of their fantastic proposals. So, come September, you will be able to experience activities devised and developed by some very talented teenagers.

We value these partnerships highly and in the future will be looking for others, so that we can provide the opportunity for more teenagers to display their considerable flair.

Malcolm Le Grice

I don't know if anyone has come across Malcolm Le Grice. I did today - this piece, anyway, and I thought it was stunning.

It's from 1972, called Threshold

Looking forward

We've been doing a lot of evaluating of the Arts Trail over the winter, thinking about where we've come from and where we would like to go. Since its inception in 2007, we believed that the Arts Trail, or an event like it, in this area had enormous potential. Saltaire with its rich, evocative history is an inspiration in itself, really telling the story of industry from the Industrial Revolution to the present day: the change from rural cottage industries to the power of the machine age, the dominance of the British Empire in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and their slow decline to the mid 1980s. In its heyday, Salts Mill produced 18 miles of worsted cloth per day on its 1,200 looms employing 3,000 people. It continued to manufacture textiles for over 130 years. But by the mid 1980s, the Mill was semi-derelict.

The Mill was bought by Jonathan Silver in 1987 and, with the help of his childhood friend David Hockney, he transformed its fortunes and that of the village.

Saltaire is choc-full of creative people from artists and writers to people who work in the theatre and arts administration. The diversity of its artistic community is overwhelming. But its not just Saltaire. Shipley, Bingley, Balidon, Keighley, Bradford... There is a huge appetite for artistic experience and a multitude of practitioners engaging in all forms of creativity.

We want the Arts Trail to celebrate all of that; to be a showcase for the incredible talent that exists in this region; to draw visitors from all over the north of England and beyond; to engage people, excite them, and encourage their participation.

So, we have some plans for the future and we'll let you know about them as soon as we can.

Upcoming events

A couple of unrelated events that I thought could be quite interesting.

Crunchtime2010 is on in York from 29th January to 6th February. It says that 'It’s a snapshot of voices contained in work engaging with how the world and living is at the present time.' There will be a series of events and exhibitions relating to art and global issues, including the planting of an oak tree and placing a stone in central York, as part of the ongoing worldwide project '7000 Oaks' initiated by Joseph Beuys.

The other thing is something to hopefully look out for in March. Bradford was designated the world's first UNESCO City of Film in June 2009. It is a fantastic accolade for Bradford. And in March, it has been proposed that there will be a high profile public 'film festival city' weekend. So, keep an eye out for information on activities throughout the Bradford District to celebrate UNESCO city of film status.