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...