Oh the irony of organising your own art trail when in my own practice I didn’t get a place on the really big arts trail that happens in a town up the road!
So on a personal level, a rejection from Wirksworth Arts Festival when on another level, I’ve been talking to the organisers and getting very valuable advice from them. We’re working on the possibility of having access to at least one empty shop on the A6, the borough council are making that connection for us, there is always the chance that the shop will be let before the festival though.
The trails has given me a chance to realise my own strengths and weaknesses, technology not being my strong point, while talking shop owners and artists is. I have also discovered that I can speak eloquently in meetings even though I may be feeling slightly nervous.
It feels good to ignore the political climate at the moment and just get on and do something.
The processes at the moment seem to be involve lots of talking and not much doing. I’m finding it frustrating at one level, but enjoying on the other. The frustration comes from being taken away from my own practice and making, while still enjoying the whole experience of talking to shop owners, artists, councils and committees.
Another meeting later today, with the Borough Council who have access to empty shops that we’re hoping to use, I have to stop myself getting carried away and thinking too big and reminding myself this is our first year and there is time for the trail to grow organically. And hopefully we’ll have more people helping out next year with all sorts of jobs.
So far we have quite a few artists involved, and will get proper confirmation by the 25th of exactly who is taking part, as this is the deadline for writing something about themselves for publicity. This is of course a flexible deadline, but we needed to know who wanted to participate and where their work would fit. For me this is the more interesting side of things, finding out what the artists will be doing and then seeing the development of that work.
For myself, I’m booked onto a ‘curating the rural’ symposium organised by re:place, I make no claims to know what I am doing on this trial, so a bit more education wouldn’t go amiss! It may help me move towards being more critical and confident in what we are trying to achieve.
