May 15, 2010

Back on the Trail and back on the Blog...

Yes... it's that time of year again - the 2010 E17 Art Trail will run from September 3rd - 12th.

Earlier this week there was an Art Trail meeting at the Rose and Crown and thoughts turned to the blog and what it can do in 2010.  This year there are a couple of very major differences. First, there is no money for the blog, and second, I am no longer unemployed! This means I will not have time to cover the trail in the way I did last year. I will review whatever I do see but most of the blog content will need to come from other people.

The meeting at the Rose and Crown generated a number of ideas and I am sure we will come up with more before the trail starts. In the meantime here is a summary of what emerged:

1. A few people really liked the idea of reviewing someone else's show. So if we get could as many Art Trail artists as possible to do short reviews of another artist’s show that would be great.

2. Anybody can email me images or text about the Trail or send me links to uploaded photos that I can then download for use on the blog.

3. If artists and/or visitors to the Trail could keep an Art Trail diary and then email me the text (and/or images) at the end of the day, I will post it all on the blog.

4. Another idea is that artists write reviews of their own shows. This can be either straight-up or under assumed (and possibly inventive) names. Given that we are often our own worst critics and /or biggest fans and / or just want to explain ourselves, this could be very interesting.

Overall we just really need to generate info for the blog from as many sources as possible this year. If there are any budding young writers, reviewers or journalists out there who want to volunteer to cover the Trail then please get in touch. Absorbing the information, deciding what you think of it and then writing the copy quickly, clearly and daily is really good experience. It also means that you have something published online which then becomes part of your CV. (I will even do some useful editing!) If you know anybody who you think may like to do this please tell them about it.

If anyone has other ideas then please let know. Either comment on this post or email me at:

E17ArtTrail@gmail.com

Thank you.