Arundel Gallery Trail news

Having celebrated its 30th birthday last year, the 2019 Arundel Gallery Trail is ready to embrace the next three decades – with help from AKIN members.

There is a new committee behind the trail, which takes place at the end of August (during the Arundel Festival) every year and features 150+ artists and makers, who show their work in galleries, private houses and public spaces around town.

This committee is a meeting of minds, five of them, with fresh ideas and new initiatives aimed at attracting art lovers and buyers from a wider area, including London. The committee, which has strong support from past Gallery Trail leadership and ideas from the artists themselves, has launched a new website, ( https://www.arundelgallerytrail.co.uk) designed by Gallery Trail committee and AKIN member Sarah Stafford.

AKIN members have offered help with branding, video content and social media. Penny Schuler, from the Gallery Trail committee and also an AKIN member, said, “We look forward to an enthusiastic collaboration with AKIN. It’s an exciting time to grow and expand the reach of the trail, using the technology and ideas that AKIN members can bring to the table - and help implement.

At January’s AKIN meeting Marty Lowell, from the Gallery Trail committee, explained to members the challenges and opportunities the trail faces, “We have artists and makers involved who wish to exhibit but don’t have venues in Arundel. We would love to encourage more people to offer a space in their home or workplace.”

The committee are also working hard to expand the Trail’s profile, diversity and quality:

• Artist Andy Waite, who has shown on the Gallery Trail every year since it began in 1988, and is on the 2019 trail committee, has designed the new logo.
• Emerging artists will be invited to show their work.
• The Gallery Trail committee have reserved most of the Victoria Institute’s gallery spaces, to provide a hub for new local and international artists to show for the first time. Names will be announced in the coming weeks.
• The origami paper artist Michael Trew has been booked (after Gallery Trail committee members heard his AKIN talk) to run a workshop in July. During this, a large origami installation piece will be created, using Michael’s expertise and the hands of many local artists and AKIN members.
• All Gallery Trail artists and makers will be asked to create a small artwork canvas to be displayed at the Victoria Institute and sold by secret auction, to raise funds for future trail initiatives and sponsoring new artists.
• The Gallery Trail committee members are understandably excited for the event’s future. “We hope that the town of Arundel can be a venue for various gallery trails at other times of the year - as well as during the Festival,” she explains. “We would love to see more installation art and sculptures around the Town throughout the year.”