Southbank Bristol Arts

More than an Arts Trail!

Southbank Bristol Arts (SBA) have been organising an Arts Trail in the communities of Southville, Bedminster and Ashton for seven years now. The SBA has always been about more than just the Arts Trail, although to many people that is what we are!

We do organise and sponsor other arts and performance events through the year, though. These include an autumn exhibition at The Grant Bradley Gallery, and single events such as the Big Draw.

Artists for the this year’s autumn exhibition, INSIDE OUTSIDE, have been selected. Come along and to the opening night preview or see the exhibition during the week at the Grant Bradley gallery. See the INSIDE OUTSIDE exhibition page for more information.

The Arts Trail is the largest of our events, where artists come together to put on a great weekend of visual arts and performance, with people opening their homes to the public and schools and venues in the area showing work and hosting various activities. In the past seven years we have seen the trail grow in size, with over 50 venues in the 2008 Arts Trail and even more in the 2007’s Arts Trail, during the 2007 Arts Week.

Unfortunately this success comes at a cost, which is mostly in people’s time, as these events are organised purely by volunteers - all of the money raised by the SBA is either ploughed back into the following year’s event or is given to groups who can apply for funding to put on smaller arts events throughout the year. The volunteers are very committed, but have lives outside of the trail, and as a result many of the steering group are stepping down this year.

With so many people leaving it’s a good opportunity to have a change, not just in people but in format. So we are changing the format of next year’s trail a little. We are hoping to widen the scope, and whilst we still see a place for artists to show work in homes and other venues, we would like to include more dance and performance, with street parties and a procession through the streets!

Maybe you would like to be involved by getting your street closed for the day, and getting everyone to bring sofas outside. Let’s get the whole neighbourhood involved in a big celebration, not just of art, but of the diversity of the whole area. A real festival of the streets!

About SBA

For more information on the Southbank Bristol Arts organisation, please see the About SBA page.