Phenomenal scale
We know how much the festival means to so many. It has been a truly resident-led initiative since its inception 18yrs ago, with thousands of neighbours - both residents and businesses - creating generous and surprising events for our borough, making connections, friendships, creative collaborations and shared memories along the way. In 2017, 7000 people made art work for E17 Art Trail events; in 2019, 8500 (that’s 1 in 32 people in the borough), and even in the pandemic in 2021, 3700 artists and residents created a programme across 180+ locations.
Together we have grown so much more than a festival, together we have earned a reputation nationally for creating a leading festival of its kind. It’s been embraced by artists as an opportunity to reveal and test new work. There is a whole generation of residents who have grown up with the art trail woven into the fabric of their lives - our young volunteers and participants have told us so.
The bottom line
What’s our goal? At current prices, we calculate it will cost £75k to deliver the core elements of the festival, with 30% ‘crowd-financed’ through registration fees and local sponsorship. It sounds a huge amount, but it is substantially less than many one day greenfield festivals. Our model ensures that the budget really is invested directly in supporting artists and audiences to take part. For example, for the 2021 E17 Art Trail, 75% of the budget was spent directly on commissioning Waltham Forest artists and creative services.
Looking ahead
We are working on raising adequate funds so that the E17 Art Trail can go ahead and flourish in 2024, once again being an umbrella for everyone to showcase and delight in each other’s talents. We will share any encouraging news as soon as we have it.
There is some good news on the horizon: we are starting to prepare our next season of Idea Sparks events and will be inviting applications to an artist incubator programme soon - more announcements to follow.
Please allow us a little time to find our bounce again and make a plan for the future.
Wishing us all many opportunities to thrive in 2023,
Morag and Laura.
