Saltaire Arts Trail, 11-19 September

The Saltaire Arts Trail is now in its fourth year and about to break away from the excellent Saltaire Festival to become a standalone event in May.

So, this year will be the last that the Arts Trail is a part of the festival weekend, but the final fling is shaping up very nicely.

The Trail covers over thirty different locations, exhibitions and events dotted around the village, ranging from a Maker’s Fair at Victoria Hall to a series of hands-on workshops.

Pick of the programme is the first solo exhibition from local photo journalist Asadour Guzelain, a mini-retrospective of his work documenting Yorkshire life. The exhibition will be held in the roof space of Salt’s Mill, an enormous, light space that isn’t often accessible to the public, and well worth a visit alone.

The open houses are back again this year – temporary gallery spaces set up in the living rooms of some of Saltaire’s houses. The range of exhibiting artists is impressive, but the chance to see their work in somebody’s house, and to see how beautiful some of the Saltaire houses are from the inside is hard to miss. Call me nosey, but…

The open houses are really the star of the show. Transforming people’s houses into gallery space is a fantastic idea, and there are some superb artists exhibiting this year. The fact that people are willing to open their homes so generously for the Arts Trail says an awful lot about the spirit of the village and its community.

The Arts Trail programme puts it best…”it is a treat walking across someone’s threshold not knowing what to expect and unearthing real treasures”.

Sir Titus would surely have approved.

A clutch of child-friendly activities are planned for Alexander Square, the small park opposite the old Salts hospital at the top of the village. The Garden of Easels has painting easels set up for kids to create their masterpiece before hanging it up on a washing line to dry.

On a sunny day in September, the sight of a bunch of kids engrossed in their painting under the shade of a huge weeping willow tree makes quite the most idyllic scene imaginable.

This year, there’ll also be the chance to make a flag or a bug hotel for garden insects. Personally, I’m looking forward to the den building…

The Saltaire Arts Trail website has more information, and you can pick up a leaflet and map from venues around the village.

The Saltaire Arts Trail, part of the Saltaire Festival, runs from 11 to 19 September.

Richard Ramsden lives within sight of Salts Mill chimney.  He usually writes about food, cooking and the like at them apples, but makes an exception for anything that promotes Saltaire.