“A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.” Paul Cezanne
6 Questions with Community Champion — Hilary Douse
Art — subjective and emotive, it transcends cultural, racial and social boundaries. Here in E11, we are privileged to be surrounded by Art — from graffiti, shops such as Laura Lea & Hooksmith to our own gorgeous little gallery ‘The Stone Space’. We are extremely lucky that this area is home to an abundance of talented artists. Once a year they join forces to exhibit during the inspiring and fascinating Leytonstone Art Trail. I caught up with one of the Trail’s dedicated and unflagging volunteers — Hilary Douse.
1) How long has the Leytonstone Arts Trail been going and where did the idea for its inception come from?
The Leytonstone Arts Trail was the brainchild of Anna Spain in 2008. She thought that the Leytonstone Festival should have an Arts Trail similar to that of the E17 Trail. The Festival supported the first trail and it floated off on its own from there. A big thank you must go to Francis Bowman, she took over in the second year and kept the show on the road along with a dedicated band of volunteers. If it was not for her the trail would not have gone past the first year!
The Trail and the Festival have remained two separate entities as, with all its participants, the Arts Trail is quite a complex thing to put together!
2) When do you start planning for the Trail?
We tend to have a bit of a break after the Trail but in the run up to Christmas we start to remind ourselves that if we don’t get going in the new year it will be too late. We organise a “Call for artists” which takes a bit of time as people need to get their venues organised and to get the message out to people that call for artists is on. That goes on for a few weeks and usually finishes around Easter. Then the detail work begins to sort out all the details that go into the paper Guide and onto the website. This involves a lot of information checking. This always takes longer than you think! Our editor Joyce Quarrie is very good at this and eventually gets it all into shape. There has to be a print deadline as once the Paper Guide has gone to the printers that is final.
The website is a bit more flexible and Siobhan Davies is the webmaster who gets the website into superb condition. She is very accommodating and will keep the information up to date and to the minute — there are always slight changes. Sometimes artists have to move, venues close down or change hands unexpectedly; a lot can happen in 6 months. We once had to rescue some paintings that were in the back of a car. The new owner had taken the pictures down to paint the walls of his café and was about to take the pictures to the skip! That only happened once though — we have a lot of very accommodating venues these days who get what we are about and recognise that the Arts trail brings something to Leytonstone and helps their businesses!
3) How many volunteers do you have working with you?
We currently have a core team of 4 who do the “critical path” stuff. There are others on the periphery who help where they can — lots of people have come and gone over time but I have been involved since the 2009 Trail!
The current team consists of Siobhan Davies (Website Manager); Joyce Quarrie (Guide Editor); Tony Pamphilon (Treasurer) and myself (Co-ordinator). I tend to organise the meetings, liaise with artists and venues, manage content for social media and whatever other publicity we can get. I generally wake everyone up in the new year to get things started!
4) What’s the most satisfying part of working on this project?
I love to see it all come together in July. It is great for the community, it gets people out on the street and socialising. Being involved has meant I have met some amazing people. We have some excellent artists in the area, many of them started with the Trail and gone on to do greater things — which is so lovely to see. Making a living out of art is hard but some people have actually managed to do that, using the Trail as a springboard. They always reference the trail fondly, so it is great to have been a help to them in their careers.
5) How can the local community become more involved?
When I first got involved with the Trail I developed a project to encourage people to put their own art in their windows and gardens; this gave the Trail a real community feel. There are people who put work in their windows but perhaps don’t go around the formal exhibits. For them the Trail is the “Lets Fill Leytonstone with Art” project. We started it off in Bushwood and then the following year thought it was a good thing to do anywhere that people wanted to do it. It has blossomed from there!
I guess what I would want people to do is to spread the word — talk about the Trail to their friends; retweet; share on facebook — get people to visit. The artists and organisers work so hard at getting the event together — so we want people to visit! This year is a bumper year with more venues and artists than every before so make a day of it and plot your route! There are plenty of cafes and hostelries to stop off at on the way so you can have a drink and a cake and rest your feet. It is great fun!
6) Finally, what’s your ‘not to be missed’ show of this year?
That is always a difficult one until you have actually seen the shows, but the “Wild” 3D exhibition at the Quaker Meeting House garden promises to be good. Norlington Studios is always worth a visit as is the Stone Space, Laura Lea, Creative Bloc at Fill the Gap Gallery by the station, Le Petit Corner, Studio Eleven, Theatre of Wine, North Star, Jo&Kesi, Noted Eel and Pie shop at the other end of the High Road then onto the Northcote and Francis Road, then back up to Grove Green Road where there are a couple of shops with art in them.
Do try to find your way to the various “open houses” — I always worry they won’t get a visit as sometimes they are tucked away! A flat in Peach Grove is a bit of an outlier but it is a fascinating place to visit; worth going out of your way for! Check the timings on all the events and venues.
As ever I can’t choose, and I will try my hardest to get around them all — but this year that may be a bit tough on my shoe leather!
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