Save the E17 Art Trail

Cementing Communities, Enriching Lives and Tackling Isolation

There has never been a more urgent time for communities to come together for mutual support. The means by which we can do this has been threatened by the pandemic but we can already see how resilient and agile our local creative community has been to adapt their ways of working to meet these new challenges - using technology, taking work outside or re-shaping spaces. 

Through the Mayor of London's Pay it Forward Crowdfunding campaign we are asking you to support the E17 Art Trail as an individual donor, advertiser, sponsor or participating artist by pledging funds now for us to make it happen and to help us to qualify for much needed match funding from the Mayor of London.

Artillery's mission is to "mobilise creativity in neighbourhoods" and we are always overwhelmed by the generosity of the local artists, makers and creatives to inspire, captivate, educate and enrich our lives. We know from feedback on our projects and festivals that creative and cultural activity can build and cement communities. 

The E17 Art Trail holds a special place in the heart of the Borough's residents, artists, makers and creators. And we don't want to lose it. It is a high-profile, diverse, innovative biennial arts festival that takes place across Walthamstow, working with artists, creatives, businesses, community organisations and schools. The Art Trail has an exceptional track record in drawing audiences from London-wide and beyond.

The 2021 E17 Art Trail is scheduled for 3 - 20 June 2021. Year on year the E17 Art Trail has grown beyond anything we might have imagined when we set it up in 2004. It has only been made possible by the financial support of funders, advertisers, sponsors and artists' listings each year. Much of our income has disappeared and we need your help to make sure that we can deliver an E17 Art Trail in 2021.

Work has begun on getting ready for the festival including adapting to respond to the challenges we face in making the Art Trail accessible to as many people as possible given the potential ongoing limitations on our movements. This could include, but is certainly not limited to, the use of technology to support some online ‘visits’ in tandem with in person encounters. We realise that there is still an appetite for us to physically but safely experience art and creativity beyond our own doorsteps and we are working with artists to develop ideas for doing so.

How Your Money can make a Difference

By making a donation, booking your early bird listing, advertising or sponsorship you help us to plan a festival with the confidence of income secured. This is the first time we have directly asked our audiences to show support in this way. We know times are tough for many of us but if you are able, please make a donation towards the festival budget. We promise that we will spend your money well and wisely. In 2019, the E17 Art Trail was embedded in the wider programme of Waltham Forest's year as London Borough of Culture. The ambitions of the E17 Art Trail have always been to put culture at the heart of local communities and to shine a light on the character and diversity of our borough and demonstrate that culture is for everyone. Your money will go towards delivering a festival that has a huge impact on the cultural life of the Borough:

“It is without doubt that the success of the E17 Art Trail was one of the key reasons why we won the award in the first place, the simple act of an entire community coming together to celebrate its creativity on this kind of scale proves we’ll continue to be a borough of culture long after 2019.”
Sam Hunt, Creative Director, Waltham Forest London Borough of Culture 2019

Here's a sense of the scale, scope and reach of the festival in 2019: 

8500 People - exhibiting or performing in the festival programme 

207 Festival venues 

396 Events and exhibitions over 18 days 

30 Learning settings 

64 Businesses 

42 Community organisations, faith spaces, libraries, museum and gallery 

105 Open houses and studios 

239 Volunteers supporting festival delivery (1549 reported supporting individual events) 1272 Volunteer hours recorded contributing to core festival delivery tasks.

Since 2005 Artillery's projects have been rooted in the local cultural economy. The E17 Art Trail is a significant commercial opportunity written into local artists’ business plans: resulting in sales, securing gallery exhibitions, commissions etc. The ongoing impact of the pandemic has put an extraordinary strain on the plans, projects and dreams of our local artists, makers and creators. With enough financial support we aim to continue in our work not only in providing enrichening and enlivening cultural experiences for visitors to the festival but also to support and nurture the wealth of creative talent on our doorstep. Your money and any match funding we receive will be invested in, amongst other things, redeveloping our website to create and integrate a new app for the festival programme's hybrid events and to include a simple booking system plus queuing functionality for social distancing and taking payments. 

Here's a selection of quotes from artists who exhibited or participated in the 2019 festival.

“It is an opportunity to test challenging projects in local settings and build  confidence for taking the work further".

“As a result of the Art Trail, I have received 4 commissions, and a friend has  developed a website for me to showcase the work - it had only been a hobby  previously” 

“It’s a platform to showcase new work and exercise my conversational skills. At  every art trail I have taken part in, people tend to give feedback about the work  and I get to observe how audiences interact with it.” Recent Fine Art MA graduate 

Support us while also Supporting our Local Businesses

Local independent businesses have always supported our Art Trail - as venues, partners, advertisers and sponsors. These have been hugely difficult times for local businesses to survive and thrive. Some of these businesses will be offering discount vouchers as a reward for your pledges to the E17 Art Trail - watch this space as these rewards go live. We are most grateful for their ongoing support of our work and we want to encourage you to take your custom to our local businesses.

Read below for the "small print reward stuff":