By Deborah Talbot
A mate of mine, Steve Pile, wrote about how ‘ghosts’ haunt our urban spaces without our being quite aware of it; nevertheless they shape our experience of those spaces. Ghosts are what come to mind when describing what the E17 Art Trail is all about.
Because it’s probably fair to say that Walthamstow has never got over William Morris (1834–1896), leading member of the Arts and Crafts Movement, and philanthropist turned socialist. There are many examples of these influences to point to: anti-poverty campaigns, Our Community Our Schools, a thriving Food Bank, the biggest liberally minded Salvation Army north of the Thames, local MP Stella Creasy’s payday loan campaign, to name but a few. There are many local community groups and small arts and crafts businesses, often run by women, and DIY economies exchanging, buying and selling goods (see for example the Twitter page Stow Sell or Swap). Walthamstow is a place where you can get the sudden urge to knit, sew, get involved with wood, or sell second-hand stuff from your front garden, without quite knowing why, and regardless of whether you need to or not. All very Portlandia.
Walthamstow has so not got over Morris that they spent over £6 million renovating the William Morris Gallery. Of course, Walthamstow, along with the rest of the East End, voted Labour in droves in the 2015 UK election, in an absolute rejection of the general cultural drift, thus proving its single-minded determination to resurrect the spirit of Morris as well as be the most hipster place in the UK, if not the world.
Which brings me to the E17 Art Trail. It began in 2005 to, in its own words, ‘find a way to help motivate and strengthen the local artistic community, and to find interesting, creative solutions to the shortage of dedicated arts spaces.’ For two short weeks, every artist, man, woman and child can host an exhibition if they want—in gardens, off lampposts, on street corners, in their homes, and in community spaces or schools. Various events from talks to tours are also in the diary, in addition to a food trail. This year the theme is storytelling, which amply demonstrates the folk yearnings afoot in the community. You can go and find out about events from the E17 Art Trail website, and it also has a dedicated blog spot, edited by local writer Sean Urquhart. Even if you can’t make any of the exhibitions or events, sometimes it’s good to just walk the streets, come across something unusual (a series of broken mirrors, or some photocopies attached to a hedge), and wonder about its place in the exhibition (art or rubbish). Anything that gets us thinking about our environment in interesting ways gets my vote.
The event is simply huge, and very inclusive, so it’s something that everyone gets excited about. Why? Because it’s about Walthamstow proving that it can pull off an amazing low-tech arts event, and in the bargain show what amazing community spirit it is determined to have. Welcome back, William Morris.
**photos by Penny Dampier
