What is the Art Trail?

There is so much art and talent in and around Chichester, created by a range of artists as individual as the diversity of the work they make.

So the Art Trail provides an annual opportunity to visit studios of your choosing, see your favourite kind of art in the making, talk to artists you admire and discover all things new and surprising!

In short, it is a chance for some inspiring days out; explore our beautiful byways, villages, coastline and city while you meet our artists in their working environments.

Planning your own Trail

The Trail itself is a sequential listing of Venues, grouped according to geographical sector; North, South East, South, West and Central.

The Trail Guide booklet, which you can download, or find in many central locations in Chichester from April onwards, has an entry for each artist with an image and a brief description of their work. There is a map for each sector, with directions, post code and a telephone number for each Venue.

Or you can do some research here on the website. Every artist has a web page with examples of their work and an insight into their background and inspiration. Artists are listed alphabetically or by sector, and Venues are grouped according to category of work. You will find information about Chichester Open Studios Art Trail as a whole, adding a wider perspective to the art and practice of its participants.

Making art accessible to all

We hope you thoroughly enjoy your days out and about on the Art Trail. Once you reach the general location of a Venue, you should easily be able to spot the bright green Chichester Art Trail signs and a display of balloons to welcome you.

If there is not time to visit all your chosen artists, hold on to your Trail Guide for reference and feel free to contact artists at a later date. The website is also busy all year round, so you will always find information about our artists here.

To be invited into a place as special as an artist’s studio, feels like a rare treat; an enriching insight that shines a light on their work, making it accessible and full of meaning.

What is an Open Studio?

• A place where art is the focus: where the walls and surfaces lay evidence to a creative dialogue drawn out from the equipment, tools and artifacts which populate the space.
• Working areas, interesting corners, odours, sounds and unfamiliar displays of colour, pattern, shape and form; an exciting environment to ponder and savour.
• The opportunity to ask questions, start a conversation with the artist or just walk around, with fellow visitors, admiring the works on show. For an artist, it is the pleasure of inspiring talks with visitors, which adds fuel to their own practice and makes valuable connections.
• There will usually be the opportunity to buy work and perhaps information about artists’ events or courses, if they offer them.

But, most of all, an Open Studio is somewhere you will find a welcome from the artist!