THE millennium was not only the dawn of a new century, locally it marked the launch of a new celebration of visual art. Wylye Valley Art Trail, the brainchild of Crockerton-based artist Nick Andrew, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, from Saturday 3rd to Sunday 11th May.

In the quarter-century since the launch, this eight-day journey through the visual arts along the beautiful chalk downs and streams of the Wylye valley has developed from an exciting new event to become one of the country’s best open studio festivals.

It follows the pattern established originally in Oxford and then by furniture designer-maker John Makepeace and a small group of fellow artists in Dorset in 1992 – artists open their workplaces to the public, and you, the art-loving or just curious local or visitor pick up a free guide, gather up your maps (or programme your satnav) and set off on an adventure that will take you into people’s homes, barns, garages and sheds, down tiny lanes, alongside glittering water, over the downs with the skylarks singing above you, finding places you didn’t know existed and talented artists who welcome you into their studios.

Nick Andrew says: “From the start we were strong in our desire for an event which was all-inclusive, non-selective, entirely run by volunteers and embracing the work of long established artists and makers, as well as those just starting out on their creative journeys. I’m so pleased that in this 25th year that original ethos still holds firm.”

Dorset Art Week, covering the whole county from Christchurch to Lyme Regis, remains one of the UK’s biggest visual arts events, but Wylye Valley, with a more concentrated area, still has an amazing line-up of more than 250 exhibitors in 82 venues.

There is so much to see and enjoy that you will want to make several forays out to explore the different areas – there are open studios and workplaces, galleries, exhibitions by art groups and student groups and virtual exhibitions, hands-on activities, demonstrations, workshops and talks.

There really is something for everyone on the Trail. For those who like more traditional things there are portrait, landscape and still life painters taking part, while for those who like their art more contemporary in feel there are compelling abstract painters, digital, installation and video artists, as well as those using recycled materials.

There are craftspeople working in ceramics, leather and textiles, jewellers, furniture makers, glass artists, sculptors. Think of a category of art or craft and there’s probably somebody on the Wylye Valley Art Trail who’s doing it.

You can pick up an eye-catching Wylye Valley Art Trail guide at tourist information centres, arts centres, libraries and many other places, while the Trail app is available through the Apple App Store and Google Play – and, of course, you can look at the Trail website: www.wvat.co.uk

Pictured is a small selection of the diverse two-dimensional and 3-D work around the trail:
Gary Cook, Sun Through the Oak, oil and graphite; Nick Andrew, Sera Rieta, acrylic; Jason Fermor, No 2 Orange Polka Dot wooden bowl; Karen Lockyer, Me, black and white photograph; Rachel Sargent, Dappled, painting and printmaking; Matthew Burt, Finback Carver chair.