Last Chance to See: Trowbridge Museum introduces Windows on Art across town

Installation: Windows on Art, various venues, Trowbridge, until August 11 2012

If Trowbridge Museum seems a traditional starting point for this art trail around the Wiltshire town of Trowbridge, then Fabric Magic, on Silver Street, a branch of the Coventry Building Society and two empty units within the Castle Place Shopping Centre and Market are perhaps less expected.

This is the first time the museum – working with local artists and retailers ahead of the inaugural Trowbridge Arts Festival next month – has placed artworks within empty shop windows.

“It’s an opportunity to wander around the town appreciating art out of context,” says Exhibition and Arts Officer Sarah Jane Kenyon. “We want people to look at art in a new light and consider who should be able to view it.”

It’s a safe bet that the environs of Bath Midway Litho Limited have rarely welcomed fishes, a turtle and a dolphin before. But Sally Evans, an experimentalist who has settled on the “constant challenge” of watercolours for her works there, is bringing a glimpse of marine tranquillity to window shoppers.

“Its translucency lends itself beautifully to capturing light and the beauty of the natural world,” she says.

“Art has been a passion of mine for many years. Wildlife and water are some of my favourite subjects, as people can see from my Windows on Art display.”

Quilter Carole Stevenson makes a good match for Fabric Magic, and the empty shopping centre units receive Dali-inspired acrylics, abstract collages and engraved glass, as well as sculpture courtesy of art and design students from the town’s Wiltshire College.

• Visit Windows on Art online for full details. Trowbridge Arts Festival runs September 14-30 2012. Follow @trowbridgearts on Twitter.

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