This Year's Creative Mile Set to Be Biggest Ever

Nine new venues added to the Brentford Art Trail

Yellow leaflets with a map of the venues will again be available

August 16, 2024

Creative Mile Brentford Art Trail free 3-day arts festival runs from 30 August ( 6-9pm), 31 August to 1 September (11-5pm).

Over one hundred and twenty artists and makers will be showcasing works in twenty-four venues including museums, open studios, on a Thames ait, the new riverfront dock, industrial buildings, churches, a convent, at the opticians, in galleries, cafes and pub gardens. Venues are changing each year as the redevelopment of Brentford progresses and this year there are nine new venues.

Locations opened this year include St Lawrence’s Church which has been restored and repurposed, its tower dates from the fifteenth century and the latest new venue is Workhouse Dock. Brentford’s industrial past is still visible, you can see the distinctive cantilevered Jupp’s Warehouse by Dock Road. There is an exhibition of architectural designs, by students from Reading University School of Architecture, reimagining Jupp’s Warehouse for creative use. The Hounslow Seniors Trust has recorded local voices describing how living in Brentford has changed over the past three decades. As part of an ongoing oral history project by Hounslow Seniors Trust, you can find listening stations at the Musical Museum which give a snapshot of these interviews.

Now in its fourth year, the Creative Mile, Brentford Art Trail 2024 festival theme will be Time. There have always been creative communities and artists working in Brentford. The town is changing rapidly with new neighbourhoods emerging, communities are growing.

The event’s first schools’ art competition invited participation from schools in the boroughs of Hounslow and Ealing. It focuses on the year 1965 when Brentford was connected by public transport to Southall. Every child an Artist is a collection of 420 self-portraits by pupils of Cranford Primary and is displayed at St Lawrence’s, the oldest building with the youngest artists.

Time catches up with us and has an impact on our senses - importantly for artists, age can affect our eyesight. Famously, Monet painted The Water Lilly series when he had cataracts. You can experience how it feels to have cataracts and other common eye conditions, such as glaucoma and tunnel vision, using simulated glasses at The Eye Boutique.

There’s live art happening across Creative Mile venues as well . Spray painting at The Weir, a live mural at St Lawrence’s, make your own letter press print at the Water and Steam studios. Look out for poetry performances, troubadours, and Wurlitzer concerts. Then there's time to relax at Waterman’s Park and enjoy live performances at the Summer Bandstand with a programme of time-themed music, between 3-5pm on Saturday and Sunday.

The usual yellow leaflets will be available again featuring the 2024 map listing venues and artists. You can start your trail from Half Acre, Brentford Lock, Kew Bridge, or your own front door and, for sustenance along the way, marked on the map are local eating and drinking spots supporting Creative Mile.

For more details of what’s planned, visit the Creative Mile web site.