Angela Towers, a Senior Lecturer at in Business, Retail and Tourism at MMU Business School visited the Art Trail in 2019 and was blown away by the number of artists and the quality of the work. She bought a few paintings, and wondered if her Post-Grad students could look at the event and perhaps suggest ways of marketing the event more widely.

The brief for the students would be “You should focus on presenting creative ideas for how to increase awareness of this annual event, consider the target audience, and low cost/no cost ways to reach them.  You should also explore opportunities for involvement of Rossendale Borough Council and any other potential partners.”

I can’t see any harm in this, and it could well produce some useful results – especially as I don’t feel I have the time to dedicate as much effort to promoting the Art Trail as it deserves. Megan Eastwood at Rossendale Council has already said that she is willing to participate in helping the students, and also that she would try and find some funding for the Art Trail to help in this process.

If Art Trail participants are keen on helping with this then please let me know, and I’ll pass on details. Otherwise I’ll report back to the group as things develop.