A year in the making, the Canal Art Trail is your invitation to see the Galton Valley Canal like never before.
Launching on Saturday 19 Sept with a guided art trail made up of six commissioned artists throw open a trail of brand new art, installations, walks, talks and hands-on activities running the length of the water, from Smethwick Library and the Brasshouse Community Centre, all along the canal to Galton Bridge and beyond.
Free and open to everyone, the artworks will remain on display throughout autumn.
Come for an hour or stay all day. Join a guided walk on the hour, or set your own pace with a self-guided map across two waymarked routes taking in artworks, installations, workshops and food along the way.
About Smethwick Imaginarium
Smethwick Imaginarium is a place-based arts programme celebrating the cultural diversity, canal heritage and community spirit of Smethwick.
Six artists, working across photography, performance, poetry, graphic design, sculpture and curation, have spent the last year collaborating with local residents and community organisations to explore what the Galton Valley Canal means to the people who live alongside it.
Since autumn 2025, the programme has built relationships and staged public moments across Smethwick, culminating in the first public sharing of the artists' final works.
Booking
Most of the trail is free to explore any time on the day, no ticket needed. You can pick up your own trail map from either Smethwick Library or Brasshouse Community Centre, and the trail will be up for a month from the 19 September.
A few events do need booking in advance. Drop-ins are welcome on the day, but we recommend booking a slot where you can — it helps us make sure there's space for everyone.
An interactive floating installation experienced on the water.
Look down, and the canal looks back. Above and Below Ways is a floating sculpture trail made with local people, bringing to life the extraordinary wildlife living in and around the water — fish, water plants, voles, owls and kingfishers, all crafted from wood and painted by the community who made them.
Walk out onto the floating platform and come face-to-face with a world that's usually too fleeting to catch, or hidden entirely beneath the surface.
A monumental bunting flag artwork, hand-written with poetry, celebrating the diversity and history of Smethwick.
What Lies Beneath Us is a celebratory visual spectacle bringing together the thoughts, memories, and voices of Smethwick residents in a living tapestry of neighbourhood, community, and belonging. At its heart is a collectively authored text displayed across 215 vibrant bunting flags along half a kilometre of canal towpath.
Individual contributions come together in a shared public space, creating a collective narrative of belonging, journeying, and the hidden histories that flow beneath everyday life, connecting people, place, and memory.
Location: Along the canal, between Galton Bridge and the Pumping Station
Revelations by Beth Derbyshire
Accompanying the bunting installation is Revelations, a sculptural work named after a popular 1950s British suitcase brand.
Nine limestone casts of suitcase interiors, made from a material mined in Smethwick, are inscribed with lines from the collective text on leaning concrete tablets. Displayed together, the sculptures reference ancestral journeys to the region and evoke the absence of those who travelled with few possessions.
Through material, text, and form, Revelations explores migration, connection, displacement, and inherited histories.
Location: Pumping Station (B66 1BA)
Smethwick Champions by Jaskirt Dhaliwal-Boora
A pop-up canalside exhibition.
Meet the everyday heroes of Smethwick. Smethwick Champions celebrates the community leaders whose daily action holds this place together, the people behind the organisations that support thousands across the area with sanctuary, care and belonging.
With the canal only minutes from the bustling high street and community hubs, this permanent exhibition showcases its natural beauty through a series of new landscapes and invites the community to experience it.
Canalside Art School: A Year of Activity — curated by Anneka French
An exhibition at the Brasshouse Community Centre. See the year's work on 19 September.
The Canalside Art School is a place for local artists, students and others interested in creative learning in the context of the Smethwick Galton Valley canals. Curated sessions running from autumn 2025 to autumn 2026 have been devised by invited artists Exodus Crooks, Annie Dale, Andrew Jackson, Ezra Jackson and Laurie Ramsell, led by curator and writer Anneka French in close collaboration with artist and educator Cathy Wade.
Writing, collage, sculpture, cyanotype, photography, walking, discussion and drawing have been used to creatively engage with the canal and its environmental biodiversity — on land, and afloat aboard Ikon Gallery's Slow Boat as part of Ikon Youth Programme.
Concept by Eleni Kyriacou, design by Paulina Grenda and artwork by Sarah Barton
A canal boat, built into the library.
At Smethwick Library, the table area has been transformed into a canal boat — built around the existing furniture frame to recreate the feel of sitting inside a narrowboat cabin. Sarah Barton has hand-painted the piece using classical narrowboat techniques, including signwriting and heritage roses and castles.
It's designed as a legacy piece, staying in the library for the long term. Visitors can drop in to sit in the boat, take part in self-guided workshops, and read up on the project and participants' work. It's an ongoing site of connection to the canal, and a meeting point for Canal & River Trust walks and activities before, during and long after the trail itself — a signal for people to seek out and find their own ways to connect with the canal.
The canal is already home to otters, foxes, hedgehogs and kingfishers — so what mythical creature would you dream up to live there? In this family workshop, imagine your own canal-dwelling creature, write its story, and turn it into an interactive drawing you can take with you. Then bring it to life on a walk along part of the canal trail, spotting the artworks as you go.
Best suited to ages 6+, with a colouring and drawing station on hand for younger visitors.
Location: Smethwick Library, then out along the canal
Ben Sadler & Philip Duckworth have a participatory practice embedded in creative empowerment and shared learning.
They have worked extensively with communities in urban planning, natural landscapes, and ecological settings through temporary, digital, and permanent sculpture.
They participated in the 2023 Smethwick Imaginarium pilot, developing laser-cut fish assemblages exploring canal biodiversity.
Beth Derbyshire
An artist and educator working with social practice, sculpture and storytelling.
Her work explores interconnecting themes of togetherness, displacement, loss of identity and active citizenship through temporary, time-based works and performances in non-art alternative spaces.
In the 2023 pilot, she invited participants to create terrariums with waterway plants, sparking discussions about the canal’s value to the community.
Jaskirt Dhaliwal-Boora
A Birmingham-based socially engaged artist working with photography.
Previous work includes tender family portraits at Lightwoods House, Smethwick, as part of the BLAST! festival (2019), and Aurat ki Himmat (A Woman’s Strength), a co-created publication with women from Birmingham Crisis Centre exploring the world through their eyes.
Jaskirt grew up in Sandwell, bringing a personal connection to Smethwick.
Sharonjit Sutton
A Birmingham-based emerging multidisciplinary artist, designer and co-founder of the South Asian Arts Collective (SAAC).
Her practice involves graphic design for community, education and heritage projects, paintings, videos and emerging conceptual projects, including His Name’s Not Charlie, about her grandfather’s migration from Kenya to London in the 1970s.
In the 2023 pilot, she created an ecological activity connected to water mythology at Smethwick Library.
Anneka French
A curator and writer based in Halesowen with family roots in Smethwick. She produced the 2023 pilot project and has worked with Coventry Biennial on new commissions connected to canals and the River Sherbourne.
She has worked at Tate Modern, Ikon, and Wolverhampton Art Gallery; curated exhibitions at Grand Union and Croome (National Trust); and served as Director at New Art West Midlands (CVAN).
She contributes to Art Quarterly, Burlington Contemporary and works for art publisher Anomie as editor.
Sarah Barton
An artist, educator and director of Stirchley Art Room CIC with over 20 years of experience in secondary arts education and community arts.
She specialises in designing and delivering collaborative creative projects that bring together schools, local communities and cultural partners, and develops community forums that create space for shared voices and collective expression.
Her own artistic practice weaves together social engagement and folk art traditions, drawing on storytelling, heritage and the textures of everyday making.
Credits and funders
A Canal & River Trust project funded by Arts Council England and through funds raised by players of Postcode Lottery. Delivered in partnership with North Smethwick Development Trust, Smethwick Interfaith Friends Group, Smethwick Library and Ikon Slow Boat.
Arts Council England
Postcode Lottery
North Smethwick Development Trust
Brasshouse Community Centre
Last Edited: 28 August 2026
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