As an added incentive to visit Wivenhoe in Essex during its annual Art Trail event from Friday, 17 to Saturday, 19 November, anyone who arrives at Wivenhoe station by a Greater Anglia train, can obtain a limited-edition set of artist postcards by showing their train travel ticket at the Nottage on the Quayside in the town.

The Wivenhoe Art Trail is staged twice a year and attracts 1,000s of visitors to the beautiful town of situated on the Colne estuary. This month’s trail will see over 30 artists displaying their work in 20 venues, ranging from studios and homes to public spaces where the public can view and buy their most recent works. As an added incentive, many venues also offer edible goodies and an autumnal glass of mulled wine.

Off the Rails, which is a gallery programme at Wivenhoe station, has established a new partnership between the Art Trail organisers and the Essex and South Suffolk Community Rail Partnership.

The added incentive this month is that anyone arriving by Greater Anglia train can claim a unique set of six artist postcards by showing their ticket between 10 am and 5 pm daily from 17 to -19 November at the Nottage on the Quayside, which is venue 16 on the Art Trail.

The postcard set includes work by Maureen Hume, Alison Stockmarr, Jane Watson, Catherine Dodds & Richard Hayward. The set has been limited to an edition of 150.

Over 45 Greater Anglia railway stations in Essex and South Suffolk currently have been adopted by volunteers, however, so far, Wivenhoe is the only station that has an art gallery.

Wivenhoe Art Trail from Noah Carter Studio on Vimeo.

Maureen Hume of Wivenhoe Art Trail says “We love meeting people from across Essex and beyond on our Art Trails, and so when the opportunity came to work with ESSCRP and Off the Rails we jumped at the chance. Our exclusive postcard set is just a small way of saying thank you to all of our visitors who come by train”

Matthew Linley of Off the Rails says “Off the Rails runs the gallery project on Wivenhoe station so many of the members of The Art Trail have exhibited with us over the years, and twice a year we host a group exhibition with the trail. So it’s been brilliant to work with them creating this beautiful set of exclusive postcards for visitors by train”

Jayne Sumner of ESSCRP said: “We are always on the hunt for exciting new ways of encouraging people to travel by train. We have shanty trains (to Harwich with the Shanty Festival), bucket and spade trains (to Walton in the summer) and the Christmas trains to Wickford. And now we’re delighted to be working with the Wivenhoe Art Trail and Off the Rails to encourage art lovers to visit Wivenhoe by train during the famous Art Trail”