Schoharie County has a few themed trails. This weekend, it’s poised to add another to the list with its first Arts Trail Driveabout.

Organized by the relatively new group Schoharie County Arts (SCA), the tour is set for Saturday, with 17 artists opening their studios or displaying their work at locations throughout the county. The self-guided trail includes a mix of photographers, painters, textile artists, sculptors and more.

“Artists have been wanting to have an art trail for a very long time. Schoharie has an eagle trail and a beverage trail and a quilt trail and all sorts of trails. And now we’re going to have an art trail,” said Lisa Ovitt, SCA’s board president.

SCA is a fledging organization that arose just a few years ago. The county once had an arts council, though that dissolved and CREATE County Council on the Arts, an organization based in Catskill, took over serving the county. Ovitt once served on the board there and helped to form an advisory panel identifying the arts needs in Schoharie County. But she and a few others on the advisory council decided to break away and start their own group in 2019.

The pandemic slowed initial progress, though SCA began getting out in the community as soon as it was safe.

“We started attending various events and talking with people, getting email addresses and building membership,” Ovitt said. “We were given a very generous gift to get started with a website.”

The group has since hosted a variety of arts events, including a reading with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon and bestselling author Jean Hanff Korelitz, who is married to Muldoon. SCA also hosted an event with Dmitri Kasterine, a world-renowned photographer who lives in Cherry Valley and who has photographed popular figures including Mick Jagger and Queen Elizabeth.

The Arts Trail Driveabout is SCA’s most ambitious project yet, said Ovitt. SCA put out a call to artists and saw a strong response.

Some of the artists include photographer Christine Harris, landscape painter Tracy Jacknow, plein-air/studio painter Mary Beth Vought and metal sculptor John Jackson. While many of the artists will be in their studios, others will display their work at Apple Barrel, Green Wolf Brewing Co., the Iroquois Museum, Middleburgh Mercantile, Schoharie Valley Farms, the SEEC Gallery and the Studio for Art and Craft.

“We have high hopes. It’s not too big, it’s not too small. We actually were turning [artists] away after our deadline after registration, after the map had already been printed. So we hope to make this an annual thing and make it bigger and bigger. I think it’s just the right size for the first time out of the gate,” Ovitt said.

There is a detailed map of the studios and other locations on SCA’s website. The event runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“This is an exciting opportunity to drive around Schoharie during the beautiful autumn season and experience the unparalleled creativity of all the art the county has to offer,” said fiber artist Sally Ziegler, who is an SCA board member and helped organize the tour.

“Our goal is to celebrate and support the artists in Schoharie County and bring art to the county,” Ovitt said. “We hope to accomplish both of those things with this driveabout.”

For information, visit schohariecountyarts.org or facebook.SchoharieCounty ArtsNow.