Rural contemporary arts organisation Meadow Arts has moved into the digital realm over the last eleven months, delivering creative projects online for schools and the public as well as supporting artists. Moving workshops online was quite a learning curve, enabling artists to reach wider audiences via Instagram streaming with their activities. A summer project saw more than 70 young people complete their Arts Award Discover certificate, creating beautiful artworks inspired by the outdoors.

This winter and spring, the sixth season of the Art House Open Lecture Series is presented online for the first time, in collaboration with University of Worcester’s Fine Art department. Some of the most exciting contemporary artists currently making work in the UK and abroad will be talking about their artwork, ideas and the processes they use in the free talks (please book a ticket). 

Three exciting projects are currently exploring what the rural means from different perspectives. Young people are creating their own digital 3-D worlds in My Bubble, supported by the Invisible Arts Network, a programme for artists and tech creatives in Herefordshire. Meanwhile, RURALities is a series of four new commissions for artists whose work explores the rural, from myths and legends, class, borderlands and folk practices to the intersection between Romani culture and non-Romani culture, there’s a wealth of experience and curiosity that will dig deep into rural lives and culture.

For Beauty & Utility, Meadow Arts has commissioned three Creative Practitioner artists from their network to create a series of projects that engage with the community, reflect the seasons and capture the changing environmental conditions and biodiversity of Avon Meadows floodplain in Pershore. The project is a new partnership with the Floodplain Meadows Partnership hosted by the Open University School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, and runs throughout the seasons of 2020-21. The artworks are intended to be a love letter to the site and the wider notions of beauty and utility associated with the ancient use of floodplain meadows in managing flood water, providing sustainable land management and community benefit.

To keep up with these projects from Meadow Arts, click here to sign up to their newsletter (you’ll also get invited to events and exhibitions when they reopen) and follow @MeadowArts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.