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Powys County Times
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Powys County Times
Sidney Nolan Trust wins Lottery Heritage Fund grant
The Sidney Nolan Trust has been awarded £244,849 by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. The rural arts charity will use the grant to develop a masterplan for their historic sites. The funding will support strategic planning, audience consultation, building surveys, and pilot activities over the next 12 months. These initiatives will contribute to a masterplan aimed at increasing access and audience engagement, as well as realising the potential of the trust's two sites. The project will cover both the charity's heritage locations in the Welsh Marches: The Rodd, near Presteigne, in north Herefordshire, and the Bleddfa Centre, near Knighton, in Powys. These sites are integral to the local rural identity and heritage, connecting the England-Wales Borders to the world through art and agricultural histories. They also preserve and provide access to important natural habitats and offer engagement and participation opportunities in some of the most rural wards of England and Wales. The Rodd is a 400-plus-year-old estate and working farm in the Hindwell river valley, spanning 180 acres of farmland, woodland, river frontage, and gardens. At its heart is the Grade II* listed Jacobean Rodd Court and several 18th-century timber-framed barn structures, including the Grade II-listed West Barn. Rodd Court has been home to artists for over a century and became the final home of leading Australian artist Sir Sidney Nolan CBE RA (1917-1992) in 1983. The trust, founded by Nolan in 1985, looks after and makes accessible the largest collection of his artwork outside of Australia. The Bleddfa Centre, founded in 1974 in the remote village of Bleddfa by pioneering theatre director James Roose Evans, comprises community art, social, and event spaces across the former village schoolhouse and converted Hall Barn. Sophie Heath, director of the Sidney Nolan Trust, said: "It is wonderful to have received this hugely valued support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. "Thanks to National Lottery players, we can take on the challenge of establishing an inclusive, thriving future for our unique places that provide access to inspiring heritage, nature, and creativity in our rural region." The support from the Heritage Fund will enable the Sidney Nolan Trust to bring in the resources and diverse expertise needed to plan strategically and sensitively to secure the future of these sites. Without this work, there is a significant risk to the long-term caretaking of this complex and large-scale heritage and landscape. The funding also protects and enhances the increased access and participation of regional audiences, addressing an acute need. The communities of north Herefordshire and Radnorshire in Powys are among the 50 per cent most deprived in the UK and face some of the worst indices nationally of geographical deprivation due to lack of access to services. The project will better protect and make more accessible the important built heritage and landscape the trust looks after through a wide range of expert building and land surveys, a feasibility report, and architectural visualisations. Staff and volunteers will receive training in species identification and surveys, and the monitoring of flora and fauna will establish baseline understanding and priorities for the future ecological management and improvement of the charity's varied habitats. There will be events and activities taking place throughout the project at The Rodd, the Bleddfa Centre, and online. The trust is looking for volunteers across a wide range of activities to get involved and support the project delivery.
Powys County Times
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Powys County Times
Powys: Arts programme for children secures lottery funding
The MAKE Creative Arts Programme for children in and around Presteigne, Powys, has received £19,804 in funding. The money, from the National Lottery Community Fund, will help the Sidney Nolan Trust to continue running the programme for children aged seven to 11 years old until July 2027. The weekly arts club, which is held on Monday afternoons during term time at the Youth Centre in Presteigne, was developed to give access to arts and creative learning for young people in Presteigne and the surrounding area. The new funding from the National Lottery Community Fund, which distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes and is the largest community funder in the UK, offers important support to help sustain this well-regarded after-school programme based in the community. Run by artists from the area, Sophie Ferrier and Olivia Mabey, the sessions give young people the chance to explore a variety of ideas and creative skills, as well as to share their artwork within the community. Those taking part help shape the direction of the sessions, with the group having worked across drawing, printmaking, photography, animation and puppetry, among other art forms. Antony Mottershead, curator and creative producer at the Sidney Nolan Trust, who set up the project with initial support from the Ashley Family Foundation, said: "We're proud to be enabling young people in our rural area to get hands-on through MAKE with a range of creative ideas and processes. "We know that the arts are increasingly pushed to the margins of education and the support of the National Lottery Community Fund enables us to maintain this vibrant artist-led programme in the heart of our community. "Alongside developing their creativity and problem-solving we also see our participants growing in confidence, social skills and aspiration." When young people turn 11, they are encouraged to continue developing their creativity by joining the Trust's Cultivate arts programme, which is designed for those aged 11 to 18. One of the young people said: "I have been going to the Sidney Nolan Trust for a long time now. "I started in the MAKE group and then progressed to the Cultivate group. "One of the sessions I really liked at MAKE was the Lino printing. "We sketched plants and transferred the image to Lino and made prints. "There are so many things I love about Cultivate. "I get to meet artists and be inspired by them, and even work with them. "At Cultivate, I get to meet people and work with materials that I can't do anywhere else. "I live somewhere where I can't find much art to take part in. "Cultivate helps me feel like I can be an artist." The National Lottery Community Fund has recently introduced its new strategy, 'It starts with community', which will guide the distribution of at least £4 billion in National Lottery funding by 2030. As part of this strategy, the funder has identified four main missions: to support communities in coming together, promote environmental sustainability, help children and young people thrive, and enable people to lead healthier lives.
