Radical Landscapes 2022 – £900

Radical Landscapes was a major exhibition exploring our individual and collective connection to the rural landscapes of Britain. Through talks and workshops, the exhibition was able to reach a wider audience of art lovers and local communities, engaging them with the natural landscape as the heartland for ideas of freedom and identity, and a spur and site for activism. It investigated how artists transform our perception of the land and why we protest when it is threatened. It brought installations featuring living vegetation into the exhibition. Surrounding the exhibition were a series of interactive activities at the Mead Gallery to involve local communities.

This was a series of artist-to-artist talks which encourage the audience to think like artists, activists and critics. These talks were filmed to creative an archive of conversations for the Arts Council Collection in Coventry, creating a research resource for the future. We also funded a community group for people who need mental health support and who spent a day with the artist. Thirdly we funded a family workshop for families with children to meet the artist and engage with the work of Sarah Shalgosky, Curator, University of Warwick, wrote to thank us for our support and said

‘Art Friends Warwickshire will make a tangible difference. Your support will touch the lives of young people and families for whom the active and frequent participation in the arts is a nice to have or an alien concept. Reaching one young person has the potential to reach siblings and family who previously might have turned away from the arts… thank you for your incredible support. I look forward to inviting you to the exhibition later this year.’