Six awards for arts in the Test Valley
At their October 2006 meeting the Trustees of the Test Valley Arts Foundation agreed to award six grants for the arts in Test Valley.

A Colvin Young Artists Award of £778 went to Damien Hitchcock-Spencer, a jewellery designer from Andover, to enable him to set up a workshop with the basic tools and equipment at the beginning of his career. Damien is a young craftsman with very good technical skills in metals - silver, gold, stainless steel - and has developed an innovative range of cufflinks and accessories that have already attracted interest. Graduating from Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College in 2005, he is in the process of setting up a workshop from which to develop his jewellery. Damien commented: “Receiving this grant will make a tremendous difference allowing me to immediately start the journey from design to the realisation of a piece and to start making models.”

An Open Access Award of £470 was awarded to Andover Family Learning, now part of Harrow Way School’s Community Education Department. Andover Family Learning is working with Shepherd’s Spring Junior School over a 7 month period to promote health and well being to the families who attend the school. The grant is to support the Art Workshop and Exhibition in November and Jean Lannie, Family Learning Co-ordinator, said: “I am extremely grateful to the Foundation for this award which will enable us to use exciting materials with the parents and children, as well as arranging a high profile Art Exhibition in Andover Guildhall on November 29th.”

Two other Open Access Awards went to the Andover area. Peter Redmond received £200 towards writing and producing a community show that will be staged at the Weyhill Fairground on 17th,18th and 19th November. 10 years ago Peter wrote a community play about the sheep fair that had been held at the site for 900 years. It had a cast of two hundred, ran for a week and two thousand people came to see it. Peter commented: “The new show of ‘The Greatest Fair in the Kingdom’ will be a much reduced light hearted version.” And Bryan Beggs, a former Mayor of Test Valley, was awarded £150 towards an exhibition of photographs entitled ‘The River Test from Source to Mouth’. Bryan has taken 50 photographs over the last five years, at all seasons of the year and at different times of day, illustrating the variety of scenery, the recreations and occupations connected with the ‘life’ of the river.

A further two Open Access Awards went to the Romsey area. Steve Thompson from Romsey was awarded £350 to help getting him started in business. Steve studied at Southampton Institute of Higher Education, training as an illustrator. In recent years Steve’s main focus has been on Natural History producing wildlife paintings in his own very unique style based on research at Marwell Zoo. Steve works primarily in acrylics but also turns his hand to other subject matter ranging from pencil drawings of pet portraits to movie stars. And Frances Pratley from Broughton received £400 towards a visual art project that is unfinished. In 2005 Frances made an exploratory journey around all the houses in which she had lived (25 of them). She recorded the exteriors and began to create imaginary estate agent’s brochures with images and words which captured the memories conjured up by the visits. Frances commented: “The grant will help making the journey again, collecting and recording in more detail, and compiling the resulting work - an artist’s book, the full set of brochures and a set of good quality photographic enlargements.”

Artists and musicians living and/or working in Test Valley will again be invited to apply for art grants during the spring of 2007.