Badgworth artist secures funding for Covid project

An artist from Badgworth has secured funding for her village's story of lockdown to be told in an art project about residents' experiences.

Tina Salvidge has recently been awarded funding by the Arts Council Lottery Fund and Sedgemoor District Council to develop a community arts project in response the Covid-19 lockdown in a small rural community.

The project will culminate in a film and exhibition in the summer, at the Schoolroom in Badgworth.

Tina said: "Lockdown has been tough for everyone and I wanted to produce an artistic record for future generations to be able to look back on."

Art can bring communities together in different ways and planned activities over the next few months will be based around small workshops and walks.

Tina hopes that members of the community who do not normally engage with art can get involved. She will be researching local history in order to reflect on people's experiences.

Tina is a fine art visual artist mainly working in video art who, after a career in law, successfully completed a Fine Art degree at UWE Bristol graduating with a First Class Degree last year.

Her video work Last Days was selected for the Wells Art Contemporary exhibition in 2020, which is an international exhibition attracting more than 3,000 entries.

From the exhibition, she was awarded the Somerset Art Works Festival 2021 prize, which offers a Somerset-based artist the opportunity to conduct research and develop a plan to create a new body of work which will be showcased during the Somerset Art Works Festival 2022.

Tina grew up in Badgworth on a local farm and is chair of the Badgworth Schoolroom Management Committee.