Cultivate is underway and we have a winner….

Cultivate@Courtyard kicked off with a celebration of local young artists!

Cultivate is underway and we have a winner! Having received their briefs earlier this year, the four selected young artists (Lola McCormack, Beth Gibson, Charles Gundy and Will Greenwood) were finally able to present their projects. Having been mentored by local artist Dermot Clarke, the four artists have each provided unique and inspiring work from graphic prints and ambiguous visual patterns to giant sculptures of mythical creatures and household items.

To judge this Cultivate exhibition The Courtyard was proud to welcome Debbie Kermode, CEO and Artistic Director of Midlands Arts Centre. After speaking with each of the artists and taking in the exhibition the £1,000 grant was awarded to… Lola McCormack and her Mother Giant! Here’s what Lola had to say about it…

“This year’s Cultivate project was originally introduced to me by my ex tutor Dermot Clarke, from the Hereford Art College. It sounded like such a brilliant experience for young and up and coming artists! Charlie, Will, Beth and myself got picked to create whatever we wanted for the exhibition – complete creative freedom!

It was important to me that the Giant used up as much as the space as possible, was interactive and made people feel some kind of emotion. I wanted her to have an impact on her audience. Another important factor of Mother Giant was that she had to be green. She had to represent being eco-friendly and being kind to the planet. This ment that I wanted all of my main materials to be recycled! Bike boxes being used for the frame, cardboard fabric tubes for the support and recycled textiles, from the local organisation ECHO, for all the individual scales.

There was so much talent once the exhibition was done. It was such a brilliant experience going from brain storming and workshopping Mother Giant to working with these incredible individuals who has been hiding these masterpieces for the past 3 months! Seeing everything go up and the whole exhibition come together – I was so proud to be apart of it. It was such a tight competition as well! I was overwhelmed with the idea that I’d won.

I am so, so greatful for the opportunity I was given and I’m very excited what the future holds for Mother Giant!”

To find out more about each of the artists from this years Cultivate, check out our Meet the Artists blog.

If you haven’t had the chance to see the exhibition just yet, it will be open until 30 July.