Meadow Arts and Artist Cordelia Cembrowicz have been working closely with the Golden Valley community creating a series of photographic portraits featuring the people who make the community unique. The portrait will become part of a larger public artwork celebrating life in the Golden Valley. Find out more about Cordelia’s time in the Golden Valley in this blog post written by the artist.

Since my mini-residency visit to the Golden Valley in October I have been working digitally on artwork for the project. I came away from the residency with 100s of photographs of the 54 participants, from health centre staff and patients in Kingstone, to community cafe chefs and visitors at The Hub at St Peter’s Church, in Peterchurch alongside staff and locals and passers by at the GV cafe and gym, Pontrilas. I have refined the selection to a short list of 108 images, removed the background clutter and altered the colours in each. I was looking for a sense of friendliness, or dynamic movement within each person. These are the building blocks for digital collages, which I have altered into a variety of structures. I am pleased with the range of images created, full figure photographs which capture a range of movements and expressions that reflect a sense of positive connection that exists here. 

At the end of January I returned to the Golden Valley with Meadow Arts Engagement Producer Suzie Jones, for a site recce of potential locations for the artwork.  Thankfully storm Éowyn passed us by and we avoided major flooding on the roads. We met at the GV Cafe, Pontrilas and had a great lunch and look at the space.  It was lovely to see cafe owner Sonya again, who shared her enthusiasm for the artwork and knowledge of the local vicinity. How do we present the artwork in a public space? We walked around Pontrilas and on to Eywas Harold to check potential sites. It was really exciting to consider how these images may be enjoyed by the local community in these spaces. How would it feel to see yourself, your friends or wider community members in this particular space?

By the time we arrived at our next stop Kingstone Surgery, the health centre was closed but we still made the most of the opportunity to visit the external space. We enjoyed a walk from outside towards Coldstone Cross, an area near to the surgery and saw another potential site. 

We headed to Peterchurch and visited the Nag’s Head and appreciated the range of non-alcoholic beers on offer for a meeting. We had dinner at the home of Meadow Arts’ Executive Director Clare in a very rural setting, up a steep farm track that would be impossible for any regular car. The clouds parted in the evening and I was astonished to see the night sky and twinkling stars without any light pollution. 

I stayed the night right in the centre of Peterchurch, with a beautiful view of St Peter’s Church spire from my garden. In the morning I could hear the bell ringing in the Church, and wandered over to say hello, stopping to photograph the 2000 year old Yew tree. The bell ringers allowed me to film them in action. It was the first Sunday ringing for twenty years, and the first time the bells had been rung at all since Covid. It was truly awe inspiring to hear the sounds resonating through the space. I reflected upon how that must have been heard by people centuries ago, connecting the wider communities for miles around. I hope that my artwork will be enjoyed by the local community members in a similar way, enabling people to feel more connected and present within their place. 

Our Place Golden Valley is a Meadow Arts project. It is part of the Our Place Herefordshire programme funded by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, with match funding from Herefordshire Council under the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and public health funding.

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Upcoming Golden Valley Collage Workshop:

Join us for two fun and relaxed collaging session in the Golden Valley. Your creations will be used as inspiration for Cordelia Cembrowicz’s grand-scale artwork, which will be displayed in the area later this year.

Saturday 22 February, 12 – 2.30pm
Peterchurch Village Hall, HR2 0RS
Free, drop-in

Friday 7 March, 12 – 2.30pm
Abbey Dore Village Hall, HR2 0AA
Free, drop-in