BorderLands
Project Insights
BorderLands is a three-year, place-based partnership project inspired by Offa’s Dyke and the Welsh Border region. It challenges the idea of borders dividing territory and communities and instead sees them as places of connection and shared identity. Through contemporary visual art, the project invites communities to reflect on how they experience and interpret borders in their own lives and globally.
In Year 1, artist Maya Rose Edwards, was selected via an open call earlier this year. They’ll be working in the Welsh Border region through participatory workshops, conversations, and creative activities. Responding to the landscape, histories, and communities, the artist will explore themes of borders, regions, and identity. The resulting work – a performance shaped by collective imagination – will be shared digitally, in community venues. Read the Residency Announcement below to learn more.
In Year 2, a major exhibition taking place at Hay Castle ( 15 May – 31 August 2026), timed to coincide with the Hay Festival. Featuring the new commission developed in year 1 and loaned works by national and international artists, the exhibition will span both the magnificent interior and grounds of the historic site.
BorderLands in 2025-2026 is part-funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF). The UK Shared Prosperity Fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK investing in communities and place, supporting local business, and people and skills.
The project’s visual identity has been developed by colourformat.com.
Resources
Residency Announcement
Download
Artists
BorderLands exhibiting artist (15 May – 31 August 2026).
In the first year of the Borderlands project, commissioned artist Maya Rose Edwards worked with communities along the border to explore their relation to the unique place they inhabit. Across the three towns of Hay-on-Wye, Presteigne, and Kington, Maya engaged residents to join in conversations, collaborative making, and shared mapping and heritage traditions. The resulting artworks capture the physical landscape as well as the collective consciousness and memory of those who inhabit it. By reimagining the border as a living, evolving space, the work blends local history and contemporary perspectives.
The ‘BorderLands Maps’ were co-created by communities in the 3 border towns who shared and drew everyday, personal landmarks that reflect their lived experience. These new maps formed the itinerary for the performance of Beating the Bounds walks.
Another artwork resulting from Maya’s residency is a full-sized hedge built collaboratively by the artist and master hedge-layer Trefor Prothero, combining contemporary art practice and rural craft.
The hedgerow has a complex history, enclosing land that was once shared, before the Enclosures Act. They are now protected and cherished for their vital ecological and cultural value – when laid traditionally. Maya and Trefor’s hedge incorporates hazel sticks used during the communal Beating the Bound walks recorded in the film. The ancient custom of Beating the Bounds, practiced before drawn maps were widely used, reflects a deep relationship between communities, land and memory.
The walks traced a collective sense of belonging that exists beyond political borders and the incorporation of the stakes transform what might appear to be a barrier into a record of shared movements and connection across the Borderlands.
Partners
Related
BorderLands Mapping Workshops with Maya Rose Edwards
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Artist in residence Maya Rose Edwards and professional hedgelayer Trefor Prothero create an artwork for the BorderLands exhibition
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Meadow Arts announces Maya Rose Edwards as commissioned artist for BorderLands project
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Meadow Arts presents: BorderLands at Hay Castle
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Five Minutes With: Meadow Arts Commissioned Artist Maya Rose Edwards
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