Feiweles Trust

feiweles trust

The Feiweles Trust was established in 1990 in recognition of the contribution which Joe Feiweles made to the development of arts and education in the Wakefield district. It provides an annual bursary to an artist/s near the beginning of their career to allow them to work in short residencies in a variety of school contexts.

The Feiweles Bursary is unique in several respects.

The bursary holder works with children of all ages from infants up to GCSE & 'A' level students, and with children with learning and emotional disabilities.
Teachers work alongside the artist and develop their own knowledge and skills in the area.
The school can choose to use the unique surroundings and educational resources of Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) for the residency.
An overarching theme allows for a celebration to take place at the end of the bursary in the form of an exhibition or performance.
Typically the artist works in around 20 different schools for residences of between one and five days. A different art form is chosen each year after close consultation with schools. To date the artists have represented the following areas: video, sculpture, poetry, drama, dance, music, creative writing, painting, textile art and Physical Theatre

The residencies are always very popular with schools as the following comments from headteachers show:

"An excellent opportunity to enrich our children's experience and learning." (Infant and Nursery School)
"Members of staff have been given inspiration and confidence... the children thoroughly enjoyed their experience and were obviously highly motivated." (Primary School)
"This year was quite outstanding... Her work fired the imagination of pupils." (Special School)

Recent bursary holders include Richard Cramp, a sculptor (2005/06), Jenny Milne, a textile artist (2006/07), Andy Smith, a composer (2007/08) and Thomas Frith, Physical Theatre (2008/09). This year’s bursary holder is Emily Speed, working in the area of ‘Art as Environment’.

The artists have all valued the opportunity the bursary provides and see it as an important milestone in their development.

"Winning the bursary gave me a feeling of enormous pride. A significant occasion in my development as a film maker. (Judi Alston, video)
"It helped establish me as a woman capable of seeing through a large project to a positive conclusion." (Alex Krysinski, poet)
"An ideal stepping stone to my work as a freelance musician, an invaluable platform for all my subsequent work." (Nick Meredith, musician)
"Children have learned so much from their experience of writing throughout the project." (Ann Hamblen, writer)
"We started the year as an actor and a teacher. We have finished the year as a successful theatre-in-education company." (Rosie Perkin and Kate Millward, theatre)
"When I came to this bursary I never could have imagined how much I would get out of it. I will remember the experience for the rest of my life." (Richard Cramp, sculptor)

Schools can choose to base some of the residency at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. As one bursary holder commented:

"The environment of Bretton, the trees, the grass, the sculptures, the lake influenced my work and my life. It's a really special place with a deep sense of magic."

The venue also ensures that the artist has the support of a major arts organisation.

"...the care shown in creating the environment for the exhibition and giving it a really professional launch; all of these show a respect for the creative endeavors of children equal to that shown for the work of any professional artist." (Ann Hamblen)

The impact of the Feiweles Trust bursary was very well summed up in an evaluation report on the 2004/05 bursary.