African art trip for Wrexham student

16 March 2006

A student from Wrexham has been selected for a prestigious travel scholarship.  Louisa Bird, an Applied Art Student at NEWI has been selected to receive a £1000 travel scholarship from the Welsh Livery Guild which will enable her to fulfil a lifelong ambition of travelling to Africa to research and study the techniques used by African artists.

Louisa was shortlisted for the award after submitting details of how she would use the scholarship to the Guild and was then asked to give a presentation to members of the Guild along with the other shortlisted candidates. Louisa said, “I was surprised and thrilled to be chosen for the award, the competition was very tough and I thought the award would go to one of the Fine Art students.  I was the only Applied Artist so I feel very lucky to have been chosen.    I have always wanted to travel to Africa.  I am inspired by the work of African potters; they have a more natural way of dealing with their work.  I am really looking forward to working with local people, watching how they work and the processes they use.”

Louisa plans to commence her travels in August and her trip will include visits to the East African countries of Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique.  She has been doing extensive research of the areas she intends to visit and has used the internet to develop her itinerary and make contacts with artists in Africa.  She already has arrangements in place to visit a number of local artists and see their work. 

The Welsh Livery Guild which has provided the scholarship was established 10 years ago and since then has supported hundreds of young people with awards which help them to achieve their goals, whether it is to help buy tools for their chosen trade or to support them to read law.  The Guild raises money for the young people of Wales and promotes education, science and the arts. 

The award will be presented at a ceremony held at NEWI on the 23rd March.  The Master of the Welsh Livery Guild, William Keith Arnold OBE will be at the event to make the presentation.

Louisa will graduate this summer and already has lots of plans for after her trip.  As well as putting in to practice some of the techniques she acquires on her travels she plans to establish an art gallery in the Wrexham area which will provide a venue for local artists to showcase their work and hopefully to exhibit the work of some of the African artists she makes contact with.