MARSH AWARD WINNERS 2022

Every year the Marsh Christian Trust recognises some of the outstanding contributions made by volunteers of The Arts Society in the field of heritage conservation and arts education.

We are delighted to announce the 2022 prize-winners:

SOCIETY COMMITTEE AWARDS

• The Arts Society Sedgemoor

  Despite the rigours of lockdown, restrictions on meetings and other social contact, and across the entire area of its rural membership, immediate past chairman Adrian Forber and present chairman David Chiverton kept the group alive by sending out regular newsletters, and by being among the first to persuade its membership to sample lectures via Zoom. It is entirely due to their enthusiasm, dedication and sheer hard work that The Arts Society Sedgemoor membership actually went up 
   

• The Arts Society Hamburg

  Pat Pledger has been Chair of The Arts Society Hamburg for 9 years. In that time, besides running her own business, she has worked tirelessly for the Society. She was the driving force behind the Church Recording programme, has organised outings and trips inside and outside Germany, introduced Mailchimp to professionalise communication within the society, promotes the society via social media and has modernised the website. From the beginning of the pandemic Pat coached members individually ensuring that Zoom lectures were available to everyone who wanted to attend. Her latest innovation is an online Members’ Forum at approximately 3-monthly intervals to bring members together in this difficult time.

HIGHLY COMMENDED

• The Arts Society Stratford-upon-Avon

  David Triggs, Lynne Hurst and Nick Lister have worked hard as a coordinated team to present zoom lectures from the very start of the pandemic. Lynne had to renegotiate terms with all the lecturers and find replacements for those unable to undertake lectures on zoom. David and Nick, learning on the job, undertook the technical side and guided lecturers through practice sessions to finesse the process. David extended the access to lectures, virtual Study Days and Day Visits by inviting small societies in the Midlands to participate and also spent hours teaching others to set up their own zoom facility.

SOCIETY COMMITTEE INDIVIDUAL AWARDS

• Jacqueline Jones - The Arts Society Kington Langley

  Over the last three years Jackie has been a strategic and charismatic leader of Kington Langley Society. Her response to the pandemic shut-down was to see where there was potential for change, to review who was best placed to help her achieve that change, and to start planning responses. She was instrumental in developing Zoom based lectures to keep the society together. Jackie reached out to two other smaller societies to share our lectures to the benefit of their members. Jackie was also very keen that we develop a series of Virtual Visits, to keep our members engaged. The result is an Arts Society that is modern, outward facing, ready to face challenges, caring for the well-being of its members and encouraging everyone to go that little bit further to make a difference.
   

• Virginia Cardwell Moore - The Arts Society Tayside

  Virginia Cardwell Moore has been the vital mainstay of The Arts Society in Scotland & NI for many, many years. Having worked her way through various roles on the Tayside committee, she served with distinction as the Society Chairman before becoming the Area Secretary for Scotland & NI in 2014. For the last eight years she has been the right-hand man/woman to three different Area Chairmen offering wise words, great admin skills and infectious enthusiasm. No task is too much for her.
   

• ​Roger Mitchell - The Arts Society Wimbledon

  During the pandemic Roger researched the possible merits of Zoom technology. He transformed our technical ability to enable us initially to reach our membership and deliver lectures and other meetings online but also, now that we back in our hall, to run hybrid lectures of the highest quality. This has given a huge amount of pleasure to Arts Society members who choose to enjoy their lecture within the hall and to also those who cannot physically attend. As a direct result this has brought much pleasure to our ageing members who would otherwise not been able to enjoy the arts and also given our society an increase in membership numbers amongst a younger section of Wimbledon society. ASW numbers that previously had been chronically dropping in recent years are now steadily rising as a direct consequence of his good work and we are reaching more and more of our local population. This is all due to the vast amount of work and time that Roger has devoted to our Arts Society.

GROUP AWARD

• Heritage Volunteering Group - The Arts Society Kennet & Swindon

  This small but perfectly organised group was set up 7 years ago by Janet Cooper-Tydeman. This group allowed the church (St. Mary’s Church, Lydiard, Swindon) to be opened on Friday each week to allow more visitors, local, national and global, to see the treasures in this small church. After training they have thoroughly enjoyed guiding visitors to see the wall paintings and monuments. Due to their contribution in increasing visitor numbers they were invited to support and be involved in the bid for conservation funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund. With fund raising and a HLF grant they became part of a successful team with a fantastic £1million programme involving International Conservators. There were artists in residence with an exhibition as well school activities and opportunities inspired by St Mary’s rich history, which continues. Conservation was a dusty job so our volunteers are now being trained in specialist heritage cleaning as well as continuing to welcome more visitors to be inspired and engaged in this hidden gem.

ARTS VOLUNTEERING INDIVIDUAL AWARDS

• Heather Leach - The Arts Society Wessex Area

  Heather is very much a valued member of the Area team as AV Representative, fully participating in all the various discussions and meetings. Her infectious enthusiasm and boundless energy in all she does inspires us in supporting the innovative AV projects she puts forward. All the AV projects, initiated by Heather and sponsored by Wessex Area, have to show they promote The Arts Society’s work in ‘enriching lives with the Arts’ before funding is agreed. In 2021 the staggering sum of £34,243.50 was donated by AV projects across the whole of Wessex Area – an amazing achievement in these times of Covid-19. The words to describe Heather's involvement with AV: proactive; considered; always looking for new opportunities; thorough; gets 'out there ' to spread the word; very organised; ready to help and share ideas with societies; tireless; a superb team member.
   

• Lynn Lines - The Arts Society North West Area

  In 2014 Lynn became the Arts Volunteering rep. for Cumbria and both committee and members were shaken out of their comfort zone and introduced to less advantaged groups who could equally benefit from and enjoy creativity. Some of her first projects were with young carers, as young as 10 years old leading difficult lives, who enjoyed their days of Art which Lynn organised. In 2018 Lynn became Area Rep. and made her presence felt demanding a budget for volunteering to fund a meeting for all volunteering reps to exchange ideas and work together. Not only did Lynn go beyond the call of duty, she set up art projects in many groups in the community, working with deprived groups before it was fashionable to do so thus raising the profile of the Arts Society as well as offering a little light in many dark lives.

  Tricia Rowlands - The Arts Society Kings Lynn

  Tricia single-handedly ran an art project for Kings Lynn Society at a local primary school, which produced 400 items for exhibition in a local gallery in July 2021. TASKL had been awarded a grant from The Arts Society to cover the costs but the school was unable to allow the usual volunteer team into the school because of Covid19. Mrs Rowlands, who was working as a part time art teacher there, therefore led each of the 14 workshops herself, and mounted the items for display. The resulting show was visited by all 400 children and over 200 members of the public, including the local MP and the Mayor. It resulted in excellent publicity for the Society in two local papers at a time when nationally societies and volunteering had been hit hard by the pandemic. The headmaster said that it was the highlight of their year, and offered to pay for all the materials if TASKL would undertake it again. An ex-member rejoined the Society, stating as her reason the good voluntary work that TASKL was doing.

Congratulations to all the winners!