09/09/2025
We have a brilliant exhibition taking place this weekend at the building with Somerset Art Works who award a number of applicants with bursaries to pursue their art. We hope you can make it down here to support these incredible artists.
Somerset Art Works Creative Pathways Bursary sits at the heart of our wider Arts Council Funded Artist Development programme. Each year we work with four emerging artists from across the County for around six months supporting their practice through mentoring, creative professional development and financial uplift. This then culminates at Somerset Open Studio’s and Art Weeks Festivals where the artists open their practices up to new audiences and share new work. We’re so proud to offer this opportunity to artists at what is often a very formative time in their early careers.
Our 2025 recipients are:
Caitlin Dawkes
Caitlin works with tactile materials and slow, rhythmic techniques to create soft
sculptures that explore emotion, play, and connection. Rooted in care and curiosity,
their pieces invite touch and presence - transforming personal feelings into shared
experiences.
“This opportunity will help me to explore new possibilities with textiles and soft
sculptures, supporting my growth as an artist post-graduation. I aim to rejuvenate my
practice, connect with new audiences, and gain the clarity needed to move forward
creatively.
”
Eleanor Pring
Eleanor is a recent graduate of Falmouth University, with a BA in Fine Art. Currently living
and working in Somerset, she uses printmaking techniques like etching and
carborundum to explore the geological and anthropological histories of her local
landscape.
“I hope taking part in the bursary programme will allow my practice to develop in a
professional setting and invite the local community to engage in the processes behind
my work.
”
Maria Sidawi
Maria is a first-generation British Syrian artist based in Bath, navigating her early
career as a self-taught artist. Maria’s artistic practice explores lived experiences,
delving into how grief, nostalgia, and the search for connection shapes their expression.
She uses art and installation to explore hidden and unhidden personal experiences.
“Through the bursary program, I hope to gain a deeper understanding of who I am as
an artist, clearly define my artistic medium, and engage with audiences through my
artwork. Ultimately, I aim to creatively respond to personal experiences and document
insights that resonate with the healing process.
”
Oliver Kirkham
Oliver is a Somerset-based artist interested in art as a tool for physical and mental
health recovery.
Working across mediums, Oliver frequently returns to sculpture to convey expanded
definitions of bodies in the artistic space, including their own relationship to the
materials they work with and how they can affect change using art. The process of
sculpture is regarded as collaborative instead of hierarchical, where materials are
reused in a cycle of collapse and repair; a metaphor for a lived experience, a nod to the
everyday.
“I’d like to start a discourse around the enmeshment of art, injury and the everyday;
using SAW’s funds and mentorship to produce new objects inspired by life experience
and studio practice”
…
The Somerset Art Works Emerging Maker Bursary, is a brand new offering for 2025, and
part of a larger, ongoing legacy project with the Somerset Craft Guild; promoting
excellence in craftsmanship and design since 1933. Following the recent sad closure of
the Guild’s physical premises in Wells, we are delighted to announce a new and
exciting era for craft in the county as Somerset Art Works and The Somerset Craft Guild
join together for the future. The opportunity to join forces allows us to continue the
lineage and vital legacy work of the Somerset Craft Guild, whilst looking to the future to
foster and encourage the development of a new generation of craftspeople through
an exciting programme of annual bursaries, opportunities, exhibitions and more.
This new annual Bursary dedicated to Emerging Makers and Craftspeople will enable
us to support three new Somerset makers each year in the development and
expansion of their individual craft practices through dedicated mentoring, networking
and up-skilling opportunities.
Our 2025 recipients are:
Edie Evans
Using wild clay and foraged materials, Edie Evans combines ancient techniques with
contemporary craft in the creation of sculptural and functional ceramic pieces.
“This bursary will enable me to explore traditional firing techniques, while creating work
that reflects sustainable, low-impact methods. It will also support the development
and refinement of my skills in working with native clays, deepening my connection to
land, process, and place”
Jo Entwistle
Jo Entwistle’s practice combines her love of making functional and beautiful baskets
with a passion for keeping traditional crafts alive.
“The Emerging Maker Bursary, which I am honoured to have received, will allow me to
further my knowledge, continue my studies, train with some of the basketmaking
greats and help to develop an understanding of turning this passion into a successful
business”
Sujata Bharti
Sujata Bharti works with materials that carry cultural and symbolic resonance.
Working with fibres, pigments and ritual materials that carry cultural and symbolic
resonance, Sujata Bharti creates layered works honouring overlooked narratives and
domestic histories.
“This bursary will enable me to expand my practice and develop a more ambitious
body of work that deepens my exploration of domestic materials, cultural memory,
and hidden care; bringing these themes to life through material transformation and story telling.
