We are very pleased to welcome new team member Steve Wilson, former County Arts Officer at Worcestershire County Council, to Meadow Arts as our Education and Engagement Officer.
We asked Steve a few questions, to get to know him better...
Welcome Steve
Hello. Its great to be part of Meadow Arts, an organisation I have admired and have worked with for several years now.
Tell us a bit about yourself.
I am married with two children and have lived in Worcester for over 9 years. I am London born and have worked professionally in the arts for just under twenty years. I used to be the County Arts Officer for Worcestershire and have also worked for the Arts Council.
Are you an artist?
I would like to think we all are. My specialism is words really and I have written lots of plays and can also direct and if I don’t have to do anything too tricky, I can bluff a performance. But I am interested and love all art forms.
Why Meadow Arts?
They offered me a job! Seriously I really wanted to work for an organisation that I could learn from and to give me an insight into the world we live in. I love that Meadow Arts has an ethos of thinking about arts as something that is always evolving and changing. The arts should be like that. I am really excited about how you work with artists who can be cutting edge and how people relate and respond to that.
Can you explain more?
I remember seeing the Give Me Shelter exhibition by Meadow Arts at Attingham Park soon after I arrived in Worcester and seeing the work of artists such as Heather and Ivan Morison amongst others and it had a real impact on me and made me think about my relation to nature. I love the way art can do that. I remember soon after my father died and I encountered Ron Mueck’s sculpture My Dead Dad and it really connected with me in a very deep and personal way. I found myself openly sobbing as if I had been storing up so much emotion. Art can do that. It rocks!
What are you hoping to do with Meadow Arts?
I want to get more people engaging and learning from what we do and with contemporary art in general. I want to work with kids of all ages and with the wider public and to demystify what contemporary art is. I also want to connect with artists and have a great and varied offer.