Bird ringing

Artist in Residence

Local artist Imogen Rigden has begun to work with Burgess Field as her main focus.  Her multi-disciplinary work includes drawing, painting, printing, basketry, photography and installation which often uses text.  She has also begun a beautiful, large-scale piece of embroidery, which she showed us at the most recent AGM. She is especially interested in the joyful regeneration of this reserve with its potential to provide rich and varied habitat for plants and creatures in a city which loses so much to development year on year.  

Imogen hopes over the next two years to make a collection of work to exhibit at The North Wall gallery Oxford in 2027.  She would like to begin by inviting visitors and volunteers to help her name each part of the reserve. These names might be well known, for example Wolvercote Gate or Snipe Field, but might also be names that have been given informally to favourite places, for example “Snowdrop Corner”. It's very likely that one small area will have picked up several names. Please refer to our hand drawn map.

With regard to art workshops, Imogen will keep an eye out for available dates.  She hopes to make the workshops free (or donation to Friends of Burgess) and bookable and with minimal materials required. She’d like to use them as a way to gather more Friends and work party enthusiasts for Burgess. She’s aiming for June and July when we might get a dry day or two.

Imogen posts beautifully illustrated blogs about her progress on her website, where you can also find her contact details. She will be very pleased to receive any notes or questions.  Please say hello if you see her with a sketchbook and camera on Burgess Field in the coming months.