Marking its 11th year of recognising and supporting some of East Anglia’s most creative people, the Firstsite Collectors’ Group Bursary Awards will again provide financial support to eight outstanding artistic projects.
Since it first launched in 2013, the scheme has invested over £45,000 in Essex and Suffolk artists working in a variety of mediums and disciplines. 2025 marks the first year that the Awards have been opened up to Norfolk too.
The 2024 Bursary Award winners are Ben Andrew, Stephanie Douet, Sue Gascoyne, Matthew John Harrison, Liz Waugh McManus, Justine Moss, Raphaella Pester and Heidi Wigmore, who are sharing a total of fund of £4,700 between them.
Ben Andrew is an aspiring artist who likes to draw a variety of cartoon-like characters, animals and mythical beasts from photographs. Having created a precise image with black pen on white paper, he uses felt tip markers or colouring pencils to colour-in his drawings. After leaving full-time education when he was 19, Ben is now a trainee artist and proudly shows his work on Facebook and has had it displayed as part of exhibitions at Firstsite, the Minories, and the Level Best Art Café, where he studies.
Despite his passion for drawing, Ben, who has autism, has had no other art education and plans to put his bursary award towards the creation of a colouring book filled with his own drawings. The money will specifically be used to buy Ben his own specialist art supplies for drawing (to use both at Level Best and at home) and for all the associated printing costs for his book.
“The investment will allow Ben to concentrate on drawing and improve his skills,” says Megan Neko, Art & Gallery Project Lead at Level Best Enterprises. “It will also allow him to create new, cool, awesome drawings that he could share with other people, both locally, and potentially with a wider audience nationally.”
Abstract artist Sue Gascoyne aims to use her award to explore a move into creating textile portraits. She explains: “Coming to art late, following a life-changing accident, I have a drive and determination to create and develop as an artist while finding and expressing my voice. 18 months on from making my first piece, my work has progressed into sculptural and mixed media work often confronting difficult issues. With no formal art training, this bursary offers an important opportunity for me to develop my skillset, confidence to push boundaries and realise my potential in ambitious gallery installations.”
Film maker Matthew John Harrison has a real connection with his home county and after studying Film and Moving Image at Norwich University of the Arts, he has focused his lens on issues relating to the Essex countryside: “I was raised in the small village of Birch just south-west of Colchester and post-graduation independently produced a documentary film about the oyster farmers of Mersea Island, called Oyster Land.”
Following his successful application for funding from the Firstsite Collectors Group, he says he can now make his next documentary film. The upcoming untitled film, based in East Anglia, will be about the rogue producers of raw unpasteurised milk and those who choose to drink it.
“Instead of pasteurising their cows’ milk, these East Anglian farmers prefer the old way of providing fresh milk ‘straight from the cow’. The farms I plan on documenting are in Essex and Suffolk” Matthew explains. “As well as touching on the controversy surrounding the risk of drinking this raw produce, the film will spend time on the ground with the farmers and their cows who are on a quest to return to the old way of milk production.”
Similarly influenced by her own relationship with the natural world – specifically the coast – Raphaella Pester will use her award to help develop a body of work centred around the coastline of East Anglia. To do this, she plans to conduct research trips around East Anglia, exploring the landscape and sustainably collect earth pigments to take back to her studio, with the aim of creating a public exhibition centred around the erosion of the East Anglian coastline and our relationship to the changing landscape.
She says: “This bursary will provide invaluable support for my research of the surrounding landscape, giving me access to materials and studio resources. I will also be able to create ambitious artworks, which otherwise would not be realised.”
Jane Hindley, Chair of Firstsite Collectors’ Group said: “As always, we were thrilled to receive a wide range of exceptional applications. This year marks the first time that the Collectors’ Group Bursary Awards invited applications from artists in Norfolk, as well as from Essex and Suffolk—and we were delighted to have one of our winners from Norfolk. Our recipients demonstrate remarkable creativity, innovation, and a deep engagement with their craft. We are proud to support their artistic journeys, providing vital funding to help them develop their skills, explore new ideas, and bring exciting projects to life.”
Sally Shaw MBE, Director of Firstsite says: “It’s amazing to see the difference the Collectors’ Group Bursary Awards make to artists in our region. Thanks to the generosity of the Collectors over the past 11 years, so many artists have been able to take their work in new directions, try out fresh ideas, and take the next step in their practice.
This year’s winners are such an exciting mix of voices, each bringing something unique to the cultural life of Essex and Suffolk. We’re so grateful to the Collectors for their continued passion and support—they are a brilliant example of what can happen when people come together to champion creativity.”
