A large-scale exhibition of community portraits will be presented outdoors along Presteigne’s Broadaxe Lane over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

Earlier this year, Presteigne residents had their portraits taken at Bennetts on the High Street by Cultivate, the Sidney Nolan Trust’s youth arts group, with support from photographers Julia Cody, Alex Ramsey, and Roger Williams.

The portraits are part of Cultivate’s project on community action and mark the Inside Out Project’s first-ever ‘action’ in Wales. Launched by French artist JR in 2011, the international initiative uses public portraits to give communities a global voice.

The Rural is Relevant exhibition runs outdoors along Broadaxe Lane, near John Beddoes Campus and East Radnor Leisure Centre (LD8 2YT), from Friday, August 22 to Monday, August 25. Made from recyclable cardboard, it may remain on display longer depending on the weather.

Everyone is invited to the exhibition launch and a talk by the young artists at 10:30 am on Saturday, August 23.

Cultivate is a youth arts programme run by the Sidney Nolan Trust and led by artist Emma Posey, who said: “The portraits highlight our diversity as a community and are intended to raise a shared voice for the services on which we all depend, yet are often under threat due to our rurality. Collectively, the group has called for high-quality educational provision in our community, the East Radnor Leisure Centre to stay open, the roads to be fixed and for more public transport that mobilises people. We want clean rivers and better stewardship of our countryside for the benefit of future generations”.

The exhibition will coincide with Presteigne Festival and Presteigne Open Studios.

More about the Inside Out project is at: www.insideoutproject.net

More on artist Emma Posey is at: https://emmaposey.org/

More on The Sidney Nolan Trust is at: sidneynolantrust.org