HEREFORDSHIRE sculptor Emily Price, currently studying at the Royal College of Art, was announced last week as the winner of the Coutts Cowley Manor Arts Award.

Emily’s sculpture, Cheese Rolling was selected by a panel of judges from a shortlist of eight young artists’ work, all of which will be displayed until September in the grade II-listed gardens at Cowley Manor near Cheltenham.

A winner of one of last year’s three h.Art young artists’ bursaries for her work, including Untitled – Video in a Shed 2010, Emily reveals that, although she has an art GCSE, she didn’t go to art college, and is delighted to have won an award in the first competition she entered.

Her winning sculpture, like her earlier video installation, looks to the past, and in this case to a particular Gloucestershire tradition.

“I’d done a lot of work with morris dancers, but never really explored Gloucestershire,” says Emily. “I thought it was better to stick to what I knew so I researched local customs and cheese rolling struck me as something that would be fun to do.”

The finished work is a giant wooden cheese, but with a real cheese inside it, a reference to the years when rationing made the use of a real cheese impossible.

“It’s something that’s quite playful, because I think art can be quite serious.”

The sculpture is complemented by a video installation of an archive film of cheese rolling.

“Lots of visitors to Cowley Manor didn’t know about these traditions,” she says.

Emily also acknowledges the valuable support she received in making her piece. “There was a really supportive network both at Cowley Manor and college, where the technicians were very helpful, and it was great to have the materials paid for.

“I am really chuffed that the first thing I made won this award.”

The RCA Sculpture Exhibition can be seen at Cowley Manor by hotel residents, restaurant guests and picnickers until September 30.

For further information, call Cowley Manor on 01242 870900.