HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Looking forward to 2012? Yes, we are!

This year sees another major exhibition by sculptor David Nash.  The exhibition at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew in London will also feature a 'Wood Quarry' and Nash will be making works on site.

Bedwyr Williams has his largest one person exhibition to date at the Ikon gallery in Birmingham. Williams has already been tipped by the Observer as an artist to watch this year in the review published on New Years Day.

National Theatre Wales has another exciting programme ahead this year, building on the success and critical acclaim for their first season. Culture Colony will be a place to follow the production of Coriolan/Us in August. Pete Telfer took part in NTW's 'The Persians' and was able to maintain an ArtLog on Culture Colony through rehersals and into the run of performances. He will be taking part once again in Coriolan/Us, as 'the cameraman', and will be ArtLogging once more. To see one of the ArtLogs from 'The Persians' click HERE.

Clive Hicks Jenkins also has a busy year ahead of him. He's painting 30 to 35 new works for a major one man show at Jersey Arts Centre in September. At the same time he's designing a stained glass work, celebrating the 17th century metaphysical poet Henry Vaughan. The glass work will be installed in the church window where the poet is buried.

Jon Gower! where can we start with him? He has books pouring from him as usual ... The first is 'The Story of Wales' which accompanies the new BBC Wales series out on the 9th of February. He's written the text to accompany photography of the coast by Jeremy Moore - they'll be married up in 'Wales: at Water's Edge' out in May. Jon's second collection of short stories called 'Too Cold for Snow' will be out in June. There's also a trilingual novel (Welsh, English and Spanish) about the journey of migrants from Central America through Mexico to get to the USA planned to be out in August.

Other than that Jon is performing 'While There Are Still Books' with Gerald Tyler and Tomos Williams - at Ty Newydd with Twm Morys as special guest this Friday, then taking it on tour around small bookshops in the autumn..... Phew!

And 2012 has so much more on offer. Wales' Cultural Olympiad for one. Adain Avion, the flightless aeroplane that Marc Rees will be dragging around Wales, creating the wings for it to fly out of our cultural and creative interaction as a nation. An exciting project to follow and visit.

There is already a significant list of cultural highs to look out for, and you'll be able to follow through Culture Colony. Mary Lloyd Jones goes to New Mexico for inspiration as she creates new works, Power Plant is in China, River Soundings is at the MAC in Birmingham, good cop bad cop begin their R.S. Thomas project, Shani Rhys James is in the studio preparing new work for a major exhibition at Aberystwyth Arts Centre (showing in May 2013). There's Artes Mundi, the prestigious art award and exhibition at the National Museum of Wales in the Autumn, there's a significant new literature festival taking place this year in West Wales and the Centre for Alternative Technology launch an arts programme for 2012 and host Emergence, the conference about sustainable practice in the arts.

The visual arts exhibition, Y Lle Celf, at the National Eisteddfod in the Vale of Glamorgan is set to be an exciting one this year - if our insider knowledge about what the local comittee have proposed is anything to go by. (Remember if you're thinking of submitting work then the closing date is February the 14th).

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales will be making large numbers of photographs from their collection available to view. In May there will be an exhibition of photographs at Ceredigion Museum in Aberystwyth called 'Inside Welsh Homes'. And later in the year the Commission will be publishing a book, 'Historic Wales from Above', featuring photographs from the earliest aerial photographers of the 1920's right up to the present day.

Although M.C. Mabon has only just released the brilliant album 'Strict Meter', the artist is so prolific that there is no doubt that there will be more exciting music on offer from him and the new Tarw Du record label this year.

And of course, Culture Colony is running a full programme of events and exhibitions for 2012 at The Old Tannery in Machynlleth, the Ancient Capital of Wales. Click HERE for more details.

All of these things and much, much more will be followed, filmed and documented by Culture Colony. The fruits of this documentation will result in continued content on the Culture Colony web site, a film  called 'Elsewhare 2012' and an exhibition to go with it.

Building on the improvements to the web site functionality we introduced in 2011, you'll soon be able to access Culture Colony on your mobile phone and use the facilities provided through Culture Colony alongside your other online networks. We've kept it in the testing mode for a little longer than planned because all of the video content - around 400 hours!! - has taken time to convert, but we're almost there. In 2012 you'll be able to take Culture Colony with you and use it to access more information when visiting exhibitions and events. The 'audio tour' at an exhibition becomes irrelevant when the exhibition visitor can access extra content through their own mobile phones via Culture Colony.

Platform subscription will also be enhanced towards the summer when an App will go live enabling Platform subscribers to interact more fully with their Platform membership.

There are some other things that we'd like to see in 2012, things that may or may not emerge as the year progresses. It may be fanciful, but Culture Colony thinks it would be healthy to see a less grant dependent culture evolve among the creative practitioners and organisations in Wales. We'd like to see collaboration and sharing of skills and resources among the creative community. Historically, creativity peaks during times of austerity. Lets look at this as an opportunity rather than a time to moan. We want patrons of the arts to step up to the mark and allow some freedom in arts practice by eliminating hurdles and conditions to the requirements of funding. Culture Colony would like to see a critical debate take place within the arts, there is an urgent need for competent criticism within arts practice in Wales. Without it we are floundering in mediocrity, only accepting taps on the back from our on line 'friends'. We hope that the Welsh Arts Critics and the Rooters Platforms on Culture Colony will bear the fruit that their potential promises.

So, yes we're excited - bring it on 2012!

Backwards and Onward

Welcome to Emma Geliot's review of the visual arts year in Wales for 2011.

And it was a good one, with lots of highlights:

    The new National Museum of Art galleries opened at the National Museum, Cardiff, to universal joy with I Cannot Escape This Place
    Tim Davies played a blinder at the Venice Biennale
    Paul Emmanuel won Welsh Artist of the Year
    Locws International filled Swansea with good things
    Bedwyr Williams won the Gold Medal at the National Eisteddfod in Wrexham, sharing the prize with Helen Sear
    The (very) special exhibition at the National Eisteddfod, Without Words highlighted the work of photographer Geoff Charles and was curated by Peter Finnemore and Russell Roberts
    g39 closed its doors in Mill Lane and moved to huge new premises in Roath, Cardiff
    The Jane Phillips Award was launched
    The Glynn Vivian Art Gallery finally got the go ahead for an ambitious makeover and closed in style.
    good cop bad cop’s Richard Huw Morgan and John Rowley launched a new weekly arts radio programme on Radio Cardiff – Pitch , creating a new platform for artists to talk to each other. Tuesdays 10-11am 98.7fm or online.    

There have been some mighty fine shows on offer this year and I’ve been lucky to see a lot of them. In no particular order of favouriteness here are some of the ones that tooted my horn:

Project Object at Oriel Myrddin in Carmarthen had everything going for it. I love it when artists are let loose on collections, or people are invited to talk about or curate objects that mean something special to them. This show came in four equally good parts and gave me the chance to come as close as I’m likely to get to the Aurora Borealis and slip a poodle into a public gallery. The Glynn Vivian unleashed David Cushway and some delighted individuals on their precious collection of ceramics. The resulting film, Last Supper at The Glynn Vivian, shows how passionate folk become when asked to talk about the objects they love.

One would never have guessed that the Glynn Vivian team had been holding their collective breaths, waiting to get the green light for the new development project – the programme was as lively as ever. I’ve already written up my highlight here. The off site programme continues – follow it here.

Neil Mcnally was let loose on Newport Museum & Art gallery to curate a show – The Institute of Mental Health is Burning. Mcnally selected objects from NMAG’s fine collection, mixing it up with a host of artists. Those who went will have Goldie Lookin’ Chain’s Newport State of Mind (You’re Not From Newport) etched into their memory banks forever more. NMAG also brought us Dis-location by Andrew Cooper, an artist who never fails to engage my attention. Pete Telfer , from Culture Colony, filmed Cooper talking about his work. See the film here.

In mid Wales, Oriel Davies gave us two artists associated with the 2007 Wales at the Venice Biennale offering: Bedwyr Williams and Paul Granjon. Williams’ show, Nimrod, launched with one of his trademark darkly funny performances and the humour threaded through the exhibition, which coincided with the National Eisteddfod up the road in Wrexham – Williams took the Gold medal and went on to win the People’s Choice and Ifor Davies Award in an unprecedented hat trick. (See news item here).

Granjon took over the gallery to create a workshop for unlikely gizmos with very willing volunteers for Oriel Factory. With a suite of his quirky drawings and a loop of films featuring some of his performances, inventions and songs to spur them on, the workshop elves came up with some highly inventive creations – none of which are likely to feature in the Innovations catalogue any day soon.

Across the Cambrian mountains, Aberystwyth Arts Centre has become an important venue for artists’ moving image with The Box seasons, but I’ve also enjoyed Visitor (still  on, if you’re quick) and Wild Thing.

Back in Cardiff Richard Higlett had his first solo show in Wales at g39′s temporary new home in The dairy, Pontcanna with Welcome to Your World. Higlett never fails to surprise and this show was no exception: a talking cat, the GPS (gallery of portable sound) car and a band (Bear- Man) playing from a hole in the gallery floor. Experimentica came back for its 11th outing at Chapter (where else could you find a man covered in mucus bouncing on a trampoline? - here) Chapter Gallery continued to surprise and delight with Pile and  The With Collective my personal faves.

Over in Penarth, Ffotogallery’s programme was as strong as ever, showcasing new and established talent and with complementary and engaging talks and the ever-popular Artists’ Book Fayre I’m so glad that this is my local. They’ll be bringing an international photography festival to Cardiff in 2013.

Artist-run spaces offered some really exciting shows and events this year: tactileBOSCH in Cardiff, continued to present rare opportunities to see performance, along with installations and painting shows that spilled out all over Cardiff for MOIST; Elysium ran another Bus Stop Cinema and disrupted the streets of Swansea; g39 hit Leipzig’s Spinnerei for the big Art Weekend; The Rhôd created a new series of site-responsive works in an old Mill in the hills of Carmarthenshire and created their own pavilion at the Venice Biennale (Rhodio ). Swansea’s Supersaurus played host to shows by Gordon Dalton and Tom Goddard, while Supersuarus member Owen Griffiths dug up a football pitch to grow vegetables for Vetch Veg (sometimes you just couldn’t make this stuff up!)

Online artists’ film platform, Outcasting is heading for world domination. Not content with presenting international content, Outcasting’s evil genius, Michael Cousin, has joined forces with, er, me and St David’s Hall’s exhibitions officer, Ruth Cayford to form Fourth Wall. Pedwaredd Wall CIC, which will be filling Cardiff with artists’ moving image this autumn, thanks to festival funding from the Arts Council of Wales. Watch this space for more info and a call for artists to submit.

2011 was tinged with some sadness as Swansea lost two inspirational women: Swansea Metroplitan University lecturer Susan Griffiths and Mission Gallery Director Jane Phillips. Both died too young and leave a big hole in the visual arts community.

We also said goodbye to arts education as we know it with some major restructuring of fine art courses and a few closures. I’ve already written about this here so I won’t bang on but I’ll be watching as things unfold over the next few years.

And last, but not least, of the farewells goes to all of my former colleagues at the Arts Council of Wales, who find themselves staring at an uncertain future following the recent major restructuring (more on this as it unfolds).

Meanwhile some new faces appeared on the scene and began to make their mark:

Amanda Roderick took over as director at The Mission Gallery under very sad circumstance, but her work to date would, I’m sure, make Jane Phillips proud. Ben Borthwick got into his stride as Chief Executive of Artes Mundi, which is scheduled for this Autumn in Cardiff. Up in Llandudno we said goodbye and good luck to Martin Barlow , who left Mostyn after steering its development into one of the finest exhibitions spaces in Wales. He is  replaced as director by Alfredo Cramerotti, who took over as the first major retrospective of Blaenau Ffestiniog-based sculptor, David Nash - Red,Black,Other – launched to much excitement.

And finally, we said hello to #0 of tant magazine. They’re currently inviting submissions for #1 so please follow the link.

It’s been such a busy year and I’m sure I’ll have forgotten to mention a lot of the wonderful things that I have seen.

In the meantime I hope you have a very productive and creative 2012.

Emma Geliot

To go to Emma Geliot's blog on Wordpress click HERE

Photograph shows Emma Geliot at g39 placing sticky labels to mark memories 'In This Place'.

Amelia Forsbrook and her highlight of 2011

It didn't take long for me to think of my cultural highlight of 2011. With a production that embraced the collective memories and events of a community while voicing the concerns of the individual, National Theatre Wales' The Passion was a theatrical event which came to define a year, if not a decade.

It may have starred Baglan-born Michael Sheen in the lead role, but this was a thoroughly democratic production which celebrated every individual, location and memory held within the town. Set in various venues across Port Talbot, with a story which was mainly developed at set points outdoors or during processions, the production adopted an atmosphere akin to that of a festival.

Owen Sheers' script maintained this mood by fictionalising real concerns specific to Port Talbot in a way which highlighted what it was that makes the town, and its people, so special. Through the script, the town was allowed to speak up for itself against the outsiders who have historically come to place definition on it. So, although penned by Sheers and spoken by Sheen, this script became an influential outlet for an entire chorus of voices, memories and stories.

Indeed, the entire Easter weekend was characterised by this balance between a community and its selected representatives. In building the production around home-grown Hollywood personality Sheen, the company aligned a very contemporary understanding of celebrity with the influence of the Messiah. Through this came not only the powerful understanding that it's possible for one person to spearhead a movement towards change, but also an acknowledgement of the true power of community. Michael Sheen may have been billed as the leading actor, but Port Talbot was the star.

Theatre in general may have its problems. It can be expensive, unfulfilled and irrelevant and its makers can be elitist, blinkered and biased. In The Passion, National Theatre Wales took us beyond our complaints in a powerful homage to the power of ambition. Saturated with brilliant, the production was a truly accomplished answer to all the pessimism that can surround our industry and, even eight months on, I still consider myself extremely fortunate to have experienced this extraordinary event. I wasn't reviewing it, but I believe The Passion has helped me enormously as a critic by strengthening my belief in the potential and importance of theatre so much that it shall never be questioned. Although I'm fully aware that it would be impossible to make every production as spectacular as this work and remain quite content with the possibility that this may be the most moving production I'll ever live to see, The Passion has come to represent everything I think theatre should be. It therefore occupies a very special place within my critical work.

As spine-tingling cheers rose from an audience of thousands to embrace a single crucified figure set against a dreamlike video projection of a town's memories, fact and fiction collided, blended and become of little importance. What mattered most was that for a town, for a theatre and for me, something very spectacular and irreversible had happened and boundaries had been redefined. When Sheen projected his final, enigmatically ambitious words across to an audience stirred by an undercurrent of energy and expectation, one thing was very clear: 'It has begun'.

Amelia Forsbrook Profile

National Theatre Wales Web Site

Elsewhere 2012

As the focus is on London and the Olympics this year, Culture Colony is committed to making sure that there is a high quality record maintained from somewhere else.

'Elsewhere 2012' is essentially a film project about creative practice in and from Wales. The end products will be the result of a collaborative process. There is likely to be several 'end products' - a feature length film with a narrative and made to cinematic standards, a video installation utilising a number of screens, an exhibition featuring the art works depicted in the film, a number of films about and for individual artists, as well as things we haven't thought of yet.

At the moment there is no funding for 'Elsewhere 2012' and so the scale of the end results will be determined by sponsors and partners who may join the project along the way.

This project will also serve as an antidote to the Olympics for future researchers looking back at the archive of our time and finding it saturated by coverage of London. 'Elsewere 2012' will be a breath of fresh air when this year is history.

If you're interested in discussing this project with us, and how you might get involved, please email pete@culturecolony.com

The photograph shows 'Tales of Space and Time' by Heather and Ivan Morison. A house truck that serves as a science fiction mobile library parked at their arboretum in Mid Wales and will feature in the film 'Elsewhere 2012'.

Tweet @culturecolony

Culture Colony is now on Twitter. If you have already joined Twitter you can follow Culture Colony by using @culturecolony .

Soon we will also be introducing a Twitter feed to the Culture Colony news service to enable the membership to share insights and news as it happens from wherever it's happening.

And for anyone wishing to tweet yn y Gymraeg you can also find us @ywladfanewydd.

Comprehensive Gallery Listings

The events calendar provided by Culture Colony is now a significant listings service for Wales and beyond. The exhibitions and performances already posted cover most of the galleries in Wales, and an increasing number of galleries and venues in Birmingham, Bristol and Yorkshire. The potential for the listings here, free of irrelevant advertising, to become the most comprehensive online resource is achievable this year.

Individual members and subscribing organisations can easily update the listings to include their exhibitions and events. The service also enables the member to add more content to the posting - more images for instance or even a video of the opening speeches. Whatever the member wants to post, this service has the potential to enhance visitor experience by offering added content to the exhibition or event.

There is no need to log in, nor to register, this listings service is available to anyone who wants to find exhibitions and creativity of interest to them.

Nodiadau Maes - Field Notes Opens at Oriel Myrddin

Nodiadau Maes - Field Notes opened on Friday evening at Oriel Myrddin Gallery in Carmarthen. The exhibition comprises of collaborative works between the visual artist Iwan Bala and the poet and playwrite Menna Elfyn.

Prior to the official opening there was a presentation about the work given by Professor M. Wynn Thomas from Swansea University. Menna Elfyn also shared her thoughts about the exhibition and read one of her poems. This was filmed for Culture Colony and can be viewed by clicking HERE.

The exhibition is curated in such a way that it's layout is reminiscent of an old school room or chapel. After Prof. M. Wynn Thomas' inspired introduction to the exhibition, where he could easily have been a teacher giving a lesson to eager pupils, or a preacher conveying a sermon to a devout congregation, Iwan Bala pointed out how appropriate his delivery had been, in the context of the atmosphere he wanted to create around the work.

A catalogue accompanies the exhibition and contains essays from Ciara Healy, the Head of Critical and Contextual Studies at University of Wales Trinity Saint David, and Mike Parker, author of Real Powys, Map Addict, The Wild Rover and Neighbours From Hell? English Attitudes to The Welsh.

Nodiadau Maes - Field Notes continues at Oriel Myrddin until the 18th of February.

The photograph above features Dr. Menna Elfyn and Iwan Bala at the exhibition Field Notes on the opening night.

Iwan Bala profile

Field Notes Opening video

Rhys Mwyn reviews 'Real Powys'

Real Powys is the latest book by Mike Parker.

Psychogeography was defined in 1955 by Guy Debord  as "the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals."   Another definition is "a whole toy box full of playful, inventive strategies for exploring cities...just about anything that takes pedestrians off their predictable paths and jolts them into a new awareness of the urban landscape."  OK I nicked this off Wikipedia but I thought it's a good place to start.
 
There is an argument of sorts right at the start of the book - the question is whether it's possible to apply psychogeography to the rural landscape as opposed to the Situationist urban utopia of streets, grids, towerblocks, shopping malls and concrete consumerist structures. The series editor Peter Finch was originally sceptical. The book author Mike Parker was definitely convinced.
 
As one who has applied, borrowed, nicked, adopted, adapted many a Situationist concept, slogan and image and transposed those cultural handgrenades into the Welsh landscape - political, cultural and Welsh Language - I was with Parker and needed no convincing.
 
I've read Parker's "other books" of course. "Neighbours from Hell ? English Attitudes to the Welsh" made for interesting reading for a Cymro Cymraeg and I still use the Wales Rough Guide as reference on my travels but this book, Real Powys is of greater interest in many ways. One, I'm in the book. Two, I'm from Maldwyn and thirdly I just love this idea that there is no copyright on Welshness - Real Powys spits out some uncompromising truths, some hilarious judgements and some detailed observations that only a radical non-conformist situationist could come out with - and they are so damned accurate.
 
 It's brilliant (un-intended comedy), but then the best comedy is always based on the half truths of reality. It's a brilliant read and to the point, direct, no nonsense  in ways that Jan Morris in her matters of Wales has yet to master. It's a modern day Wild Wales with Borrow like obsessions and literary O.C.D's. And it tackles the part of Wales, the  real Powys,  that most people choose not to reach. Just off the A470. Most don't get off. Take a detour(nment) !
 
Parker manages to squeeze in the C-word, that most uncomfortable word unless you live in Caernarfon where it's pronounced with an o, in the same chapter as the beacon of Non-Conformist purity, Ann Griffiths, or was she? was she indeed as erotically charged as Gwerful Mechain who is so eloquently captured in Parker's Plygain detour.
 
The deconstruction of Welsh / Cymraeg copyright is dealt several handgrenades. The classic is the very suggestion that the Royal Welsh is probably more representative than the National Eisteddfod. Representative of what of course - that's the very subject matter of said copyright issues.
 
And it takes a trader, a car booter to sum it up neatly, that those Eisteddfodwyr grown fat on the public purse have yet to do a proper day's graft - this is pure heresey - this is Darwin visiting Cefn Meiriadog caves and Cwm Idwal, on the origins of evolution trip and our close, close and personal thing with monkeys that the Right, the Creationists, fear most. This is a new theory, on the origins of Powys, that those holding on to Welsh Copyright should rightly fear.
 
The real pubs get a mention, the parlour pubs, run by defiant old ladies who hang their washing on the dartboards - this is a real Powys that our children may never see - I still remember my one and only visit as a teenager to the Goat in Llanfihangel yng Ngfwynfa for ale from a jug - that was late 70's and it felt like an anachronism even then.
 
We are encouraged to take trains from the hardest to find stations and platforms, always obscure, always down an overgrown lane that is in worse than poor condition and that only an OS Map obsessive will find anyway. We are given tantalising glimpses of old buildings that will soon disappear - raising more questions than answers. Are not the associated well buildings of the Well towns not as valid in terms of archaeology as our Industrial buildings ? Big question that one and a need for urgency if they are not to dissappear.#
 
Ther is no such thing as a "Situationist", therefore there can be no such thing as a "situationist book". Can psychogeography work without the towerblocks ? Has Parker managed to deconstruct the copyright on Welshness ? Who cares - take the next left off the A470 and follow your nose.

Rhys Mwyn profile

Mike Parker profile

Real Powys is published by Seren as part of their 'Real' series.

For more information go to their web site by clicking HERE

West Wales to host a major new literature festival

Literature Wales is pleased to announce that a lively new festival celebrating the very best of literature will be held at Dinefwr Park and Castle in west Wales in 2012.

The Dinefwr Literature Festival is a collaboration between Literature Wales, the National Trust, and the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David (as lead partner in the Coracle programme).

The Arts Council of Wales has generously awarded £65,000 to this new project from its Festivals Fund.

The bilingual festival, which will be the first of its kind, takes place from Friday 29 June to Sunday 1 July 2012. It will feature an eclectic mix of literature, music, comedy, cinema and children’s activities – doing for literature what the Green Man Festival has done for music. High quality literature events will be programmed alongside other art forms in the beautiful and inspiring surroundings of Dinefwr Park and Castle.

The impressive line-up will include multi-award-winning novelists, local storytellers, performance poets, children’s authors, singer-songwriters, script-writers plus a whole host of fringe acts guaranteed to appeal to children and adults alike. The festival site will have a dedicated camping field to set up a temporary home from home for the weekend. The site will also be brimming with outdoor entertainment, a variety of stalls, excellent local food and much, much more.

Dinefwr in Carmarthenshire has a long and prestigious association with Welsh literature. It was the seat of the medieval Princes of Deheubarth and is steeped in culture. This area of Carmarthenshire is known for the part it has played in the promotion and celebration of Welsh culture throughout the centuries.

Justin Albert, Director of the National Trust in Wales, said: “This is an incredibly exciting project and partnership for the National Trust to be involved in. Everyone loves good stories, poetry and music and Wales has such a rich and fantastic tradition in these areas. Dinefwr is rightly seen as one of the cradles of Welsh culture, so holding the festival at this site will surely play a massive part in further invigorating pride in Welsh literary and musical achievement. We congratulate Literature Wales and the other project partners in successfully bringing this bid together and laying the groundwork for what we are confident will be an amazing festival and celebration of Welsh culture.”

Dominic Williams, Coracle Development Officer, says: “The professional development of any creative community, including that of creative writers, is the driving force behind the Coracle programme. Arts festivals are the showcases that often convert those communities into industries. This local and international festival will have a hugely positive impact upon the region by attracting lovers of culture to this Welsh home of literature.”

Lleucu Siencyn, Chief Executive of Literature Wales, says: “Literature Wales’ vision is to take literature to all corners of Wales to as wide an audience as possible. This new festival allows us to do that. Working in partnership with the National Trust and Coracle will enable us to be more ambitious in our programming than ever before. 2012 will be a great year for literature.”
Watch out for more information and future announcements about the festival, including the launch of a new festival website in the New Year.

In the meantime, visit the project partners’ websites: Literature Wales www.literaturewales.org, National Trust www.nationaltrust.org.uk/dinefwr, Coracle www.coracle.eu.com

The festival is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Interreg 4a programme.

Image caption:
The project partners at a recent planning meeting at Dinefwr’s Newton House, from left to right: Lleucu Siencyn (Chief Executive, Literature Wales), Hazel Walford Davies (Literature Wales & National Trust Board Member), Elena Schmitz (Schemes and Data Manager, Literature Wales), Jacqui Kedward (Property Manager Carmarthenshire, National Trust), Anneliese Parsons (Visitor Operations Manager, National Trust), Dominic Williams (Development Officer, Coracle)

This is a Literature Wales Press Release

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We are also running a Pioneer Platform for a trial period of 3 months. As the Platform service is unique to Culture Colony we have some experimenting to do to explore the facility, this is an oppportunity to do that. If the Pioneer Platform proves useful, and enough people wish to join, then it will become a permanent feature.

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The Pioneer gallery on Culture Colony

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