TORCHBEARERS

'Torchbearers' is a Valleys Kids and Wales Millenium Centre Co-production-the result of a long standing partnership with South African artists and community arts organisations. It is part of Wales' Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival.
    
The programme describes it as,
     ' a spectacular cross-cultural performance, which celebrates the extraordinary achievements of      Valleys Kids and their inspirational creative partners in Wales and South Africa. Together, they are   succeeding in changing the lives of disadvantaged individuals in their communities through engaging them in the arts'.

We went to see the show on Friday to a packed auditorium. The show is highly ambitious with a cast of what seems like hundreds-South African dancers, actors, gymnasts, actors, singers and musicians-mixed in with singers, actors, dancers, musicians and young people from Valleys' communities. It is a love story of a South African girl and Welsh boy, who meet on the film set of 'Zulu' at the time Nelson Mandela is imprisoned. They are now old reminiscing about those days.

The production is awesome and it almost seems disloyal to be at all critical as I'm a great fan of Valleys Kids since I worked with Richard Morgan and Margaret Jervis, thirty odd years ago at Rhondda Community Arts and what was then Penygraig Community Project.  I loved the African input-it was so professional and slick, I was moved by the dancing, the music score by Paula Gardiner is inspiring and the singing fantastic. The production is energetic with a great set designed by Mary Drummond. For me a weakness lies in the script by Laurence Allen. It isn't always clear and at times I found it confusing and repetitive. The casting of a mixed race South African, seemingly representing the old Welsh man as the young boy was confusing. This wasn't helped by some poor sound, although given I was having problems with my own hearing at the time, it could have been me.  However, apart from that it is an amazing achievement.
It's going to be performed at Artscape Theatre in Cape Town on November 8,9.10 2012. Well worth the airfare!

THE EXHIBITIONISTS

The Exhibitionists is a BBC Cymru Wales series, a collaboration with Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales, followed five individuals with no formal art background as they were set a series of tasks, the first time ever a museum has allowed such extraordinary access to its important art collection for members of the public to handle, discuss, and put on show.

Helping them along the way have been two figures in the Welsh art world. Osi Rhys Osmond is a highly respected Welsh painter and a Senior Lecturer of Art at Swansea Metropolitan University. Karen MacKinnon is Exhibitions Curator at the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea.

As finalists, Efa Thomas, a musician and Cardiff journalism student originally from Criccieth, and Julia Manser a charity sector worker and keen Swansea City FC follower, were given their own exhibitions in the National Museum's new wing for modern and contemporary art, Gallery 24. Those visiting the gallery were asked to vote for their favorite exhibition. Efa received the most public votes with her theme of destruction and identity.


We really enjoyed the series- a bit of a cross between Masterchef and the Apprentice. The contestants were all very different, coming from a range of backgrounds and ages. In some ways they were all winners, because what was asked of them would have been challenging to those with a knowledge of art and art history. None of the contestants had any art background. We've often thought that the Museum has been rather conservative in its curation, although there are exciting exceptions, such as the bi-annual international Artis Mundi. We'd heard that there are storerooms holding treasures which the public never get to see. Until the recent extensions at the Museum, contemporary collections in my view didn't have a lot of coherence and were displayed in poor light. I found them depressing. But the new exhibition rooms shine great light on older and new work.  And when was the last time you saw an exhibition of  women's art there? Well, there's one on now!
We were eager to see the exhibition and last Friday on entering the Museum we caught sight of Julia Manser, the runner-up, whose theme for the competition was women. I approached her and told her we'd made a special journey. She'd just given a talk (we didn't know about it) but said she'd do it again just for us. We were given seats by the warden and sat down while Julia warmly and enthusiastically explained the reasons for her choices and gave background to the lives of artists such as Gwen John, Sue Williams, and Siani Rhys Jones, to name a few. She's clearly learnt an enormous amount and enjoyed the whole experience. She brings a fresh, personal and enthusiastic heart and mind to her selection. Her captions are witty and some made me laugh out loud. Not  the stuffy way the Museum may do it. Efa's selection is very different-her themes are destruction and identity, with works by Ifor Davies, Iwan Bala and more contemporary, younger, less known artists.  She brings the same fresh creativity to her curation.  I really hope that the Museum will learn how much more accessible that makes our experience. Because of the tight time scales of the series, there's no catalogue available yet. 

The exhibitions can be seen at the National Museum Cardiff until August 19. Efa is giving a talk about her selection on Tuesday 14th August at 2pm. and the pieces of art can be seen on the Your Paintings website. The series is produced by Gwynedd-based Cwmni Da TV company.

Watch the last episode on iPlayer.

GREEN CANTERBURY TALES

This week I met up with a small group of women poets, writers and storytellers who want to take up the challenge to 'Walk for the Earth.' Our group,'Seeds of Inspiration', involves a kind of pagan pilgrimage to sacred sites, which we will circumnavigate at Beltane, the Summer Solstice and Lammas, before joining others at the Confest in Canterbury in September 2013. We'll be having conversations, gathering and telling stories and maybe even performing our work on green themes-if we can find venues.  Below is more information about the project. If you would like to start a seed group of your own and join  Walk for the Earth see www.greencanterburytales.co.uk.

"Storytellers, poets, musicians, artists and those concerned about the state of our world. You are invited to gather in your localities around Britain to make a story pilgrimage across the country towards Canterbury.  We will walk, cycle, ride and use other forms of slow travel, declaring our care for the world through storytelling, poetry and music.

Starting in May 2013 we will converge on Canterbury in September 2013, celebrating our journeys with a conference-festival (Confest). This will be a 21st century Canterbury Tales on a sustainability theme: A WALK FOR THE EARTH.

We want this pilgrimage to be a positive affirmation of the power of the spoken word. Stories of people alive now will mingle with tales of old to honour both traditional roots and contemporary shoots. We will reach out to diverse groups of people. We will learn once more to love this venerable land, to move through it along highways and byways with a sense of adventure, respect and appreciation.

We want to keep asking ourselves and each other: ‘What matters? What can we do? How do we live?’ We want to give voice to the low impact, Earth-friendly, human scale, creative and courageous alternative to all that is corrupt and dysfunctional in mainstream culture. We are inspired by the thought of hundreds (if not thousands) of people from all over Britain walking simultaneously, as if along spokes of a wheel, and converging on an ancient sacred centre to celebrate simple yet immensely rich journeys." (www. greencanterburytales.com)