Quarterly Report: Cyfarthfa Castle Museum & Art Gallery Access and Outreach Officer

Year 2, Quarter 2 (1/12/2007 – 29/2/2008)

Exhibitions

Exhibition of Cultural Connections in Civic Centre and at ‘Taste the difference’ multicultural evening in Dowlais

During January and February, the Cultural Connections exhibition was displayed in the foyer of the civic centre and at the Dowlais Communities First ‘taste the difference’ multicultural evening in Dowlais, allowing the exhibition to reach a far wider and more diverse audience.

Pen-y-dre Comprehensive Art Exhibition

A group of young people aged 13-16 from Pen-y-dre comprehensive school, who have been excluded from the mainstream school, have been working on an art project over the last 6 months. The museum is working closely with the group to work on exhibiting their work in the museum, which focuses upon community identity and what would be in their ideal community. We are working closely with the group to teach them how to design the exhibition from layout and design to writing text labels. The exhibition will be displayed in the museum during May 2008.

Workshops and Events

During this quarter, we offered more workshops in the series of free winter workshops designed to attract members of the local community to the museum and to teach traditional skills. These included Victorian decoration and Victorian wreath making. There was a high level of demand for these workshops, and additional workshops were added to the original programme.

Victorian Decoration Making Workshops 4/12/2007 & 9/12/2007

As part of our winter workshops series, a workshop was run in the museum on Victorian Christmas decoration and Victorian Christmas wreaths. Participants

1 were taught how to make traditional Victorian tree and present decorations using traditional materials. All feedback for this event was positive. Comments from feedback forms include:

Victorian Wreath Making Workshops 11/12/2007 & 16/12/2007

Another in our winter workshops series, participants were taught how to make a traditional Christmas wreath from scratch using fresh foliage from Cyfarthfa Park, with some impressive results.

Gofal Wreath Making Workshop 13/12/2008

We also ran a workshop at the museum for the charity Gofal who offer community-based support services to people with a range of mental health issues. The workshop was attended by Gofal service users from the Merthyr Tydfil, Swansea and Neath Port-Talbot branches.

Creative Writing Workshop for the Merthyr Tydfil Exciting Writing Squad

The Exciting Writing Squad is a group of young people aged between 7-16 who attend creative writing sessions run by MTCBC Arts Division. To coincide with the “Everywhere in Chains” touring exhibition the exciting writing squad visited the museum to learn more about slavery. The group were taught about the different aspects of slavery, with particular focus upon the transatlantic slave trade, but also learning about local connections to slavery. The group were given a wide range of resources, from photographs, illustrations and copies of original documents from which to work. Writer Phil Carradice then worked with the group to create poems based upon the information that they had been given, with some very creative results. These poems are being displayed alongside the “Everywhere in Chains” exhibition.

2 Projects

Options wall art project

In this quarter an art project was initiated with the options group, a group of young people aged 14-16 who have been excluded from mainstream education. Artist Dianne Murphy has been hired to work with the group on a wall art project, to decorate the wall of the centre in which is in need of updating. It was decided that a wall art project would be an excellent way for the group to stamp their identity on the centre, and key to this project is to give the young people an opportunity to get involved in the design of the project. We are currently in the process of designing the wall with the young people, and this project will continue into the next quarter.

Tours & Museum Visits

Basic Skills Group, Glamorgan Gwent College 19/12/2007

The museum were visited by the basic skills group at Glamorgan Gwent College, who were also given a range of resources relating to the museum for use with their basic skills classes to teach them about tourism and heritage. The group have arranged to visit the museum with the group on a regular basis as part of this course.

Conferences

GEM Conference ‘Education in Museums: a starter kit’: 23/1/2008

AT the GEM Conference held at Cyfarthfa Castle Museum & Art Gallery the Access and Outreach Officer gave a presentation on ‘how to engage with your community’ which highlighted ways to target and attract different elements of the local community.

Evaluation (of intergenerational projects) Cymru Centre For Intergenerational Practice, University of Glamorgan: 5/12/2007

Intergenerational Reminiscence Training Day Cymru Centre For Intergenerational Practice, University of Glamorgan: 20/2/2008