ST FAGANS SECURES THE NEXT STEP FOR MAKING HISTORY AMGUEDDFA CYMRU WINS WALES’S LARGEST EVER HLF AWARD ARTES MUNDI 5 04 STONEHENGE BLUESTONE 11 WELSH ANIMATION 06 On 20 July 2012 the Heritage Lottery Fund announced it was awarding £11.5 million to St Fagans: National History Museum. This is the largest grant ever awarded by the HLF in Wales. The money will go towards Making History, the exciting £25.5 million project to transform this much-loved museum. As we start this major redevelopment, and to help us make St Fagans truly exceptional, we asked the people of Wales to invest in our journey. Our appeal was very specific: we asked people to donate just £1. This was our contemporary take on Iorweth Peate’s public one penny appeal in 1946, which went towards the creation of the original National Folk Museum – what we know today as St Fagans. Over seven weeks this summer nearly £6,000 was raised – thank you to everyone who donated. We still have more to raise over the coming years, but this was a fantastic start. Find out more about our exciting plans to transform St Fagans on page 2. www.museumwales.ac.uk AMGUEDDFA CYMRU NEWS OCTOBER 2012 ISSUE 02 David Anderson, Huw Lewis (Minister for Housing, Regeneration and Heritage) and Manon Williams (Chair HLF Wales).
Transcript
ST FAGANS SECURES THE NEXT STEP FOR MAKING HISTORY
AMGUEDDFA CYMRU WINS WALES’S LARGEST EVER HLF AWARD ARTES MUNdI 5 04
STONEHENGE BlUESTONE 11
WElSH ANIMATION 06
On 20 July 2012 the Heritage Lottery Fund announced it was awarding £11.5 million to St Fagans: National History Museum. This is the largest grant ever awarded by the HLF in Wales. The money will go towards Making History, the exciting £25.5 million project to transform this much-loved museum.
As we start this major redevelopment, and to help us make St Fagans truly exceptional, we asked the people of Wales to invest in our journey. Our appeal was very specific: we asked people to donate just £1. This was our contemporary take on Iorweth Peate’s public one penny appeal in 1946, which went towards the creation of the original National Folk Museum – what we know today as St Fagans.
Over seven weeks this summer nearly £6,000 was raised – thank you to everyone who donated. We still have more to raise over the coming years, but this was a fantastic start. Find out more about our exciting plans to transform St Fagans on page 2.
www.museumwales.ac.uk
AMGUEDDFA CYMRU NEWS
OCTObER 2012 ISSUE 02
David Anderson, Huw Lewis (Minister for Housing, Regeneration and Heritage) and Manon Williams (Chair HLF Wales).
St Fagans has always been a museum about the people of Wales. The Making History project involves the people of Wales in developing its future.
Plans include:Over 230,000 years of life in Wales, on one site: from the earliest humans to today.
Fascinating new galleries: how, when and why Wales became a nation; details of people’s day-to-day lives, through the ages; the creative skills of generations of craftspeople.
Experimental archaeology: using archaeological evidence, we will recreate Llys Rhosyr, one of the courts of
the Princes of Gwynedd, where school children can stay overnight. Young people will work with us to recreate Bryn Eryr, an Iron Age home from Anglesey.
New, modern facilities: a research space to study the collections; a cafe and a new play area; an eco-friendly building for craft workshops and open-air performances.
During the process there will be a number of open days to meet the building team and discuss progress.
MAKING HISTORY TOGETHER
CREATING A dIFFERENT KINd OF MUSEUM AT ST FAGANS
02 AMGUEDDFA CYMRU NEWS ISSUE 02
Artist’s impression of the eco-friendly new building for traditional crafts and skills.
A FESTIVAL TO EVERYONE’S TASTE
THIRd FOOd FESTIVAl AT ST FAGANS
Almost 26,000 people came to sample the third food festival held at St Fagans on the weekend of 8 and 9 September. Many Welsh producers consider this event an important showcase for their business, and visitors certainly seemed impressed with the Welsh produce on offer.
There was plenty to tickle the taste buds, as visitors sampled produce from more than 80 stalls nestling among the Museum’s historic buildings. Griddle cakes were baked in Llwyn-yr-Eos Farmhouse’s kitchen, and re-enactors cooked in 17th-century Abernodwydd Farmhouse and the newly erected Tudor Trader’s House from Haverfordwest. Museum staff worked in the historic gardens and the fruit of their labour was celebrated in a Thanksgiving display in the early non-conformist Pen-Rhiw Chapel.
03www.museumwales.ac.uk
ARTES MUNDI 5: WALES’S INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ART PRIZE
From now until 13 January 2013 visitors to Wales’s National Museum of Art can see work by seven groundbreaking international contemporary artists.
They are all nominated for the £40,000 Artes Mundi Prize – the largest cash prize in the UK. Each artist will exhibit at least one major work, and some are new for the exhibition or not previously shown in the UK. The works explore subjects as varied as drug violence in Mexico, reality TV, the condition of workers in India and the social and political nature of urban living environments.
The 2012 nominees are Miriam Bäckström (Sweden), Tania Bruguera (Cuba), Phil Collins (England), Sheela Gowda (India), Teresa Margolles (Mexico), Darius Mikšys (Lithuania) and Apolonija Šušteršic ̌ (Slovenia).
This is the first time this exhibition will be shown in the new contemporary art spaces at the National Museum of Art, which opened in July 2011. The Artes Mundi Prize is presented on 29 November 2012.
MAJOR INTERNATIONAl EXHIBITION ANd PRIZE IN CARdIFF
Inequality of wealth has affected children more than any other demographic group; one in three children in Wales lives in poverty – the highest level in the UK.
On 17 July over 140 people attended a conference at National Museum Cardiff to discuss how cultural organizations can support the Welsh Government in tackling child poverty. Organizations present included Theatr Genedlaethol, Film Agency for Wales, Cadw and leading charities including Save the Children and Barnado’s Cymru. Among the speakers were Huw Lewis, Minister for Housing, Regeneration and Heritage and Keith Towler, Children’s Commissioner for Wales.
Over the past decade Amgueddfa Cymru has worked with partners supporting children and families in poverty to enable them to engage with culture. We recently launched Transforming Children’s Futures, our own child poverty strategy, which sets out how we can build on these projects.
Arts organizations are Wales’s biggest providers of informal learning, with one million visits each year by family groups to the national museums alone. By creating more opportunities for children and young people, we can make a difference.
TRANSFORMING CHILDREN’S FUTURES
THE CHIld POVERTY CONFERENCE
05www.museumwales.ac.uk
Artworks from Amgueddfa Cymru’s work with children and families in poverty.
FROM SUPERTED TO FIREMAN SAM
SHOWCASING WElSH ANIMATION
From Saturday 13 October at the National Waterfront Museum, and 27 October at National Museum Cardiff, visitors will be able to get to know their favourite Welsh animation characters.
Wales Animation, curated by Amgueddfa Cymru and TV company Calon, focuses on the history of animation in Wales and the development of techniques from pen and paper to pixels.
Ever since Jerry the Troublesome Tyke was created in 1926 by Sid Griffiths, a Cardiff cinema projectionist, Welsh animation has been known worldwide and is the strongest area of Welsh film production today.
The launch of S4C in 1982 developed Welsh animation and has led to award-winning shows.
The exhibition is an opportunity to see artwork, models and footage all in one place. It will also inspire children about the world of animation through interactive displays showing how animation is created and how it came to be so successful in Wales.
06 AMGUEDDFA CYMRU NEWS ISSUE 02
SuperTed 1982–1994
07
Visitors to the Wales 1500-1800 gallery at National Museum Cardiff this autumn cannot miss the two new large panoramic views of Margam House, Glamorgan, painted about 1700. The two paintings show the front and rear of the now demolished house in its surrounding landscape, and are full of both historical and incidental detail.
It is this detail we wanted to explore as we developed a digital interactive feature to sit alongside the paintings in the gallery.
The feature allows visitors to move around and enlarge the image to explore a wealth of interesting detail in ultra high resolution.
The feature includes information on architectural and landscape details, the famous Margam deer herds and the old villages of Margam and Nottage. Numerous characters within the paintings are also illustrated, showing local people going about their daily lives in this part of the country three hundred years ago.
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY PAINTINGS, TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY VIEWS
dIGITAllY EXPlORING THE MARGAM HOUSE 1700 PAINTINGS
www.museumwales.ac.uk
ISSUE 02
THE NATIONAL WOOL MUSEUM TAKES THE STORY TO MARKET
On 12 September the National Wool Museum celebrated the opening of a new display, telling the story of wool beyond the mill and into the marketplace.
The display includes a reconstruction of the Emlyn Davies Drapers Shop. Emlyn Davies was primarily a flannel merchant and bought most of his stock from David Lewis, the owner of Cambrian Mills, the home of the Wool Museum today. Alan Owen, Emlyn’s grandson, shared his memories and research with the Museum and the result is a display that is personal and authentic.
The display also features a market stall from Carmarthen Market circa 1950, reconstructed using photographs from the Museum’s collection.
After the Second World War mills started selling directly to the public, including such market stalls that sold all sorts of woollen goods including blankets, children’s Welsh costumes, knitting yarns, socks and haberdashery.
Another element of the display shows the story of Craftcentre Cymru. This successful business was established by Dafydd Bowen Lewis as tourism grew in mid- and north Wales in the 1960s. The first Craftcentre Cymru shop opened in Llangurig; over the next decades more shops opened throughout north Wales as well as some in England. Dafydd also started working with top Welsh designers, and commissioned beautiful tweeds and fabrics from mills around Wales.
08
A NEW dISPlAY GOES BEYONd THE MUSEUM
1
AMGUEDDFA CYMRU NEWS
09
2
www.museumwales.ac.uk
Director General David Anderson said, ‘I’m delighted with the further developments here at the National Wool Museum – a museum that has come a long way since it re-opened in 2004, and now attracts around 30,000 visitors a year. We have been very fortunate that Alan Owen ... has given the Museum a copy of his research regarding the family business ... Thank you also to Dafydd and Christine Bowen Lewis for the Craftcentre Cymru archive and their generous gift towards the purchase of the display case.’ 3
1 David Anderson with Dafydd and Christine Bowen Lewis.
2 & 3 The new display shows how and where woollen goods were sold.
This is where you get to meet some of the individuals behind Wales’s national collections. —In this edition, we meet bethan Lewis, Head of St Fagans.
ISSUE 02
bEHIND THE SCENES AT THE MUSEUMS
10
Ed: Since when have you been working at the Museum, and in what roles?
bL: I joined Amgueddfa Cymru in 1994. Fortwo years I taught children how to use a mangle and dolly, which made Mam smile as I couldn’t even use a washing machine! I moved to the National Roman Legion Museum, where I became Manager, and in 2009 I came ‘home’ as Head of St Fagans.
Ed: Is being the Head of St Fagans what you envisaged?
bL: It’s challenging, frustrating and rewardingin equal measure. I was delighted when we achieved the Investors in People standard – testament to the hard work of staff, who make St Fagans a world-class museum.
AMGUEDDFA CYMRU NEWS
BETHAN lEWIS HEAd OF ST FAGANS
Ed: It’s an exciting time to be in charge of the site. What will be the changes in the years to come?
bL: St Fagans has always been a museum aboutthe people of Wales, the Making History project will shape its future with the people of Wales. We want to break down barriers that stop people from visiting museums, and make a lasting difference for heritage and individuals.
Ed: Any final thoughts?
bL: St Fagans has always been a very specialplace for me. I have a 1970s photograph of my sister and me taken at the Museum’s Kennixton Farmhouse, it’s odd to think that the little girl staring back at me is now in a privileged position running the site!
11
INVESTIGATING THE WElSH lINK
Stonehenge’s larger standing stones, the Sarsens, are from the Marlborough Downs, some 30 km to the north. However the smaller stones, the bluestones, are exotic to the area.
Various outcrops on Mynydd Preseli have been identified as sources for the bluestones. but investigation by Dr Richard bevins, Amgueddfa Cymru’s Keeper of Geology, and a team from the universities of Leicester, Aberystwyth and the OU, links some of them to the outcrop Craig Rhos-y-Felin near Pont Saeson, north of Mynydd Preseli.
Furthermore, excavations at Craig Rhos-y-Felin by a team from University College London have identified evidence of human activity at the site. Dr bevins and colleagues have matched worked stone debris from the site to Stonehenge specimens, confirming the geological evidence for Craig Rhos-y-Felin being the source of at least some of the bluestones.
This research questions the long-held view that the stones were transported south to Milford Haven, up the bristol Channel and across land to Salisbury Plain, and means we now have to consider a completely different route.
THE STONEHENGE bLUESTONE
www.museumwales.ac.uk
CHRISTMAS ACTIVITIES FOR ALL THE FAMILY, AT ALL OF OUR MUSEUMS Keep an eye on our website for more information. www.museumwales.ac.uk
FUNDRAISING SUCCESS STORIES Amgueddfa Cymru continues to be successful in attracting external funding. Recent awards include £19k towards community archaeology from the Council of British Archaeology; a grant from the Colwinston Charitable Trust for the contemporary art galleries; a long-standing
Patron sponsoring the Unknown Wales conference, which celebrates Welsh wildlife, for a second year; increased grant from the HLF for the Heritage Horticultural Skills Scheme and £5k from the Derek Williams Trust towards the purchase of Fossil Piece by Steffan Dam.
LOOK OUT FOR…
THE WOLF INSIDE – YOUR PET DOG! An exhibition for dog lovers, which compares the genes of dogs and wolves. National Museum Cardiff, from 13 October 2012
HALLOWEEN NIGHTS AT ST FAGANS 30 October–1 November. Booking recommended to avoid disappointment.
