On Thursday 7th and Friday 8th of July a group representing Maindee went to Swansea to be hosted by ACW and Volcano Theatre.
Maindee represented at Arts Council learning event in Swansea
The Finding Maindee project is supported by the Arts Council of Wales (ACW) not only in financial terms but also by linking to the other 'Ideas: People: Places' (IPP) projects and having the chance to learn and develop. On Thursday 7th and Friday 8th of July a group representing Maindee went to Swansea to be hosted by ACW and Volcano Theatre.
The Maindee representatives included artists Marion Cheung, Barrie J Morgan and Rob Smith as well as John Hallam and Joanne Sutton from Maindee Unlimited. Newport was also well represented by artists Mr and Mrs Clark who performed on Friday afternoon.
Each of the seven IPP projects take a different approach. Whilst Finding Maindee focuses much of its work on the shopping area of Chepstow Road, other arts projects work very closely with social housing organisations. We had the chance to hear about Coastal Housing and Tai Calon in Blaenau Gwent.
Photo (c) Joanne Sutton
In terms of finding creative uses for properties, Barrie and Rob were very glad to meet Jonathan Powell from the Elysium Gallery and learn about how new spaces had been created near to High Street Swansea. They were also pleased to hear that news of Newport's own Upmarket Galleries had travelled to Swansea. In the spirit of sharing practice and experience Marion was able to share her perspective on the Maindee Stories Project. You can read about her work on this site and also through her own blog. The two days included an evaluation session with Wavehill.
The group are going to get back together soon to discuss what they learned and develop Maindee specific approaches to learning and evaluation. We are grateful that ACW for the opportunity and to Volcano and Coastal Housing for hosting.
Elysium Gallery http://www.elysiumgallery.com/
Upmarket Galleries http://www.upmarketgalleries.com/
Marion Cheung http://marioncheung.blogspot.co.uk/