Further ahead
Brecknock Museum and Art Gallery is
currently closed to the public until the
end of 2016 while it undergoes a £2.5
million development, which will create a
new cultural centre in Brecon.
If the refurbished temporary exhibition
gallery is programmed with ambition and
confidence it will be a real boost to the
contemporary arts in the south of the county.
Over the past year I’ve been working on PEAK,
a project for Arts Alive Wales, which seeks
to develop platforms for the creation and
presentation of contemporary art in the Black
Mountains (a group of hills spread across parts
of South Powys and Monmouthshire, roughly
contained within the towns of Abergavenny,
Hay-on-Wye and Brecon).
The project was initiated in response to
Arts Alive Wales’s strategic aims to generate
professional opportunities for artists in
the region and to provide greater access to
contemporary art within our rural environment.
Emma Balch, PEAK Project Assistant, at
The Begwyns, near Hay-on-Wye.
Credit: Rebecca Spooner
A view of fields at the base of The Sugar
Loaf mountain, Abergavenny.
Credit: Rebecca Spooner
The low-down
PEAK is exploring the potential to develop rural
networks, artistic exchange (regional and
international), temporary studio and gallery
spaces, artist-led projects and festivals.
PEAK is also working on a pilot project, in
partnership with The Landmark Trust, to develop
an artist residency for spring 2015, in response
to the renovation of Llwyn Celyn, a medieval
house and farm in the Llanthony Valley. This will
give artists the opportunity to research an
historically important Grade I listed site and
sensitively explore complex issues surrounding
renovation, examining the physical and social
ecology that is lost as well as gained.
This autumn selected curators and writers
have been invited to a studio visit in the
Black Mountains, to meet artists including
Morag Colquhoun, Susan Adams, Philip Watkins
and Pip Woolf, amongst others, with the aim
of raising the profile of the area, its artists
and exploring potential for new projects and
collaborations. Documentation of the visit will
be shared on the Arts Alive Wales website in
October.
Rebecca Spooner, September 2014
Oriel Davies, Newtown >
-----------------Canal & River Trust >
-----------------The National Trust >
-----------------Green Man Festival >
-----------------Hay Festival >
-----------------Machynlleth Comedy Festival >
-----------------The Sidney Nolan Trust >
-----------------Brecknock Museum and Art Gallery >
-----------------PEAK >
-----------------Arts Alive Wales >
-----------------The Landmark Trust >
------------------
Axisweb members
Susan Adams >
Stefhan Caddick >
Morag Colquhoun >
Penny Hallas >
Shani Rhys James >
Rebecca Spooner >
Antonia Spowers >
Amy Sterly >
Stephen West >
Philip Watkins >
Pip Woolf >
NOTES FROM WALES | AUTUMN 2014 14