“I’m absolutely overjoyed to be able to work with such talented people” says Gwanwyn arts festival’s Emma Robinson
A WALES-wide arts festival for over 50s has commissioned five Welsh artists to produce one-off works of art to mark its tenth birthday.
The Gwanwyn arts festival, which celebrates creativity in older age, has commissioned the artists to produce works inspired by the quote ‘It’s good to look back, but it’s rude to stare’.
Two of the artists – Delyth Jenkins and Prue Thimbleby, are from Swansea.
Delyth, the internationally renowned Celtic harpist, will collaborate with Deborah Winter (Storyteller of the Year – Bristol Storyfest 2015) to combine storytelling and music and explore the relationship between wisdom and the insight of age and the creative process.
They will create a new piece inspired by imagery from Celtic methodology.
Prue, a digital storyteller and willow sculptor will be creating a new performance that will be an interactive mixture of autobiographic and traditional storytelling.
The performance will include rope making where audiences will be encouraged to play with the materials and add their own items to the storytelling rope.
Pauline Down is from Cardiff and her work will be a vocal performance piece for 12 singers inspired by the thoughts of people who live in care homes.
Pauline will create an intimate performance space, inviting audiences to take part in the performance if they wish.
Elizabeth Ashworth lives in Llanfairfechan and her work is a collection of poetry and prose inspired by her experiences and those of other creative older people.
Llangadog-based Elizabeth Brickell is going to produce an art installation of cups and saucers of different sizes.
It has been inspired by one of Elizabeth’s former students – an 83-year-old woman called Violet from Neath who liked to drink tea.
The work, in china and waxed fabric, aims to highlight the rich ‘pattern’ of a person and the bits of knowledge and experiences gathered along the way.
Says Emma Robinson, Age Cymru’s Gwanwyn festival coordinator:
“The Gwanwyn festival is celebrating its tenth birthday this year and we wanted to celebrate this special occasion by offering the opportunity for Welsh artists to create new work art to mark this important milestone in the festival’s history.
“I’m absolutely overjoyed to be able to work with such a talented group of people to produce such an exciting and diverse range of groundbreaking and thought provoking projects.”
For more information about Gwanwyn, visit www.gwanwyn.org.uk, call the Gwanwyn team on 029 2043 1540 or email gwanwyn@agecymru.org.uk
Age Cymru runs the Gwanwyn Festival with support from the Welsh Government and the Arts Council of Wales.
Age Cymru works nationally and locally through its network of independent local Age Cymru partners.
Age Cymru is committed to achieving an age friendly Wales where older people have equal rights to respect, opportunities and the same access to services as the rest of the population.
