Cynon Valley Museum has partnered with Amgueddfa Cymru and Cyfartha Castle in a new project titled Valleys Re-told.
Valleys Re-told
The Valleys Re-told project, led by Amgueddfa Cymru and funded by the Museums Association / Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund will work with the Cynon Valley Museum Trust and Cyfartha Castle Museum and Gallery to develop opportunities for schools and community groups to take part. The project will work with local people to re-tell and challenge the stories behind items in the Amgueddfa Cymru collection and transform the way Amgueddfa Cymru interpret and use their collection.
Richard Jones, Chair of Cynon Valley Museum Trust said “At the Cynon Valley Museum we pride ourselves in making the history of the valley accessible to the community. I’m really pleased that we are now going to be able to make interacting with the collections held by the National Museum Wales more accessible to the people of our local communities. It is a collaborative project between ourselves, National Museum Wales and Cyfarthfa Castle and will involve working with community groups, helping to tell new stories and challenge stories from the past that may misrepresent our current values. This is a brilliant opportunity for us to work with the other partners involved to bring history to our communities.”
You can follow how this project is going by regularly checking the museum website or by signing up to our monthly newsletter. Sign up to the Newsletter here.
Collections currently on display at Cynon Valley Museum
An Introduction by Klara Sroka
ACNMW has appointed Klara Sroka as Community Engagement and Learning Officer and will be taking a leading role in delivering the Valleys Retold Project
Klara has spent 16 years as an Art and Design educator, assisted Charlotte Church in 2019 in setting up the first democratic school in Wales, and in 2020 completed her master’s in fine Art. She is a practicing artist who has a passion in engaging people with art and local Welsh heritage.
In the first year Klara will be recruiting two schools and two community groups to take part in a series of participatory and creative activities with the aim of encouraging meaningful explorations from the existing art collections from all three museums. The confirmed groups for the first year are Lee Gardens Pool Committee, Coleg y Cymoedd, Merthyr Tydfil Historical Society, Dowlais Primary School, and there are various art groups that will also be involved such as the Dowlais Art Group and Painting4Fun. This will be the first co-created project of its kind that encapsulates the voices and histories of so many people from the south Wales valleys.
You can find out more about the project here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L74yHSogiTE
