News

Early Years Art project

Early years pupils from Richmond Park School visited Oriel Myrddin gallery in Carmarthen and looked at paintings by the artist Gareth Hugh Davies. The paintings depicted trees and snow covered landscapes with tyre tracks in the mud and snow.
The artist who worked with the pupils was Helen Astley.
Helen went into the school to do a preliminary session with the pupils before visiting the gallery. The pupils were given the opportunity to make marks and tracks in paint spread out over the plastic table cloths – they used their fingers, other implements and toy cars and discussed the feelings and textures and the patterns and marks that they were making. They made simple prints and swirling patterns and became totally engrossed in what they were doing.

The pupils discussed the artist’s work with Helen and the gallery education officer, Mary Sikkel.

In the words of the artist – ‘in the gallery I realised that the very young children had a longer concentration span then I was expecting. The children were so stimulated by what they were seeing, their attention and focus was being held as they were exposed to this ‘new’ (for most of them) experience. Once back in the school the artist gave the pupils the opportunity to explore making marks in clay, paint and collage materials.

Some of the overall findings of the engage Cymru Foundation Phase project were:

Artists and galleries contribute effectively to children’s personal and social development and their well-being, they offer rich opportunities for the development of children’s language, literacy and communication skills – these experiences were used effectively by artists and teachers to provoke discussion, listening and reasoning. Also artists and galleries were able to provide a wealth of opportunities for children’s creative development. All of these findings have been presented to the Welsh Assembly Government by engage Cymru – the organisation which promotes the use of gallery and museum education.

By Sophie Hadaway – Art Advisory Teacher, Education and Children’s Services, Carmarthenshire

Residencies

There has been a continuing programme of artists in residence in Carmarthenshire schools over the last 10 years. These residencies are jointly organised by the LEA and Oriel Myrddin, Carmarthen and run in conjunction with current exhibitions at the gallery.
In the summer term of 2005 the artists Tony Goble and Nina Morgans worked with Ysgol y Ddwylan, Ysgol Llansteffan, Ysgol Trimsaron, Ysgol Cefneithin and Ysgol Babanod Rhydamman. There were many positive outcomes for pupils and teachers in terms of gaining in confidence, deepening their understanding of techniques and important elements in art such as tone, line, colour and pattern and extending their use of the imagination.

This term there have been many residencies in schools within the county based on the work of the artist Joseph Albers.

Exhibitions in Oriel Myrddin, Carmarthen

Welsh Quilts - An exhibition of 10 exceptional Welsh quilts, selected from the collection of Jen Jones. Each quilt is a testimony to a personal and social history. An evocative exhibition, accompanied by a lecture series. 25th Feb - 1st April 2006

Cariad: Roger Cecil - In celebration of painting. A unique opportunity to see the work of Roger Cecil, who lives and works in Abertillary. This is an important retrospective for an artist who has been working in Wales for over 40 years.
8th April - 19th May 2006
Please contact Sarah JTombs, the part time education officer at the gallery for information about school visits and workshop session available to schools.
Phone: 01267 222 775 e.mail: sarahjtombs@carmarthenshire.gov.uk

Wanted! Images of pupils' Art work

As part of the Art section on the Amdro website we would like to have a 'Schoools Gallery' so please send in images of pupils work and details about any exciting or interesting projects and work taking place in art in your schools. Please make sure that if there are any photos with pupils in them that the school has secured parental permission for the photo to be used for the Amdro website.
Please send all images to Sophie Hadaway at shadaway@carmarthenshire.gov.uk