Art Review - Young People on their Bronze Arts Award review the Photo Marathon Exhibition Cardiff Story 2014

Nicole Perry.

I went to the Cardiff photo Marathon on the 24^th of June 2014.  The exhibition was a competition based in Cardiff for any one who enjoys taking photos.

There was a great range of photos shown.  I think the most inspiring thing about the photos was the attention to detail.  Some of the people had taken photos you would not expect to see in everyday life and some were set up, others were natural shots. 

The photos were split into 12 topics and the artists had to do one photo for each topic.  For example ‘the power of tens’ was one subject and they all came up with really different ideas.  I think this made the exhibition really interesting and enjoyable as there was so much variation and shows how differently everyone thinks creatively. I really liked some of the funny pictures.  I didn’t like all the pictures because of what was shown in them.  For example there was one of David Cameron smiling on a doorstep, but I don’t agree with his views, so that annoyed me that he was in the exhibition.  The exhibition could have been made more exciting if it was a bit more varied.  There were so many photos to look at it was hard to focus after a while.  They could have had made the photos bigger and had less of them. The other people I was with thought the exhibition was interesting but not busy enough.  I asked our youth worker what she thought of the exhibition and she said ‘there were so many photos to look at that at times it felt like a maze!  I loved seeing photos that had people I know and recognised from the city where I lived in them, and it has inspired me to go to more exhibitions in the future’. I felt very inspired after looking at it, especially as I have done some filming for a recent youth project I have done and I really enjoyed it, so would love to take some creative photos of my own in the future.  I would recommend people to go and see this exhibition.

Callum Cleaver

The Photo Marathon Exhibition was really inspiring because I loved seeing how different each photographers pictures were, although they were all given the same topics.   I didn’t realise how varied photo’s could be and how different they can look when they are all lined up next to each other as I have never really seen any art photography before. My favourite piece showed a jelly baby looking over a phone for the subject of ‘control’.  I this was quite a creative way of looking at the subject and was showing how controlled we are everyday by using our mobile phones.  It was also quite funny as they could take the photo quite close up and the jelly baby made it was really bright and colourful. If there were more people present at the exhibition it would have been more exciting as there would have been a better atmosphere and I could have heard more people’s opinions on the work.  At times we found it boring as there were too many to look at. I would recommend this exhibition to people who have an interest in photography.

Josh Preddy

For this activity I went to the 'Photo Marathon' Exhibition in Cardiff Story Museum on 24th June 2014.  The exhibition showed photos that local people had sent in of their everyday lives and there was a competition for the best photos.  

The exhibition inspired me as I found certain things stood out, because I recognised them from living in Cardiff myself.   Therefore, the photos were pleasing to look at as they were familiar because of there setting. I enjoyed seeing all the different styles of pictures in the exhibition, and because there were so many different types of photos, it was really interesting to compare them all.  My favourite piece in the exhibition was of 10 bottles on a wall with a man holding one of the bottles. I liked the way the photo was taken with the wall in the background and him holding one of the bottles himself closer to the camera.   I think if there had been more people at the exhibition there would have been a better atmosphere, but this was probably because the exhibition was open all day every day for a number of weeks, so it may have been busy at other times.  When I asked others I was with their opinions they thought the same that it was quiet but very interesting and different from anything else they had seen before.  The people who were at the exhibition seemed to have a positive opinion and enjoyed commenting on the photos.  I am hoping to go to more exhibitions in the future, as I had never been to one before this.

Josh Harty 

I went to the photo marathon exhibition in Cardiff Story Museum on the 24th of June.  The idea of the exhibition was that the photographers only had 12 hours to take the photos.  I thought this was inspiring as the took such great photos in such a short space of time and all the photos were so different.  The thing I enjoyed the most was that the pictures were taken locally, so I could relate to and also recognise some of the images.  My favourite piece in the exhibition was called 'Street level' and it won first prize.  This showed an image of a local beggar who I have seen regularly around town.  The only thing I think that could have made the exhibition better is the pictures could have been bigger, but this was probably because they had so many interesting photos in the exhibition they could only show a lot of small ones.  Maybe they could have another exhibition with larger photos taken, by the page descriptions.

i~chair

The i~chair exhibition was launched by the Deputy Lord Mayor Ali Ahmed yesterday at Cardiff Story. 

Over the past year, People Around Here have been working with three groups of disengaged young people to compile a collective work of art that speaks of a positive future. All the young people involved in this project are either at risk of, or have already, disengaged from education or employment. Young people from a Cardiff High School, Young offenders from Cardiff Youth Offending Service and HMP & YOI Parc and young people with NEET status in Ely and Caerau have all contributed work to the exhibition.

Please do pop along and take a look at the brilliant work achieved by these young people.

Dates: 26^th June until 19^th July 2014

Opening Times: Monday – Saturday 10am-4pm

Venue:

Temporary Exhibition 2

The Cardiff Story

The Old Library

The Hayes

Cardiff

CF10 1BH

Merry Christmas!

Dear friends,

Christmas is almost upon us. We’ve had a busy year and we’ve been privileged to be involved in lots of exciting projects.

Our BBC Children in Need funded project - ‘YOS Media Matters’ - is into its second year, and we’re seeing fantastic things with the young guys at the Youth Offending Service. In the New Year we’ll expand this project into the Young Offenders Insitution at Parc Prison, working with more young people on art, music and film projects. We’re hoping next summer to exhibit some of their work in the centre of Cardiff.

‘16-60: A Woman’s Voice’ was our first creative heritage project, and it was a lot of fun. You can read more about it elsewhere on the blog. We’re already dreaming up ideas for another youth heritage project in partnership with Cardiff Story Museum and the Heritage Lottery Fund Young Roots programme.

This year we painted miles of murals (well it felt like it anyway)… from a primary school in Rumney to a care home in Caerphilly and a high school in Splott… and more. Over the summer we worked with hundreds of community members to paint 3 murals next to busy roads in Ely. More community murals are planned for 2014.

In the autumn we began a partnership with EMTAS to deliver a transition project with one very diverse year group over 3 years. The team delivers creative workshops 4 times a term, developing trust, teamwork, integration and social and emotional skills. We are excited about the impact this project will enable us to have on Adamsdown Primary and Willows High school over the next 3 years.

This has been a year of big plans for People Around Here. We have been working on a strategic plan and business plan for the next 3 years – defining our vision, crafting clear aims and developing partnerships to take us forward.

We’ll share more of these plans in the spring, and we hope you’ll partner with us to achieve more positive outcomes for more disadvantaged communities in the year ahead.

‘16-60: A Woman’s Voice’ – a huge success!

‘16-60: A Woman’s Voice’ engaged 50 young women from minority ethnic backgrounds in a creative project to explore and share the heritage of Butetown.

The girls interviewed older women from Butetown and created a documentary film. They were so inspired by the women’s stories that they went on to create more films, a song, a huge work of art and a fashion show to present what they had discovered about their heritage to the wider community.

The project has come to a close with 2 fantastic events – the launch of a month-long exhibition at Cardiff Story Museum in October with 80 people, and a fashion show at the Global Eid Extravaganza in City Hall before an audience of 500!

The girls told us that the project helped them to make new friends, grow in confidence, find out about their heritage and try new things. They certainly impressed us all. Well done to everyone involved in this fantastic project.

* Watch a film about the exhibition launch event here *

– thanks to media student Catrin Elen Rees for sharing the film with us.

16-60: A Woman's Voice Exhibition Launch

Launch event THIS SATURDAY

It's almost here... the launch event of our exhibition at Cardiff Story Museum... 
'16-60: A Woman's Voice'.

The culmination of 1 year of interviews, film making, creativity and hard work from a talented group of girls in Butetown.

Film premiere, fashion show, music and art presentations and refreshments. 

Tell everyone, bring your friends and family! See you there... 6pm Saturday October 5th.

Funded by Heritage Lottery Fund Young Roots Programme.
In Partnership with Cardiff Story Museum and Cardiff Youth Service. 

Ely bridge murals

We've just completed a big CAN DO mural project... in a heatwave!

We have been working with community members, schools and youth groups in the Ely and Fairwater area, creating 3 murals to brighten up Ely bridge.

The murals celebrate vibrant community life and promote partnership working across the local communities. There is a strong theme of ‘connection’ in the designs, which feature jigsaw pieces, zips and buttons, as well as local landmarks such as the river and railway line. The collaborative project developed over 9 months in a partnership between Communities First (ACE), South Wales Police, four local schools, Cardiff Youth Service, Network Rail and a number of local community groups. We were delighted to have lots of volunteers from the surrounding area helping us paint the bridge... they did a great job!

Dave Horton, Deputy Cluster Manager for Communities First Cardiff West, said: "Recent years have seen an explosion of community led activity in Ely, Caerau, Fairwater, and surrounding areas.  Despite negative reputations, the area has huge community spirit and is an exciting and vibrant area of the city.  This project has been an excellent opportunity for local people to work together and express this positivity visually. We have really enjoyed being a part of this celebration of our community."  Dave Horton, ACE (Action in Caerau & Ely)

Cardiff Council Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning, Highways, Traffic and Transportation, Cllr Ralph Cook, said: “This has been a great project that has helped to inspire the community both young and the young at heart. The Mural has helped to brighten up the area and brought many community groups together over the last few weeks. I am delighted that Cardiff Council supported the scheme.”

The volunteer painters were happy to see their photo in the South Wales Echo on Wednesday, and we hope the colourful murals will be spotted in other local media over the coming weeks. In the meantime, there are plenty more pictures on our Facebook page. 

A big thank you all those who funded the project (Tidy Towns, Cardiff Youth Service, Network Rail, ACE and SPICE), South Wales Police, Cardiff Council, and the Councillors of Ely, Caerau, Fairwater and Canton for their support of the project.

On the radio

People Around Here is busier than a busy bee these days with CAN DO mural projects across Cardiff. Check back on the blog over the next month to see the results!

About 2 months ago, Becky was on Radio Cardiff chatting about our heritage project in Butetown - '16-60: A Woman's Voice'. Listen online by following this link - People Around Here is up first on this great show by Diverse Cymru. The project in Butetown is still going strong - every Wednesday our group of girls is working hard on costumes, music, films and artwork for our end of project presentations, which will take place in October and November.