Rydym newydd orffen cyfnod cyntaf Ymchwil a Datblygu’r Prosiect ISLIFAU – Ar Ein Rhiniog – prosiect ar y cyd rhwng Islifau – grŵp cymuned y Celfyddydau yng Nghwm Aber, Cyngor Bwrdeistref Sirol Caerffili, ac Addo. Amcan y prosiect ydi tynnu cysylltiadau diwylliannol ar draws Cwm Aber (Abertridwr a Senghennydd) i ddadlennu manteision cyneddfau diwylliannol ac amgylcheddol yr ardal i’w chymunedau.
Yn rhan o’r broses yma ac yn dilyn sgyrsiau cwmpasu cychwynnol â thrigolion lleol a galwad agored ar artistiaid, o fis Gorffennaf tan fis Medi 2021, gweithiodd tri artist sydd â’u cartref yng Nghymru gyda thrigolion lleol i ganfod a dwyn i’r amlwg naratifau cyfoes man a lle ac i chwilio sut y gallai strategaethau creadigol alluogi ac ymrymuso cymunedau i gysylltu â’u bro mewn ffyrdd newydd sy’n gwella bywyd pob dydd.
Drwy gyfres o weithgareddau pryfoclyd a sgyrsiau â grwpiau cymunedol neu aelodau o’r gymuned, canfu’r artist-benseiri ALT-Architecture botensial ailgysylltu trigolion lleol â man a lle, â thirwedd ac â natur a gwella eu hiechyd a’u lles drwy uwchgynllun hirdymor, amlhaenog i ddefnyddio mannau angof neu ddi-fudd er lles y gymuned – yn berllannau, yn fannau tyfu ac yn safleoedd chwarae dychmygus ac antur. Gewch chi wybod rhagor am y gwaith wnaethon nhw yma a yma.
Defnyddiodd yr ymarferwr theatr Jesse Briton strategaethau perfformiadol i chwilio achosion cyfoes ynghlwm â menywod, gwaith a chynhyrchu diwylliannol yng Nghwm Aber gydag amrywiaeth o grwpiau ac unigolion lleol, gan gynnwys grŵp lleol Sefydliad y Merched, sy’n pleidio’r prosiect. Defnyddiwyd ymchwil Jesse i waith Cwiltwyr Abertridwr yn fan cychwyn codi’r sgwrs yma. Grŵp a sylfaenwyd ac a hyfforddwyd yng Nghwm Aber oedd Cwiltwyr Abertridwr, yn rhan o gynllun gychwynnwyd ym 1928 gan y Rural Industries Bureau i annog diwydiannau crefft bychain yn ardaloedd economaidd amddifaid cymoedd de Cymru. Gewch chi wybod rhagor am y gwaith wnaed gan Jesse yma.
Bu’r bardd perfformio Rufus Mufasa yn chwilio ac yn datblygu ymyriad mwy hirdymor yn y celfyddydau, sy’n torri tir newydd ac a fydd yn creu cyfleoedd i bobl ymhél â’r celfyddydau a diwylliant yn y Gymraeg a thrwy’r Gymraeg ac a fydd yn gynaliadwy drwy ymgysylltu, mentora a chydnabod anghenion a chyfraniad creadigol artistiaid ac ymarferwyr creadigol lleol, Cymraeg eu hiaith. Ymchwiliodd Rufus i’r defnydd o’r Gymraeg yn yr ardal (gan gynnwys y Wenhwyseg sydd agos â bod yn ddiflanedig ac enwau lleoedd traddodiadol) a sgwrsio’n greadigol ag unigolion, cyrff a grwpiau lleol, Cymraeg eu hiaith. Roedd hyn yn cynnwys cysylltu ag Oriel Graig y Fedw, oriel a sefydlwyd gan yr artistiaid Cymraeg eu hiaith, Fflur Angharad a Garmon Gruffydd, yn eu gardd yn Abertridwr a chanddi’n ethos y dylai celfyddyd fod yn rhan o fywydau pob dydd pobl, a Menter Iaith Caerffili sy’n awyddus i gefnogi gwaith sy’n cymell defnyddio’r Gymraeg yn y cwm. Ar y cyd ag Oriel Graig y Fedw a thrigolion eraill, mae Rufus yn gobeithio creu man diogel i rieni a’u plant ailgysylltu â chwarae, creadigedd, stori a defnyddio’r Gymraeg drwy gyfres o weithgareddau/ymyriadau parhaol, sy’n arbennig o bwysig o gofio mai ym mlynyddoedd bore oes y sefydlir traddodiadau llafar a sylfeini iaith, drwy berthynas deuluol a chymunedol. Gewch chi wybod rhagor am gasgliadau Rufus yma.
Mae’r ceinciau hyn o waith yn amserol o gofio bod data’r cyfrifiad diweddaraf sydd ar gael o’r flwyddyn 2011, er eu bod bellach wedi dyddio braidd, yn canfod bod anweithgarwch economaidd yng Nghwm Aber, a chanddo boblogaeth o 6,799, wedi’i gofnodi’n 29.1% i ddynion a 41.5% i fenywod; roedd unig rieni heb fod mewn gwaith yn 47.3% trawiadol; roedd y rheini â’u gweithgareddau dyddiol yn gyfyngedig oherwydd iechyd yn 23.7%; ac roedd ganddo fwy o siaradwyr y Gymraeg nag unrhyw ran arall o Sir Caerffili.
Gwahoddwyd y ffotograffydd a’r gwneuthurwr ffilmiau Jon Pountney, fu’n tynnu lluniau’r ardal ac yn ymchwilio iddi’n rhan o’i arfer personol, i ddogfennu cyfnod Ymchwil a Datblygu’r prosiect a chynhyrchodd y ffilm uchod. Mae Jon yn awyddus i ymestyn y gwaith yma i gynhyrchu cyfres o ffotograffau ac ymyriadau neu weithgareddau wedi’u seilio ar ffotograffiaeth fydd yn cymell trigolion y cyffiniau i herio nodweddu ystrydebol yr ardal a chyflwyno naratifau newydd man a lle, gwirioneddau amgen a dychymgu dydd a ddaw. Ardal lofaol gynt ydi Cwm Aber ac mae ganddi stori newydd i’w hadrodd: naratifau cyfoes man a lle, a dim ond ei chymunedau all ei hadrodd.
Ar hyn o bryd mae partneriaeth ISLIFAU – Ar Ein Rhiniog yn gwneud cais am gyllid ar gyfer ail gyfnod ar y prosiect i roi lle i ddwyn yn eu blaenau rai o’r syniadau a’r cynigion a ddatblygwyd gan yr artistiaid a’r trigolion.
Prosiect ar y cyd ydi ISLIFAU – Ar Ein Rhiniog, rhwng Islifau – grŵp cymuned y Celfyddydau yng Nghwm Aber, Cyngor Bwrdeistref Sirol Caerffili, ac Addo. Cyllidir y prosiect gan gronfa grant Cysylltu a Ffynnu Cyngor Celfyddydau Cymru er mwyn datblygu cynigion cydweithredol rhwng cyrff, unigolion a phobl broffesiynol greadigol. Rhoddwyd cyllid dros ben a chefnogaeth mewn da yn garedig gan Gyngor Bwrdeistref Sirol Caerffili a Rhwydwaith Lles Integredig Gwent.
We’ve just completed the initial R&D phase of the UNDERCURRENTS – On Our Doorstep Project – a partnership project between Undercurrents – Arts in the Aber Valley community group, Caerphilly County Borough Council and Addo. The project aims to draw out cultural connections across the Aber Valley (Abertridwr & Senghenydd) to reveal the benefits of the area’s cultural and environmental assets for its communities.
As part of this process and following initial scoping conversations with local residents and an open call for artists, from July to September 2021, three Wales-based artists worked with local residents to identify and make visible contemporary narratives of place and explore how creative strategies may enable and empower communities to connect with their locale in new ways that enhance everyday life.
Through a series of provocative activities & conversations with community groups/members, artist-architects ALT-Architecture identified potential to reconnect local residents with place/landscape/nature and enhance their health & well-being through a multi-layered, long-term masterplan to utilise forgotten/redundant spaces for community use in the form of orchards, growing spaces and sites for imaginative play & adventure. Find out more about the work they undertook here and here.
Theatre practitioner Jesse Briton used performative strategies to explore contemporary issues around women, work and cultural production in the Aber Valley with a range of local groups & individuals, including, the local Women’s Institute group, who are championing the project. Jesse’s research into the work of the Abertridwr Quilters was used as a starting point to open this dialogue. The Abertridwr Quilters was a group set up and trained in the Aber Valley as part of a scheme started in 1928 by the Rural Industries Bureau to encourage small craft industries in economically deprived areas of the south Wales valleys. Find out more about the work undertaken by Jesse here.
Performance poet Rufus Mufasa has been exploring and developing a longer-term innovative art intervention that will create opportunities for people to engage with arts and culture in and through the Welsh language and be sustainable by engaging, mentoring and acknowledging the needs and creative input of local Welsh- speaking artists and creative practitioners. Rufus has researched the use of Welsh Language in the area (including the all but lost Gwentian dialect and traditional place names) and held creative conversations with local Welsh-speaking individuals, organisations and groups. This has included connecting with Oriel Graig y Fedw, a gallery set up by Welsh-speaking artists Fflur Angharad & Garmon Gruffydd in their garden in Abertridwr with the ethos that art should be part of people’s everyday lives, and Menter Iaith Caerphilly, who are keen to support work encouraging the use of Welsh in the valley. Collaborating with Oriel Graig y Fedw and other residents, Rufus hopes to create a safe space for parents & their children to reconnect with play, creativity, story and the use of Welsh through a series of ongoing activities/interventions, which is especially important given that oral traditions and foundations for language are established in our early years through familial and community relationships. Find out more about Rufus’ findings here.
These strands of work are timely given that the latest census data available from 2011, though somewhat dated now, identifies that in the Aber Valley, which has a population of 6,799, economic inactivity registered 29.1% for men and a 41.5% for women; lone parents not in employment was a striking 47.3%; those whose daily activities were limited due to health restrictions amounted to 23.7%; and it had more Welsh speakers than any other part of Caerphilly County.
Photographer and filmmaker Jon Pountney, who has been photographing and researching the area as part of his personal practice, was invited to document the Research & Development phase of the project and has produced the film above. Jon is keen to extend this process to produce a series of photographs & photography-based interventions/activities with local residents to challenge cliched characterisations of the area and present new narratives of place, alternative realities and imagined futures. A former coal mining area, the Aber Valley has a fresh story to tell.
The UNDERCURRENTS – On Our Doorstep partnership are currently applying for funding for a second phase to the project to enable some of the ideas and proposals developed by the artists and residents to be taken forward.
UNDERCURRENTS – On Our Doorstep is a partnership project between Undercurrents – Arts in the Aber Valley community group, Caerphilly County Borough Council and Addo. The project is funded by an Arts Council of Wales’ Connect & Flourish grant fund for the development of collaborative proposals between organisations, individuals and creative professionals. Additional funding and in-kind support have been kindly given by Caerphilly County Borough Council and the Integrated Wellbeing Network Gwent.
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