Did you know that there is a ‘city-status’ fine art collection on your doorstep?

No, not our words but that of the Council for Museums in Wales!

In the wake of our recent re-theming of the art galleries in Cyfarthfa Castle Museum, it is our intention in the coming year to increase the number of visits from formal educational groups with an art-based focus.

The recent reorganisation of the art collection has not only brought out more works previously in store but also now provides a more coherent visitor experience with works of a similar theme, genre and artist grouped together for the first time. The new re-arrangement will also make interpretation easier, particularly for non-art specialists and people unfamiliar with the collection.

My first priority has been to bring existing paper-based information on the works in the collection to a wider audience by converting them to digital format and making them available for downloading via the internet and on CD-ROM by request. The re-labelling (revision and reprinting of labels) of the galleries is currently in progress and should be in place before the end of January.

The next priority, which is already underway, has been to ‘match’ works in the collection to the ESIS primary art scheme and produce dedicated resources that make direct use of the collection. To date, the Year 5 & 6 schemes have been ‘completed’ although some teacher feedback and evaluation would be desirable at this stage in order to influence and improve the worth of any future work.