Thursday 25 May 2017

This Must Be The Plas...


Helfa Gelf is now an annual event - an Arts Trail through North Wales during September that involves hundreds of artists, crafters - creatives of all kinds - in an exciting and varied festival of events. Many creatives open the doors of their studios to the public, presenting an opportunity to interact and share their creative practices. The open studios season is during September and is also preceded - and then followed by - a programme of exhibitions, workshops and courses for creative professionals, interested novices, and all those between. Helfa Gelf presents a unique opportunity to meet and chat with artists, makers and doers in their creative spaces, see them at work, perhaps have a go yourself, and see their finished work - which is often available to purchase at special 'trade prices' - ideal if you want to get some unique Yuletide shopping sorted ahead of the rush...

This year, I will be at Plas Tan y Bwlch for the Helfa Gelf festival, picking-up on the Residency that I began there last year...

There will be readings from my books, 'pop-up' exhibitions of photography and other visual responses, and plenty of chat about art and folklore. Work produced during my 2016 Residency will be on show and I will also host free 'drop-in' creative workshops, and 'taster sessions' from the forthcoming Creative Writing Course: A Sense of Space, to be hosted at Plas Tan y Bwlch in March 2018.

For more info, dates and times, see my Helfa Gelf Artist's Profile Page (click images below) and while you are there, have a good look around their website at all the many and varied artists that will be welcoming you into their work spaces throughout September 2017...




Friday 12 May 2017

diolch yn fawr IAWN


For the past month, I have been coordinating IAWN = Independent Authors of Wales Network.

Helping to set-up IAWN was a learning experience and I have gained much more insight into the mechanics of crowdfunding and also just how varied the literary scene in Wales is! I have had the good fortune to meet and interview a small 'handful' of the more interesting authors with cultural connections to Wales. You can read some of these short(ish) interviews on the IAWN Weblog now:


IAWN will next become the Integrated Arts & Writing Nexus
[click IAWN logo to find out more]