Roman ‘Diff Fusion, which brought together three Cardiff University projects (CAER Heritage, Community Gateway and Creative Cardiff), along with community development organisation Action in Caerau and Ely (ACE), and Amgueddfa Cymru, aimed to foster new friendships and an ongoing inter-community youth forum, as well as inspiring the young people in their studies.
Dr David Wyatt, Reader in Civic Mission and Community Action, based at Cardiff University’s School of History, Archaeology and Religion and one of the project leads, said:
This project created a partnership between two wonderful schools which we’ve worked with before - it really was about bringing communities together from across the west of Cardiff to explore a shared heritage. The young people are so creative and it’s been great to see them bonding and developing friendships over the weeks. We hope the project has opened their eyes to the history and opportunities for learning that can be found all around us. We also hope it will lead to an ongoing youth forum across these communities and ongoing partnership working between youth workers, schools and the University to support this.
Watch this video round-up of the project:
The young people, aged 12 and 13, took part in a variety of creative sessions and historic visits, including a trip to Ely’s 2000-year-old Roman Villa, co-creating temporary art installations at Cardiff Castle, experimental archaeology activities such as making Roman cosmetics at the CAER Centre and heritage video game designing at Grange Pavilion.
Throughout the project they worked closely with Dr Dave Wyatt, Cardiff University, CAER Artist in Residence Nic Parsons, and youth workers Nirushan and Shoruk from Grange Pavilion Youth Forum, along with Danielle from the ACE Youth Team. This culminated in a Creative Puppet performance led by the pupils, showcasing what they had learnt throughout the project, and a large scale piece of art with Cardiff artist Geraint Ross Evans.
Geraint, who worked with the young people throughout November and December, said:
My part in the project was to come in and work with young people and get them to visualise their experience on the ‘Diff Fusion project. This resulted in an ambitious final artwork, which is this huge scroll-like panoramic drawing that takes you from the CAER Centre up into the Hill Fort, back into time, where they stumble across a Roman village and other parts of the history, and then eventually back to the present. The most enjoyable aspect for me was seeing these ideas come to life in a visual way and seeing the students make these drawings, taking what was essentially a stick figure idea, and turn them into something that has real meaning and impact.
Patrick, a year 8 pupil from Fitzalan High School, said "I was happy to be part of the project and really enjoyed it. I enjoyed working with pupils from Cardiff West. I really enjoyed our trip to Cardiff University and felt really lucky to be shown some of the historical artifacts that were there. I found that really interesting." Aaron, from Community West High School, added "It’s been really fun, all the activities have been fun, I like the drawing activities, especially medieval Pokémon, we’ve also done stop motion animation, and I enjoyed making puppets and doing a show to tell people about our time travelling journey."
Nic Parsons, CAER Heritage Artist & ACE Arts Community Development Officer, said:
I loved working as an artist on the project. It succeeded in connecting a wonderful group of creative thinkers of all ages from pupils, historians and artists, along with the amazing youth workers from Grange Pavillion and ACE and support staff from both high schools, who brought so much positive energy throughout!
The project concluded with a showcase and presentation at CAER Heritage Centre on 14 December.
Find out more about CAER Heritage and Grange Pavilion or learn more about Creative Cardiff's partnership with CAER Heritage in 2021.
