Cardiff-based creatives have shared their stories, and reflected on 2020 in the city, to create the first Our creative Cardiff storywall.
The paid commission was to create a piece of work each that highlights what is already happening and is known about in our creative city, what is invisible and/or unknown and what could happen in the future.
The inaugural Our creative Cardiff collection includes a love letter to Cardiff, a comedy sketch, a lockdown photo series, a mini documentary about pidgin rap and spans a range of sectors including opera, carnival and visual arts.
The new work has been collated into a digital storywall which includes the bespoke pieces, a bilingual written description and an audio description in the creative’s own words.
The 2020 commissioned creatives are Alyson Henry, Beth Blandford, Gareth John and Morgan Thomas, Ian Cooke-Tapia, Jason Mohammad, Jeremy Huw Williams, Katie Harrington, Keith Murrell, Magnus Oboh, Martyn Wilson, Molly Caenwyn, Rosaleen Moriarty-Simmonds OBE, Sandra Gustafsson and Tamsin Griffiths.
Creative Cardiff Project Manager Vicki Sutton said: “Working on the Our creative Cardiff project this summer was one of the highlights of the year for me. It was amazing to bring together creatives (albeit online!) from across sectors and experience the way they connected and collaborated on their pieces.
I think the storywall brings to life a small snippet of a vast and brilliant creative community here in Cardiff. I hope our audiences enjoy experiencing the storywall and perhaps discovering the work of creatives they may not previously have known.
The digital storytelling project also called on the expertise of Lisa Heledd Jones (Director of Storyworks), Richie Turner (Incubator Manager for University of South Wales and Creative Cardiff Advisory Group member) and Dr Jenny Kidd (Reader at Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media and Culture).
Dr Jenny Kidd, who has written a reflective piece about the project, said: “Our creative Cardiff has been a hugely welcome and invigorating project to be involved in, especially given the intensely challenging circumstances of the last few months.
“The creative and cultural sector in and beyond Cardiff continues to be greatly impacted by the pandemic, with no end to the associated hardships yet in sight for many practitioners.
“The Our creative Cardiff project captures the lived experience of some of that uncertainty, at the same time as it showcases the rich diversity and enduring spirit of creativity across the city.”
