The brief was to commission creative practitioners from the Cardiff Capital Region to each produce a piece of work that expresses what it means to be a creative in their area.
We recognise and champion the importance of networks, connections and placemaking. By extending into the Cardiff Capital Region, we’re looking to build new networks and connections to better understand what the creative community narrative looks like across the region, where activity is taking place and what might happen in the future.
The resulting story map will further develop the story of a growing, and increasingly connected, creative community across the region.
Following a competitive selection, the creatives have been chosen. The Our creative place stories will be told through a variety of mediums from animation to textiles, puppetry to ice sculpting and told by creatives from a range of sectors including visual art, theatre, animation, ice sculpting and dance.
The 2021 commissioned creatives are: Claire Hiett + Carys Fletcher, Erin Mali Julian, Francine Davies, Gwenllian Davenport, Hunk Williams, James Tottle, Justin Teddy Cliffe, Lucy Jones, Naz Syed, Rufus Mufasa and Stuart Bawler.
Creative Cardiff project manager Vicki Sutton said: “I’m so excited to get to know and work with this brilliant group of creatives. Their applications reflected a vibrant, diverse and creative region and I’m looking forward to experiencing how that will be brought to life for the story map.
“We’ve met with the creatives for our first group session and it was great to see them connecting with and supporting each other already. Even though the creatives will work independently on their pieces, we want to encourage them to utilise this experience to develop and build upon their network.
For as much as this project is about what will be produced for the story within the map it is also about sparking and strengthening links across the region – something which we believe so passionately about at Creative Cardiff.
The pieces will be launched in a story map on the Creative Cardiff website this summer.
Find out more about the 2021 commissioned creatives:
Claire Hiett + Carys Fletcher
As a freelance Artist, I currently work with various organisations – Carnegie House Arts Centre, Criw Celf, Plantlife Cymru and I teach three weekly classes.
I previously lectured in FE and worked for Cardiff Open Art School. My work with Carnegie is varied – I’ve curated Community Art Exhibitions, managed a Community Engagement Project and run workshops for many town centre events, such as Wartime Bridgend. My practice has mainly been participatory since leaving FE but working from home this past year has enabled me to concentrate on my own studio practice as well as continuing to work with the aforementioned organisations.
Since graduating from Cardiff Metropolitan University in 2017, 
I have taken freelance work with organisations such as The Wildlife Trust, had my work displayed in Cardiff, India and Nepal and worked on private commissions. My work often focuses on matters that are important to me, such as mental health, nature and the environment, using variety of media from watercolour to digital. I currently teach art in the Adult Community Learning sector in Bridgend and hope to one day follow in Claire’s footsteps and teach FE in Bridgend College.
Hiya! My creative practice varies from painting, collaging and tattooing. 
My most familiar medium is painting but over the last couple of years I’ve found a new love for making costumes/sets and using the work to create short films and collages. I love how hands on the creative process is and being able to express myself through multiple different forms that contribute to the final outcome.
My work as a creative is intrinsically connected to the environment in which I live: 
I immerse myself daily in the visual; tactile; geological and social beauty of the Heritage Coastline. My environment inspires in me a voice and a perspective through which I interpret creatively the relationships between Art and a Sense of Place. For many years I have strived to use my own Art and writing as stepping-stones that enable myself and others to explore the value of natural environments and sustainability in our lives. The sharing and digesting of meanings evoke in me a creative response.
Gwenllian is a multidisciplinary artist born and raised in Merthyr Tydfil in a bilingual family. 
Her practice navigates her ever-shifting relationship with her mother tongue and its entanglement with Gwenllian’s personal identity. As a recent graduate of the Bath School of Art & Design, Gwenllian has gained accolades such as the Kenneth Armitage Young Sculptor Award 2019, and the 2019-2020 Spike Island Graduate Fellowship. In Autumn 2020, Gwenllian exhibited in After Hours, an exhibition by Bowes-Parris Gallery, London. Her collaborative work includes Si-So (January 2021), an online body of work with MASH supported by Cardiff based gallery Arcade-Campfa.
I’m Hunk Williams, a Queer multimedia artist from Maesycwmmer. 
With a focus on accessibility and connection, my style has been carefully crafted to fit the particular workings of my god-given pair of hands - painful and shaky on a good day. Owing to my complex experience of growing up Queer and neurodivergent in the valleys, my work harks back to kitschy icons of the past and uses satire as it invites the observer to consider “But, why like?” My work frequently incorporates absurdity and pop culture, with a focus on colour and shape, to pay homage to things that enthral me (for better or worse).
I'm a sculptor carver painter designer and general all round artist based in the south Wales valleys.
I'm happiest in myself when I'm working on a project, especially if it's covering new ground. I find that bullying raw materials into new forms puts me in a kind of meditative state and I love figuring out new ways to get to the desired conclusion. My work as an ice carver has taught me more than Id of ever expected but the most valuable insight I've gained from working every day for Many years on carvings is how important a disciplined process is and that nothing lasts forever so be chill.
My name is Justin Teddy Cliffe, 
I am an Artist, Theatre Maker and Director involved in the development, devising and performance phases of theatre and live art. The work I make is semi-autobiographical exploring my own experiences of mental illness, masculinity and modern-stuff. Focusing these topics through pop-culture lenses and creating live experiences that connect me to audiences, I aim to elevate these ideas with universal resonance. I’d describe most of what I do as raucous, absurdist and comedic. I also write and perform spoken word and make short films.
Lucy Jones is a dance artist from Rhondda Cynon Taff. She trained at Northern School of Contemporary 
Dance before joining Emergence – postgraduate company of Joss Arnott and University of Salford. Since graduating, Lucy has performed at multiple scratch nights and taken part in choreographic exploration labs with NDCWales, Ransack Dance Company and Phoenix Dance Theatre. Alongside performing, Lucy likes to create Screendance. She begins by improvising for the generation of movement material, before using post-production editing as a choreographic tool. She is looking forward to pushing this technique in a site-specific setting for the Our Creative Place project.
Naz Syed is known as Newport’s Bohemian
Mary Poppins, with her travelling workshops and suitcases spreading creativity and kindness. She is Director of Ziba Creative, a socially engaged visual artist, consultant, teacher and engagement officer. Working with others is a driving force of her practise, connecting people and their stories, wellbeing and building confidence through creativity. She uses different art forms including; textiles, sculpture, fashion, mixed media and collage. Naz is passionate about supporting the arts the heart of the community, with over 20 years of experience. She has been developing a visual time capsule ‘Lost Connections’ and Art Clwb online to support creativity in the community.
Rufus Mufasa is a pioneering participatory artist and Queen of the cross-art. From Barbican Fellow to Future Generations Act Poet in 
Residence, Rufus has toured internationally with her craft. A Hull '19 artist in conjunction with BBC Contains Strong Language, an artist in residence with People Speak Up, and BASW poet in residence 2020, Rufus has developed huge personal resilience through her artistry. Her work honors ancestry, motherhood, the inner child and the people we meet on our path to peace.
I’m Stuart H. Bawler, 
Artistic Director of HUMMADRUZ, the Black-Light Theatre of Wales, Theatr Uwchfioled Cymru. I live and love in Monmouthshire. I specialise in creating shows performed entirely under UV light that illustrate music through dance, circus, puppetry and illusions. We follow a classical style in Theatres and EDM and Psychedelic music in Festivals. Our multi-sensory shows are focussed on the fantastic, the beautiful and the joyful. We use no verbal language, instead relying on the language of music, atmosphere and spectacle. We have recently started to incorporate Makaton as a visual language to make our work more accessible to people with communication difficulties.
