In the third of three blog posts, Caer Heritage Project Lead Artist Paul Evans looks back on three creative projects that he was involved in co-curating for the AHRC Connected Communities Festival 2014.
The Connected Communities Banner Procession arose through a collaborative process involving: Glyn Derw High School & the Healthy Wealthy and Wise Group from Caerau & Ely; St Aloysius School & Dowlais Primary Schools, Merthyr Tydfil; Dr Ellie Byrne, Research Associate for Representing Communities, Cardiff University; Sian Williams, librarian at the South Wales Miners’ Library; Dr David Wyatt from the CAER Heritage Project and Paul Evans, CAER Heritage Project lead artist.
Our designs, which were unveiled during a spectacular procession from Bute Park to Cardiff Bay, were developed during a series of intensive workshops led by Paul Evans in the communities of Caerau & Ely and Merthyr Tydfil. Each workshop was undertaken in the same format, where the young (and not so young) participants first devised a series of circular motifs based on traditional miners’ banner designs – and then invented a powerful slogan to encapsulate a positive message connecting past, present and future.
