It’s good to be green

Nov 16 2007 by Karen Price, Western Mail

November is Environment Month in the Western Mail. Karen Price looks at just some of the ways in which the arts industry in Wales is helping tackle important green issues

A SMALL theatre group was celebrating this week after discovering that it will receive a one-off grant from the Arts Council of Wales.

Cardiff-based Theatr Iolo is spending the money on a new show which puts children in touch with the environment.

Wherever you go these days, green issues are top of the agenda. Like millions of individuals, businesses and organisations throughout the world, Theatr Iolo is championing environmental concerns.

Here in Wales, our arts industry is “going green” in all kinds of ways.

As well as putting on plays tackling the subject, production companies like Theatr Iolo are also practising what they preach – they are recycling their sets, props and costumes, cutting down on their marketing materials and considering the impacts of touring.

Musicians are penning songs about the environment, poets are writing verses on the topic and artists are producing goods from recycled materials – Tracey Emin’s unmade bed was just the tip of the iceberg.

As far as the Theatr Iolo project is concerned, the company will work with five primary schools in the Vale of Glamorgan on a storytelling scheme. The outdoor environment will be used to inspire them. Actors from Theatr Iolo will encourage children to tell stories inspired by their visit to the woodland in a bid to raise environmental awareness.

Meanwhile, Caernarfon-based Dawns i Bawb – the umbrella organisation for community dance in North West Wales which is funded by ACW – has been working with the Council for Rural Wales on a long-term project around the theme of the environment, putting particular emphasis on recycling, renewable energies and global warming. This project involves dancers, visual artists, a set and costume designer.

It’s not just on the stage that such companies are taking action to save the planet.

Welsh National Opera has just introduced a scheme in which all of its employees get the chance to purchase bicycles at special rates so they can reduce their carbon footprints by cycling to work. Members of the chorus and orchestra, as well as technical and administrative staff, are now helping the environment and getting healthy at the same time.

When it comes to the visual arts, Cardiff-based Craft In The Bay is hosting a special “green” project in December, which is supported by ACW.

Trash Fashion will feature three artist residencies with secondary schools in South Wales.

Textile artists Catherine Lewis and Claire Cawte will be collaborating with pupils during the residencies and their work will then go on show at the gallery from January 25 to February 24.

The students will be exploring different ways of manipulating fabrics to create a fantastic range of textures, patterns, colours and three-dimensional forms. Many of the materials have been recycled, including plastics, threads and wire.

This isn’t the first time that the Makers Guild in Wales has worked with young people on an environmental art project. In July, ACW funded Bags Of Flowers for which children, under the supervision of artist Claudia Borgna, created an installation out of recycled materials which was then exhibited in the Craft In The Bay gallery.

Claudia’s work expresses her concerns about waste in our world and the relationship between discarded materials with the environment. She says that she finds plastic bags interesting because of their remarkable contradictory qualities.

“They are both worthless and useful, disposable and recyclable, flimsy and strong – above all they are universal,” she says.

“By putting the plastic bag in an artistic context I would like to elevate it to another dimension that takes it away from the idea of the banal and obvious and for an instant transforms it into a poetic object.”

Brecon-based Morag Colquhoun, who won a 2005/6 Creative Wales Award from the Arts Council of Wales, is another artist who has created several environmental projects.

“My work investigates the relationship between people and environment,” she says.

“I use natural and renewable materials to explore cultural landscapes and to examine environmental issues.”

Commuters driving through the Brecon Beacons last year had quite a shock when they came across a 100 “sheep” sculptures, created especially by Morag, spelling out the word “renewable”.

“People ask what’s the point of putting model sheep on a mountain where real sheep live,” she says. “The point is that we want to draw attention to something which we take for granted. Farming is very important in this part of the country and wool is a brilliant local renewable material which we should make more use of.”

The Centre for Rural Life in Bala recently received a £200,000 ACW grant to pay for an education centre, amphitheatre and work by two artists.

The £2.3m development hopes to show visitors and local people the skills traditionally needed to live in a rural community. Already under construction, the centre is due to open at Easter 2008.

Nia Hughes, the centre’s marketing and education officer, says the grant will enable the two artists – Howard Bowcott and Angharad Pierce Jones – to begin work on projects based on a countryside theme. “We’ll have chairs shaped like ploughs, metal hedge weaving, pieces of art which will be unique to this centre,” she says.

Coed Hills Rural Artspace near Cowbridge is regarded as Wales’ leading venue for art in the environment. The 80-acre woodland sculpture trail allows visitors to explore eco-lifestyles and learn about renewable energy. There is a green woodworking area and blacksmith, printing, mosaic and textile workshops.

Among the galleries currently showing “green” exhibitions is the Washington Gallery in Penarth. Brothers Benedict and Dominic Gubb work in sculpture and landscape paintings. Dominic uses recycled milk cartons to construct visions of dogs and birds while Ben contrasts his Australian scenes with a return to urban Britain. The show runs until November 29.

These examples are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Wales’ “green” arts industry.