Cymunedau Cysylltiedig: Researching the Industrial and Post-Industrial Communities of the Swansea Valley
Swansea University
Cymunedau Cysylltiedig 2: Researching the Industrial and Post-Industrial Heritage of the Swansea Valley
This multi-partner, bi-lingual community heritage project is focused on the history of industrial and post industrial communities in the Swansea Valley. The region has a remarkably rich yet complex industrial-urban-environmental heritage, and research into this informs a better understanding of how its unique historical and cultural context continues to shape the identity, sense of place, and quality of life of the people who live in an area, where 16.8 percent of the population speaks Welsh.
Our Output
This second phase of the project aims to consolidate and extend collaborations between arts and humanities researchers at Swansea University and a wide range of community groups. Phase one saw the co-development of a number of Research in Community Heritage Projects, and seven of these have received funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund's 'All our Stories' Programme. As a result, in Phase Two we wish to support these projects through the stages of research production and delivery. By doing this the research group aims to enhance the projects, maximise the impact of the research, and add value by delivering new or additional forms of collective output, most notably a project exhibition. At the same time we will continue to support other groups that are seeking to develop community heritage projects.
In order to achieve these objectives, the research group will work closely with Swansea University's archives, media and IT services, Department of Adult Continuing Education and Taliesin Arts Centre, as well as five external partners, to provide targeted research support, and a programme of training to enhance the development and delivery of outputs, especially those of a digital type. The project' s external partners are The National Waterfront Museum, Swansea; West Glamorgan Archives Service; The Libraries Service of City and County of Swansea; Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust; and Glynn Vivian Art Gallery.
Our Events
We have a number of community-focused workshops and events planned over the next 12 months.
The first event will be the phase 2 launch on February 27th 2013 and in early April we are planning our first community workshop led by the People’s Collection Wales. This workshop aims to assist the community groups we work alongside in digitising their photographic archives and will therefore contribute to the digital output of their Heritage Lottery-funded projects.
Project information available at:
http://twitter.com/SwanseaValley
http://www.facebook.com/ConnectedCommunitiesProject
Please contact Kate Spiller, Project Co-ordinator for further details: k.spiller@swansea.ac.uk
