Day trip with Dai – g39, Cardiff and Merthyr Tydfil

Day trip with Dai – g39, Cardiff and Merthyr Tydfil

09 Jan 2014, Posted by kate_mercer in Cardiff, Community, Inspiration, Out & About
GB, WALES. Cardiff. The oustide of organisation g39 during exhibition changeover (2014).

GB, WALES. Cardiff. The outside of organisation g39 during exhibition changeover (2014) © Kate Mercer 2014

Yesterday I spent a very enjoyable day visiting a number of places in Wales to see what’s happening near me. With fellow photographer and general life enthusiast Dai Howell (https://www.facebook.com/DaiHowellartist) we visited g39 in Cardiff (http://www.g39.organd then travelled up to Merthyr Tydfil for what we hoped would be a recce to REDHOUSE (http://www.redhousecymru.com) although the torrential rain, building works and failing light soon put a stop to those plans.

g39 in Cardiff is currently setting up UNIT(e) which sees the site play host to nine selected artists and curators working on individual projects over a period of two months, ranging from research, production to artist-led events. Dai volunteers with g39 already, so our intention was to have a look around and check out the WARP library – a great resource of books, catalogues, magazines and art journals that registered members can use in their work.

What was especially great about our visit was how friendly and easy going everyone at g39 were! On our arrival, we said hello to everyone in the office, caught up with each others news after New Year, and then Intern Bob and Chris chatted with us over tea and told us more about the UNIT(e) project. They really are the most welcoming bunch of people – I can’t endorse them highly enough.

After that we then went off on the train to Merthyr Tydfil – I have spent a lot of time recently reading up on the rich cultural and industrial history of this town in the valleys, and Dai living a few village down the line and equally keen to find out about Merthyr’s REDHOUSE, agreed to be my guide… on this occasion however, we didn’t see much. We have therefore resolved to return and shoot around Merthyr again in the near future.

There seems to be genuine hope however, that this new cultural hub will bring about much desired regeneration in the town, although what this means exactly is unclear. (Some locals we spoke to said they thought it was going to be a media centre, others said a gallery, others that it was being used by the local college). It doesn’t help that there isn’t much information about what’s going on at REDHOUSE immediately available to the public in print or online; I had hoped to come back with reems of information from our visit to share but no such luck.  Due to open on March 1st 2014 however, St David’s day,  I look forward to finding out more about the project in due course.