BBC Cymru Wales has joined forces with the Arts Council of Wales in a brand new partnership in celebration of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad – to support a new free digital arts service The Space.
Aimed at offering new ways for people to connect with, and experience arts and culture this summer, the initiative is an experiment with a new digital platform. Offering expert know-how and technology as well as opening its extensive archive, BBC Wales is committed to developing new and thriving creative talent across Wales. As well as building the digital skills of the arts and cultural sector, The Space will ensure their work is available to more people than ever before.
The Arts Council of Wales has identified five current arts events it is involved with, to act as pilot projects on The Space and is encouraging the development of extra digital dimensions to these projects. First to go up on The Space platform is the Adain Avion project, a mobile art space in the form of a re-vamped DC9 fuselage sparking arts commissions and community projects in a programme curated by artist Marc Rees Adain Avion, that landed in Swansea for the first leg of its tour across Wales and culminated this week at the National Eisteddfod at Llandow. The wingless plane’s black box of memories will then be deposited at the St Fagans: National History Museum. The innovative project fittingly culminates this week, landing on the former airfield at Llandow, which is home to the 2012 National Eisteddfod.
Welsh performance and installation artist, Marc Rees was selected to be Wales’s Artist Taking the Lead, one of only 12 UK-wide large scale commissions timed to be part of the London 2012 Festival as part of the Cultural Olympiad. The Space project will include dramatic film of the plane’s journey to rest in Swansea and uploaded material from three roving community reporters, reflecting a roster of community participation and artists commissioned work that combine in Adain Avion’s programme.
BBC Cymru Wales Director, Rhodri Talfan Davies said:
“We’re delighted to be working closely with Arts Council Wales to support this exciting new digital venture. The Space project is about celebrating cultural excellence across the UK – and I’m delighted that our partnership will ensure Wales can play a prominent role in this new initiative.”
Chief Executive of Arts Council of Wales, Nick Capaldi said:
“It is good to be part of this expanding brief that the BBC is taking on. The arts in Wales deserve to reach far and wide in Wales and beyond. The arts here are distinctive and rooted and have things to say and it is really appropriate that BBC Cymru looks to expand its involvement in the creative expression of Wales.”
To access The Space via the internet visit www.thespace.org or view on connected TV or The Space channel (Freeview HD channel 117).
