We rely on the support of Government, Local Authority, European, Arts Council of Wales grants and major Trusts to sustain our level of provision. Read more…
These are extraordinary times. The Coronavirus crisis has followed hot on the heels of devastating flooding in our communities. People had no time to recover their homes and their normal lives, when the lockdown was imposed, with the terrible threat of losing loved ones added to an already intolerable situation.
Each year Valleys Kids works with around 2,400 disadvantaged and vulnerable young people. They have been hit hard by the lockdown restrictions. No respite from sometimes, stressful and fraught family life cooped up with no escape or social interaction with their peers. They miss their friends, they miss the social activities they usually attend at […]
Through each of our Community & Family Hubs in Penygraig, Penyrenglyn, Rhydyfelin & Dinas we are reaching out to 3,000 people every week. We are maintaining our weekly contact with isolated families and older people who would normally come to our support groups, but are stuck in their home and often lonely and frightened. “Taking part […]
Since 6th April, we’ve been donating over 1,000 free meals each week to vulnerable children in the Rhondda Valley who normally rely on free school meals but there are still children who need our support. https://valleyskids.org/
Rhydyfelin Youth Theatre brings you two performances in one night! After a successful run of the performances at The Factory in Porth and Venue Cymru in North Wales, the group will be performing ‘Wanna Play’ and ‘Tinted Windows’ in their home community of Rhydyfelin. Please come along and see their amazing work, it will be a night not to be missed!
Wanna Play
A 4-D sensory experience. Be prepared for surprises. Only for people with strong nerves.
Tinted Windows
What’s happening to all the information you post about yourself on social media? Is it showing the real you? Who’s watching you? Come along and take part in this immersive experience, which includes film, performances and a Big Brother booth.
We would love to celebrate this landmark event with our wonderful Rhydyfelin community. Please come and join us for an afternoon of reminiscing and memory making. This is your celebration so please come and meet old friends and have afternoon tea with us in the Ilan Centre, Poets Close, Rhydyfelin.
Valleys Kids is welcoming National Youth Theatre of Wales (NYTW) to work with young people (14+ years) at its home at SOAR in Penygraig over two days this summer! You’ll be introduced to physical theatre and theatre-making, using skills and techniques developed by international physical theatre company, Frantic Assembly.
Jess Williams will lead the workshops, which will be energetic, dynamic and FUN. Jess recently performed in the UK and USA tours of Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time, and she worked on the National Youth Theatre of Wales production, dead born grow. Jain Boon works regularly with NYTW. She’ll guide you through story-telling and theatre-making using the physical skills taught by Jess. Whether you’ve applied to join NYTW in the past or you’re thinking of applying in the future, Jain will give you a taste of what we’re about and what you could expect of future
courses and residencies with NYTW!
Whether you’ve done a lot of drama, theatre or performance – or just a little and you’re keen to do more! – these workshops are a great opportunity to expand your skills, and get involved with NYTW!
Jess and Jain are looking forward to meeting and working with you.
Who: young people (14+ years)
When: 24 and 25 August 2017 (4pm – 8pm)
Where: SOAR, Penygraig, RCT
Cost: FREE
Places are limited and must be booked in advance with Valleys Kids Gemma@valleyskids.org 01443303032
Further details will be sent once you have booked your place.
ArtWorks are proud to be working with our partners NYAW, Avant Cymru and Afon Dance. Look forward to seeing you there
Thursday 21st September 6.30pm – Soar Centre, Penygraig, CF40 1JZ
In a classroom newly arrived refugees learn about multifarious Europe. Operating at the intersection of fiction and documentary, Stranger in Paradise reflects on the power relations between Europeans and migrants in a candid fashion.
In a classroom in Sicily, just inside the walls of Fortress Europe, recently arrived refugees receive lessons from a teacher (Valentijn Dhaenens) who has some rather unbalanced traits. One moment he mercilessly rejects the refugees – the next, mollifyingly, he embraces them. Operating at the intersection of documentary and fiction, Stranger in Paradise investigates the power relations between Europe and refugees. Europe is represented by a teacher who drags his class of refugees down into his despair. A plea that borders on the immoral; a welcome charged with a guilt complex; and the compromise between these, made policy: Stranger in Paradise is an unflinching film essay on the mechanisms through which Europe tackles the refugees’ desire for happiness.
From the Director
“I tried to look down on the Earth from above. Contemplatively, and far removed from moral judgements. It started in May 2013, with a visit to the Italian island of Lampedusa. There, I met some of the migrants who have landed up there, their hopeful dreams for the future seeming to clash with a Europe that has little to offer them. I was struck by the power relations: how those with happiness treat the desire for happiness in others.
The contours for this film that formed them have changed little since. I wanted to make the power relationship I observed from a distance (and then later, during the research phase, up close) not so much visible, as feelable.”
Guido Hendrikx, Amsterdam, November 2016
Crossings: Stories of Migration is an ICA-led UK-wide film and events programme supported by the BFI using National Lottery funding and in partnership with the Goethe-Institute and the School of Film & Television, Falmouth University.
The ArtWorks team are delighted to welcome back Mess Up the Mess with their youth production Us Proclaimed: Clywch NiCreated by Aled Pedrick, Ifan Davies, Cwmni Pluen and the young people of Mess Up The Mess Theatre Company in collaboration with National Youth Arts Wales.
A brand new bilingual play with music inspired and created by the young people of Mess Up The Mess Theatre Company alongside actor and writer Aled Pedrick, composer Ifan Davies (lead singer of Sŵnami) and director Gethin Evans (Cwmni Pluen).
Us Proclamed: Clywch Ni throws a spotlight on the unique identities, perspectives, passions and interests of young people growing up in Wales today. Through song, comedy, poetry, drama and movement find out what makes this tight company of young people tick.
‘We have a light, a spark, a source of ignition We’re bright, you’re dark, trapped in indignation. Our voices fade, like smoke behind the wall of your creation- Why can’t they hear us screaming?’
Come along to Soar Centre Friday 8th September 7pm for an unforgettable night
Crossings: Stories of Migration is an ICA-led UK-wide film and events programme supported by the BFI using National Lottery funding and in partnership with the Goethe-Institute and the School of Film & Television, Falmouth University.
We live in an age of migration. Driven by political and military conflicts, the pressures and possibilities of increasingly globalised economies, climate change and the desire for a better life, more people than ever now move and live across borders. These are diverse trajectories; each journey has its own story and each story its own journey, traversing different landscapes and carrying with it its own past.
Through a programme of screenings and events, Crossings: Stories of Migration explores the stories of modern-day migration and reflects on cinema’s potential to interrogate the damaging ways in which it is often framed. Including a variety of documentary and fiction features, the programme engages with transnational crossings from the last five decades through different forms of aesthetically-innovative storytelling.
Crossings: Stories of Migration brings together leading commentators, critics and contributors from across various cultural and political contexts to create a rigorous yet diverse platform for discussion to explore migration from both global and local perspectives. Engaging with ethical and political questions raised by representing these narratives on screen, the season aims to open a space for dialogue at a time when this is more urgent than ever.
ArtWorks have been working with the ICA and the Goethe Institute to bring the film ‘Fire at Sea’ to a brand new audience.
Samuele is 12 years old and lives on an island in the middle of the sea. He goes to school, loves shooting his slingshot and going hunting. He likes land games, even though everything around him speaks of the sea and the men, women and children who try to cross it to get to his island. But his is not an island like the others – its name is Lampedusa and it is the most symbolic border of Europe, crossed by thousands of migrants in the last 20 years in search of freedom.
Situated some 200km off Italy’s southern coast, Lampedusa has hit world headlines in recent years as the first port of call for hundreds of thousands of African and Middle Eastern migrants hoping to make a new life in Europe. Rosi spent months living on the Mediterranean island, capturing its history, culture and the current everyday reality of its 6,000-strong local population as hundreds of migrants land on its shores on a weekly basis. The resulting documentary focuses on 12-year-old Samuele, a local boy who loves to hunt with his slingshot and spend time on land even though he hails from a culture steeped in the sea.
We are so proud to bring Fire at Sea to communities in RCT with the support of ICA and their crossing project. To book your sea please contact Claire on 01443 303032
ArtWorks and Valleys Kids are excited to be hosting the Fio team and their show Swarm in the Factory Venue on Friday 28th July at 7pm.
Fio will be working with ArtWorks Penygraig Drama Workshop and local community groups to bring the production to life in the heart of the Rhondda Valleys.
Swarm has already been performed in Bute Town in Cardiff, The Gurnos in Merthyr and then lastly The Congress Theatre in Cwmbran. In each community they have been intergrated into existing comminty groups mixing in adult and other community groups to create a community cast. They show has been really successful and we can’t wait to be part of it.
If you would like to take part in the show you can contact us on 01443 303032 or you can get in touch with the Fio team on +44 (0)7817 132 754.
“Wales is at civil war – what does this mean for you? Where is the safest place for you to be?
Anyone can become a refugee – what if it happened to you?
Swarm is a brand new immersive theatre experience, giving the audience a chance to feel what it could be like if they were put in the shoes of a refugee. Working with a professional and community cast, this is a unique production unlike anything else you may have seen.”
Supported by the Big Lottery, Rhondda Cynon Taf Council and ArtWorks Valleys Kids.
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Thursday 21st September 6.30pm – Soar Centre, Penygraig, CF40 1JZ
