During March and April 2016 workshops were held at Porth and Treorchy libraries. A selection of artworks by Ernest Zobole depicting locations in the Rhondda Valley were explored and discussed. The images prompted memories and brought long forgotten events to mind. Recollections both local and global were revealed, such as skipping home with the grandchildren after school and travelling with the circus in South Africa.
Each participant saw something within the images that they could relate to their own lives, either as an experience from the past or what the valley represents today, bringing a personal connection to paintings.
All the stories written in response the these artworks and submitted to the project can be read in the Ystrad Stories section.
The final stage of the project brought the stories together with the actual artworks. To make this happen the stories were displayed alongside the artworks at an exhibition at the Oriel y Bont, University of South Wales. The exhibition opened Thursday 2nd June 2016 where the storytellers from both workshops came together to read their stories aloud amongst the paintings in the University of South Wales art collection.
Photographs by Jon Pountney
