Arts Connection – Cyswllt Celf are celebrating 30 fantastic years at the forefront of Culture and Participatory Arts in Mid Wales and the borders.

From their small central office at the Workhouse in Llanfyllin they are digging deep into their archives to create a rolling programme of online remembrances in 2024.

Thirty years of finding funds to create spaces for the community to come together, thirty years of making music, mosaics, multimedia arts & more…performance, painting, poetry, pottery, portraits… colourful crafts, cultural connections and creative collaborations.

From its humble beginning as an artist-led coalition the Charity has grown and evolved and pushed forward in its mission to create space and time for people to engage and participate in the Arts.

Since 1994 AC – CC has found and invested over £3 million into the local economy and provided work opportunities for well over 3,000 Artists, Enablers and Volunteers. Delivered more than 13,000+ workshops, performances, events, exhibitions and film screenings reaching more than 350k people. Each penny spent has been directly responsible for magical moments and memories made.

The organisation is flourishing and continues to somehow see off the challenges of austerity and funding cuts to fly the flag for community creativity – at a time when things in the wider world feel ever more difficult let’s rejoice and remember the good things in life.

A lot of this wouldn’t be possible without our main funder, the Arts Council of Wales, who have supported us since pretty much the beginning and with whom we have been a revenue client since 2002.

We’ve been involved in projects around Oswestry for many years and were part of the Footfall initiative putting art works in empty shop windows and worked with the youth club to create graffiti boards, we’ve run the Oswestry CultureFest event for the past few years bringing diverse groups and voices together through art, music and stalls but are currently taking a break. We’re currently looking forward to our family arts workshop happening at the Oswestry Memorial Hall on the 14th August from 2 – 4pm with artists Jamila Walker and Katie Hodson.

Visit website to stay in touch and find out more – https://artsconnection.org.uk