Publications
We create publications in partnership with local people and organisations including Community Arts publications, 'The Remembering Series' (a People's History project looking at life in the South Wales Valleys), visual arts and photography publications, booklets made in their own right or made to accompany videos for training packs and a range of other print work, both commissioned and created in Community Arts workshops.
We have an in-house community design and print team and are always interested in working with new groups and projects, so please contact us if you would like to work with us on your own publication, booklet, or project. We can also offer a high quality design and print service at community rates, including the design and print of publications, newsletters, promotional material like annual reports and flyers, and we also offer colour photocopying and IT services.
COMMUNITY AND PEOPLE'S HISTORY
Across the Great Divide
Facilitated by Alison McGann
During the summer of 2003 young people from the Betws Community took part in a photographic project to reflect to a wider audience how they see the area in which they live - both the good and the bad. During workshops it became clear that not only did the photographs show where they live, but also who they are as a group of individuals, with their own views and their own style. This publication uses the group’s photographs and the words of a rap created about the valleys to express their lives in words and pictures.
Published: 2004
25 Pages
Cost: £8.50
Creative Collaboration
By Nick Clements
At long last, a theory of Community Arts practice, discussing why such work is of value, and how to use it wisely in order to bring about change in society.
Published: 2004
Cost: £8.50
The Valleys' Autobiography 2:
The Time of
Our Lives
edited by C M Kelly
"In the telling of the story we become part of it…"
A collection of words and photographs from the people of the Garw,
Llynfi and Ogmore Valleys, exploring the past, present and future of
their communities. This book is part of our People’s History
project, recording the memories and visions of the people of the South
Wales Valleys at a time of enormous social, economic and cultural change.
Coal mining has ceased in the area now but Valley and Vale and the
communities we work with have collaborated in an attempt to preserve
and to make available to others the rich culture and history unique
to this area in their own words and pictures.
Published: 1997
123 Pages
Cost: £8.50
Chasing the Dragon: Creative Community Responses
to the Crisis in the South Wales Coalfield.
edited by Phil Cope, Pat Hill, Simon Jones and Jenny Turner
Prologue by Professor Hywel Francis, University of Wales, Swansea.
This publication investigates many different examples of community initiatives for development following the end of an era of coal mining in the South Wales Valleys, exploring community enterprises, cultural, educational, community arts and development projects. Documenting this activity alongside a time of immense change for industry, communities and society from 1985 to 1995, this report follows the themes of wealth, culture, women, education, environment, transport, disability and youth. A Valleys' Initiative for Adult Education (VIAE) and European Community (ERGO 2) Coalfields Community Campaign report, sponsored by Gwent TEC and Mid Glamorgan TEC.
Published: 1996
108 Pages
Cost: £8.50
Creating Meaning: a book about Culture and
Democracy
Edited by Jerry Rothwell
At the heart of the beliefs which underpin the work described in this book is the right of all people to have a hand in the production of their own cultural meanings and identities, in the construction of what it means to live in Barry or Blaengarw, in Britain or Bangladesh, in Ireland or El Salvador. Cultural democracy can only be brought about by the development of a new set of relationships between people, relationships which enable us to become both reader and writer, performer and audience, viewer and viewed.
Published: 1992
82 Pages
Cost: £8.50
Barry - to See a Difference.
A Book about
Change
edited by Phil Cope and Kath Beaudette
Photography by Simon Davies (with thanks to George Storey)
In just over a century Barry has changed out of all recognition; from being the largest exporter of coal in the world in 1913 the town is now seeking a new identity in the post-coal age of South Wales. Valley and Vale Community Arts delved into its photographic archive in an attempt to illustrate these changes. This publication compares and contrasts the past and present of the town using archive photographs and modern images in conjunction with oral history interviews. The result is a stunning large format photographic journey.
Published: 1993
117 Pages
Cost: £8.50
THE REMEMBERING SERIES
The 'Remembering' series is part of the Valleys' Autobiography Project; a collection of books by individuals and facilitated by Valley and Vale, making available to the general public the unique perspectives of people in the South Wales Valleys, on their lives, their history and their future. Titles in the 'Remembering' series:
The Foxglove Sun: Moments from Childhood
Recalled
by Clive Menadue
"I was born in a little terraced house facing one of the
three coal mines in the Ogmore Valley. The year was 1932. My father
was a miner. Almost any child in the valley could say that in the
first half of this century. Few can say it now".
Published: 1996
102 Pages
Cost: £6.50
Here comes my Nineteenth Nervous Breakdown
by Peter Carter
"There's a bad woman on this ward. I'm afraid she might hurt someone. I just hope they medicate her good and proper. I'm drafting out plans for this country's starship. If it all goes well I will have finished it before I leave hospital."
Peter takes us on his long, sometimes funny, sometimes frightening journey through schizophrenia.
Published: 1996
175 Pages
Cost: £6.50
An Ordinary Life
by Julie Rowlands
"The first time I discovered I was 'special' was at the age of five and a half..."
Julie allows us a glimpse of her struggle to find her own identity and to shrug off the label of 'mentally-handicapped' imposed upon her by society.
Published: 1995
34 Pages
Cost: £6.50
The Bridgend Biffy: Half-abandoned Memories
and Pleasurable Moments from the 1940s and 1950s
by David Lazell
"This collection salutes a period which - had we known it at the time - was seeing the passing of an old village-based way of life in which chapel, co-op, community and cinema had all been significant, it also offers a gentle 'thank you' to U.S. servicemen who came to this country and who played so great a role in defeating dictatorship".
Published: 1995
72 Pages
Cost: £6.50
They Made Light of Their Darkness
by Vernon Chilcott
"I am very proud to be a son of this valley where in my youth there was grace, humanity in abundance,and kindness to whomever came into our midst"
Vernon Chilcott, the first Mayor of Ogwr to come from the Garw Valley, remembers those days with great wit and good humour.
Published: 1994
122 Pages
Cost: £6.50
