Following a successful art project funded by Gwynt Y Mor in 2019, Royal Cambrian approached Gwynt Y Mor for a second round of funding to continue the Art Project in partnership with Conwy Connect due to demand and success of first project.

The project was led by The Royal Cambrian Academy and managed by Nadine Carter-Smith who developed and managed the project in its first year. The Royal Cambrian Academy (RCA) continued working with Conwy Connect and Disability Arts Cymru (DAC) to develop these partnerships further. Workshops were be for members of Conwy Connect, their families and carers with 20 art workshops developed over the year.

The aim of the Conwy Connect/RCA project was to make art accessible to members of our community who may not usually feel able to visit the gallery.  All of the participants had very different physical needs, the lady in this case study, Roisin, is blind.  It was crucial that we created activities that all participants could fully engage in and enjoy from home.

RCA did consider postponing the project until Covid restrictions lifted as the focus had been on getting individuals into the gallery, but eventually after talking to participants and their families they realised that the project was more important than ever.  All of the participants were very isolated and unable to access the support they were used to. 

Roisin was new to the project.  She explained how she was unable to access any of the support she usually had day to day and so she and her family were so grateful to have something positive to focus on.

Roisin engaged in every activity and communicated via e-mail/phone weekly with the project leader and artists.  The project became a really important part of her week.

The feedback from Roisin and her family was so wonderful; including how the activities had provided a positive focus during the week where they really enjoyed spending quality time together, working together and being creative; this was something they did not usually do.  Roisin’s mom is an artist and explained that Roisin never wants to create art with her now she is an adult, so this provided a really lovely opportunity for them to work together.  It was wonderful to see how proud Roisin and her family were of the beautiful work they had created together; having the work exhibited in the gallery space really boosted her confidence and pride.