Arts, Business & the Environment 2019

Sponsored by The Waterloo Foundation & University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Winner: My Train Wales

Jennifer Barfoot, My Train Wales, Anna Ryder Richardson & Natasha James, Breaking Barriers Community Arts

Image by Glenn Edwards

My Train Wales, a partnership between four local authorities, wished to promote rail safety and the benefits of travelling by train to young people across South & West Wales. Through A&B Cymru, it commissioned Breaking Barriers Community Arts to work creatively with secondary school pupils from Ysgol Bae Baglan. They developed and produced an interactive online game for younger children that used augmented reality and video footage to highlight both the environmental benefits of train travel and crucial safety issues. The project developed the production skills of the older pupils and will ultimately engage around 2,500 primary school children across Carmarthenshire, Neath Port Talbot, Pembrokeshire and Swansea with the game. The judges praised the innovative approach to tackling such important issues and felt the multi-layered benefits of this impressive collaboration made it the clear winner of this category.

Finalists

Natural Resources Wales (NRW)

Learning more about our natural environment and the threat of deforestation was the driving force behind NRW’s sponsorship of an interactive play staged in the woods of Coed Moel Famau. Theatr Clwyd’s youth arm, Company25, devised, created and produced the show which took the audience on a circular walk through the woods, highlighting native trees and wildlife. The judges were impressed by the way the project combined the arts and the natural environment, resulting in creative and educational success.

Sony UK Technology Centre

Sony partnered Valley and Vale Community Arts on an Environmental Creativity Outdoors programme aimed at people of all ages and abilities. The business provided the space for workshops at the Environmental Centre on its Pencoed base, managing the site as well as supplying equipment. In 2018, over 900 people took part and, as the project continues, Valley and Vale hopes to create more opportunities for Sony staff and their families to engage in creative activities with an environmental focus.