Harbour Art
23 August - 9 September 2005
Harbour Art was a Mission Gallery outreach project led by Hamish Gane, working alongside local specialist organisations, enabling asylum seekers and refugees in the Swansea area to participate in visual art workshops in and around the city’s maritime quarter over a three-week period. The project enabled those involved to make a pin- hole camera and develop black and white images, use digital and 35mm photography.

Accompanying the photography workshop Mission Gallery’s artist in residence Owen Griffiths acted as a catalyst creating live action cookery events.

I arrived a stranger
The Josef Herman Residency 2004
26 March – 16 April
"I stayed because I found all I required. I arrived a stranger for fortnight. The fortnight became eleven years".
Josef Herman.
An exhibition of work produced by pupils from Townhill Community School, Swansea and Penrhos Primary School, Ystradgynlais, Powys, together with selected works by Polish emigré artist Josef Herman. The workshop residency led by Keith Bayliss, took place during the academic year of 2004 and is part of an ongoing residency programme organised by the Josef Herman Arts Foundation Cymru. Jennifer Lewis a recent SIHE graduate, ran the photographic and video side of the project, documenting all the children’s work and working environment, before collating it for a digital projection in the gallery.

April 14 2005
Keith Bayliss also led a successful teacher INSET training evening during the Josef Herman Foundation exhibition, which was organised by Carolyn Davies, Arts Advisor for the City & County of Swansea.

Anthony Hall
Schools Workshops
May 10th – 14th 2004

Mission Gallery is planning a series of workshops by Antony Hall. This is a unique opportunity for schools in the area to discover more about this fascinating exhibition Fluid – an atmospheric exhibition of projections and table top experiments.

Antony Hall is artist in residence at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology as part of a residency project.

These workshops will give pupils the opportunity to view and talk with an artist who uses science and experimentation as his art form. Working with Antony at the gallery children can apply their knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas to what they seen in the exhibition. Antony will led the workshops enabling the pupils to carry out systematic investigations, working on their own ideas, talking and communicating using a wide range of scientific language - drawings, charts and graphs. Antony's own investigations and observations will give a unique insight and portrayal of a world that will enhance and stimulate the children’s conception of science.

Primary School Workshops led by Nigel Meager
Mission Gallery and artist/art educator Nigel Meager have been working together to explore new ways of teaching art in Primary Schools. As part of this initiative Nigel has worked both in the gallery and in schools on different projects, with children from a number of schools in the Swansea Neath/Port Talbot area. Nigel is also committed to helping the non-art-specialist primary school teacher, continuing the aims of his publications ‘Teaching Art at Key Stage 1’ and ‘Teaching Art at Key Stage 2’. The research collated during some of his projects at Mission Gallery will also be used for Nigel’s next publication on the broad theme of teaching creativity and culture in primary schools. This is due to be published by the National Society of Education in Art and Design in the near future.

Islands of Imagination
March 2005
The Islands of Imagination project is breaking new ground and builds on the projects described in earlier publications. Nigel worked with children from Waun Wen & St. Thomas Primary Schools in the empty gallery space. The theme was ‘Islands of Imagination’. During the project children had the opportunity to create their own mini-cultures, which included artwork, stories, movement, music and digital video.

March 18 2005
This INSET training day led by Nigel Meager, was aimed at subject leaders in art, although we believe it was also of interest to both headteachers and class room teachers who have a particular interest in teaching strategies that support children’s creativity and cultural understanding. Teachers could view the results of the children’s work produced during Nigels ‘Islands of Imagination’ project during the day and Nigel described in detail the various teaching strategies used.

Cultural Education Project
November 2004
Mayals, St Thomas, St Helen’s, Knelston Primary Schools
What do we believe? How do we account for the world around us? How should we behave towards others? These are some of the questions that challenge different cultures and religious believers all over the world. Based on deeply held convictions, the underlying philosophies lead to a great deal of artistic expression. Can we help children to understand more about religious beliefs and in doing so understand more about the art that is created by different religions all over the world? If children created their own imaginary religions could they create artwork for them?
These were some of the questions posed by artist and art educator, Nigel Meager, who worked at Mission Gallery in November 2004. The project included work in the classroom followed by a one day workshop at Mission Gallery. A very successful project with Mission Gallery producing a Greetings Card of the most successful image produced by a pupil from each school.

‘from an elsewhere unknown’ photography project
February/March 2005
During these half-day morning workshops with artist and art educator Nigel Meager, children had the opportunity to talk about the photographic images in Sian Bonnell’s exhibition ‘from an elsewhere unknown’ which they were working from, and make drawings of their own. They were also asked to set up their own photographic still life using objects such as toys, which prior to the photography, had their appearance significantly manipulated and altered with spray paint. The children then completed the workshop by taking their own digital photograph. The school received these digital images on CD plus a colour print of each photograph for display.

Martina Mullaney
Turn In
17 January - 28 February 2004
Turn In was a powerful and moving photographic exhibition by Martina Mullaney, the work addresses issues of isolation and loneliness among the homeless community. As part of Mission Gallery’s outreach programme the gallery organised an ambitious city wide photography project which took place during the three weeks running up to Christmas. Martina Mullaney worked in the city with the homeless, residents of homeless hostels and those who have experienced homelessness in a series of photographic workshops which gave them the opportunity to make their own work, those images were included in the exhibition.
A Ffotogallery Touring Exhibition

Keith Bayliss
Gardens of Learning and Sharing
13 October – 4 November
Gardens of Learning and sharing developed from an idea generated by several schools in the Swansea Valley area. Each garden will provide an environment for learning, sharing and contemplation and will provide a lasting resource for the school and community. The pupils will be working with professional artists and designers and the final exhibition will consist of photographs, plans, original artwork, information and text.

Opt for Art
18 March – 9 April
This site specific installation created and installed by the pupils of St Joseph’s School in Port Talbot and Swansea based textile artist Alastair Duncan is the final result of an Opt for Art project. This Mission Gallery initiated project, part of the gallery’s ongoing educational role, took place over a period of time in which Alastair worked with Year Nine puopils to create a piece of textile/weaving based on a them which involved new technology, design and IT.

Opt for Art is national initiative which aims to encourage pupils to choose art as a career.

Opt for Art
‘Domesticity
21 March – 29 March
An exhibition of work created by school children from the Neath Port Talbot area, working in collaboration with artists Alan Rogers and Richard Powell. The children were asked to draw from interiors and exteriors of buildings in Swansea and the Neath Port Talbot region and then make models of their ‘imaginary city’, where the interior workings and purposes of the buildings are revealed as external sculptures and decoration. This exhibition was part of the Opt for Art scheme, a national incentive which encourages Welsh pupils to choose Art & Design for one of their GCSE options.