Gower College Swansea has a new Artist In Residence. With the support of the Arts Council of Wales and Mission Gallery, Swansea, Anne J Steves will be based on the Llwyn y Bryn campus until March, working with students on a range of Art and Design courses.
Anne was born in Swansea and studied at Gorseinon College, prior to the merger which created Gower College Swansea. For the last 14 years she has been living in Canada and welcomed this residency as an opportunity to return home and develop her practice.
For the past year Anne, in her thread and drawing work, has been working around the phrase "the horizon of her mind was limited by the mountain", taken from the novel “The Cleft” by the recently deceased Doris Lessing,. “Notions of home could be said to act as the first metaphorical mountain that we must see beyond and I am interested in what this return to my birth home will reveal”, she explained. “I will be working with elements of the Welsh national costume, primarily the hat and the shawl. My interest in these garments is in the role they have played in activating the female body as a site of nationhood. Through the continued recognition of this garment as a symbol for the place, the female body is maintained as a site for nostalgia and nationalism, activism and inertia. I will be unravelling and reworking, cutting and pasting, collapsing and re-making; adjusting materials as I myself adjust to my once familiar surroundings.”
Anne will document her residency on her blog at www.annejsteves.wordpress.com.
Llwyn y Bryn has an Open Evening on Thursday, 6th February, between 5.30 and 7.30 pm.
A range of BTEC courses are delivered on the campus, including Art and Design, Fashion and Textiles, Music, Photography and Graphic Design. There is also the opportunity to progress to the Level 4 Foundation course in Art and Design. Staff will be available to provide information on all these courses and there will also be an opportunity to view facilities and ask questions about student support, funding, transport, etc.