Past exhibitions
BRECON JAZZ - 40 YEARS
6th July to 3rd September 2023
Let the graphics of 'Brecon Jazz' from 1984 take you through forty amazing years with this display of poster art from the Jazz Club's festival archive.
See who's played and how the designs have changed as the festival travelled through time and put Brecon on the international jazz map. In 2022/23, students of Brecon Beacons College working with the Jazz team, brought a fresh eye to the design challenge too!
With thanks to Lynne & Roger, Brecon Jazz Club & Festival / Staff & Students of Brecon Beacons College (Neath Port Talbot College Group).
YSGOL NODDFA
Cafodd y gwaith celf a welir yn yr arddangosfa hon ei chreu gan ddisgyblion yn Ysgol Gynradd yr Eglwys yng Nghymru Llan-gors. Yr ysbrydoliaeth ar gyfer y gwaith fu archwilio ystyr ceisio a darparu noddfa i bobl anghenus. Pwynt cychwynnol rhywfaint o’r gwaith a ddangosir yw gwaith celf a grëwyd gan bobl sy’n ceisio lloches, neu a grëwyd mewn ymateb i thema dadleoli.
Dan arweiniad Lloches i Ffoaduriaid y Gelli Gandryll, Aberhonddu a Thalgarth, nod y prosiect yw creu Ysgol Noddfa.
Nod Ysgol Noddfa yw lle sy’n croesawu pawb, sy’n addysgu pobl ifanc am y rhesymau pam fod pobl yn cael eu dadleoli drwy rym, yn cydnabod fod y DU yn cael ei chyfoethogi gan bobl newydd sy’n cyrraedd yma; ac sy’n cefnogi disgyblion o bob cefndir i gael eu gweld a’u cynnwys.
Mae Wythnos Ffoaduriaid (19-25 Mehefin 2023) yn ŵyl sy’n dathlu cyfraniadau, creadigrwydd a gwytnwch ffoaduriaid a phobl sy’n ceisio noddfa.
SCHOOL OF SANCTUARY
The artwork in this display has been created by pupils at Llangorse Church in Wales Primary School. The inspiration for the work has been an exploration of what it means to seek and provide sanctuary to people in need. Artwork created by people who are seeking refuge, or created in response to the theme of displacement has been the starting point for some of the work displayed.
Led by Hay, Brecon and Talgarth Sanctuary for Refugees, the project aims to create a School of Sanctuary.
A School of Sanctuary strives to be a place that is welcome to all, to educate young people about why people are forcibly displaced, recognises that the UK is enriched by new people arriving; and supports pupils from all backgrounds to be seen and included.
Refugee Week (19-25 June 2023) is a festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary.
Brecon in Bits: Inspired by the street
Brecon’s streetscape is the inspiration for the artwork in this exhibition. Drawing ideas from the buildings of Brecon and street art from across Wales, year ten pupils at Brecon High School experimented with stencilling and spray-painting processes to create a series of new artwork.
Working with local artist Ruth Gibbs, the pupils found visual stimuli in the architectural details of the built environment to create stencils, learning and refining new skills and techniques in the use of graffiti spray paint.
The display represents the creative journey of the pupils over the six-week project, sharing the stencil designs, testing, and experimenting with spray paint on card, and a selection of final artworks.
This display is part of the Celebration of Contemporary Welsh Painting 2022.
Artists
Year 10 GCSE Art pupils, Brecon High School
Teacher of Visual Arts
Karen Thomas, Brecon High School
Artist Educator
Ruth Gibbs
Curator
Ruth Lloyd
LOCAL ARTIST PHIL CLARK BRINGS LATEST EXHIBITION TO THEATR BRYCHEINIOG
At The Waters Edge is an exhibition of original prints by Phil Clark which will be at Theatr Brycheiniog in Brecon throughout November, December and into January 2022.
Primarily a theatre director, Phil has always worked as a Visual Artist alongside his theatre work. In 2016 he was the winner of the inaugural Saatchi Open Studio Award, a finalist in the International Derwent Drawing Prize exhibiting at The Mall Galleries in London in 2018 and a finalist in the 2021 Print International Exhibition. He has exhibited work for the last 40 years and has had solo exhibitions in Brecon, Cardiff, the Czech Republic and the National Botanical Garden of Wales. In 1998 Phil’s work was chosen by the European and World Summit Meeting in Cardiff to be exhibited in the rooms occupied by Nelson Mandela. He has exhibited at the Riverside Gallery, Chepstow and St David’s Hall, Cardiff Summer and Christmas exhibitions. He was also a finalist in the National Laing Art Competition. Recently Phil has exhibited at The Print Shed, Hereford and the Haymakers Gallery in Hay on Wye. He also participated in the National Print Exchange and has been a regular participant in hArt Festival in Hereford over a number of years. Phil has also had solo exhibitions at The Senedd Cymru/Welsh Parliament Building in Cardiff Bay and FOUND Gallery in Brecon.
To read a full press release on Phil Clark and his work click here
For more details on Phil Clark and his work go to phil-clark.org.
Cameron Morgan, project ability
9 MARCH – 30 APRIL
Morgan is a multi-talented and prolific artist working with Project Ability as part of their Aspire programme, since 1991.
In 2010 Morgan painted and exhibited a large mural on the walls of the Collins Gallery in Glasgow, as part of the exhibition MyScape. This was the first time Cameron worked straight on the wall to create a large scale mural of his journey on the bus to his studio at Project Ability. This was received very well and lead Project Ability and Cameron to work on several more murals, including Cameron’s Way: Coast to Coast for Generation festival in 2014, which firmly established his standing as a contemporary artist.
In 2016 Cameron was awarded an Unlimited commission which enabled him to make two new bodies of work; TV Classics Part 1 and Put your sweet lips closer to the phone. 2016 also saw Cameron awarded a lifetime fellowship to the RSA, with work exhibited at several different venues, exhibitions and festivals around the U.K.
In 2018, Creative Scotland awarded Morgan a grant to pursue collaborative partnerships with other contemporary artists and develop his skills, which resulted in exhibitions in Manchester and Glasgow.
This exhibition forms part of the Unlimited conference. Watch video
ANN SEYMOUR CHARLIE’S YEAR
1 FEBRUARY– 1 MARCH
After a brief catch up in 2018, chewing the cud about friends and family Charlie told me how at the age of 21 he had been about to disappear to New Zealand to do a years' shearing, something he had dreamed of doing. However after his father had suffered a severe medical illness, and Charlie was suddenly thrown into full-time farming taking on the mantle from his dad. Not shying from the responsibility Charlie has to adjust to the role he may well not have had until later in life. Along with his sister Pip and mum Katherine the trio farm over three areas of farmland straddling the hills and valleys adjacent to the Black Mountains, it is both hard mentally and physically. As well as the farm he still finds time to run a successful shearing and dipping business. Many would have faltered; however, he strives on.
I talked to Charlie about my desire to work on a project within the local farming community that I loved. Having noticed Charlie had a keen eye for images and photography on Social Media that he took of his work life and work I broached the subject of a project. We talked about what I wanted to do decided together, to give it ago. Over a period of about 15 months, I tagged along with him as he went about his work. Sometimes the events were distressing as farming is not always the picture-postcard life we all imagine, but a story of trials and tribulations of the start of life and the end of life of the livestock they take care of. Combined with this is the management and working of the land to feed, house and maintain the flocks and family herd of cows.
Throughout this period I worked as a photographer alongside this young farmer capturing the daily goings-on of a Welsh farm in the Brecon Beacons National Park. In a challenging social, environmental and political era, farmers especially the young generation have tough choices to make whether they continue in the footsteps of their forefathers or whether to diversify and cope with an ever-changing market place, food-lifestyle and climate change. Never have farmers faced such challenging times threatening not only their lively hood and way of life but also living with it. The pressures and stresses of family life, the mental toll of hard winters, financial fluctuations within the market place all have an impact. I am very grateful to not only Charlie and his family for allowing me this insight but also to the many other contractors and colleagues who all played their part through the year and put up with me pointing a big lens in their direction.
CELF O GWMPAS
6 – 26 JANUARY
“Discovery” is the third annual exhibition by Celf o Gwmpas' Artist Network. The work in this exhibition portrays the artist’s discovery of new things about themselves and their practice over the last year. The network was founded in 2016 with funding from Rural development plan leader programme; Arwain and since then has gone from strength to strength and is now funded by Arts Council Wales. Artists have regular monthly meetings where they share skills, news and opportunities. Celf o Gwpmas/Arts round and about, is an arts charity based in Llandrindod Wells who have been supporting Arts activity in Powys for more than 20yrs through workshops and training programmes for all ages and abilities.
THE HAY MAKERS CHRISTMAS COLLECTION
Monday 2nd December- Tuseday 24th December 
The Hay Makers is a group of local designer makers who mark the successful running of the co- operative gallery in Hay on Wye for 30 years with this exhibition. The Hay Makers have an enviable reputation for selling high quality craft at affordable prices. Their work includes turned wood, pottery, felt, embroidered sachets, carved and lettered stone, prints, silk ties and jewellery.
2019 Celebration of Contemporary Welsh Painters
19th September- 17th November
Theatr Brycheiniog was delighted to be be part of the country-wide Celebration of Welsh Contemporary Painting. 
Featured in the exhibition here at the theatre are Pip Woolf (nominated for this year’s Ruskin Prize), Kate Bell, Sue HIley Harris, Jennifer Allan, Lucy Corbett, Robert Macdonald, Philip Ross, Lee Wright, Meirion Jones and a Congolese refugee, Bison Milambo, who, having fled for his life now calls Wales home.
Exhibiting artist Pip Woolf comments that “any celebration of contemporary Welsh art is welcome and this is wonderful,” adding that she is concerned about the closure of galleries and the effect that might have on young artists, “because if there are no new generations of creative thinkers and makers, we are going to be living in an impoverished society. So every possible opportunity to celebrate creativity is to be welcomed.”
The 2019 COWCP event has involved six galleries from Merthyr Tydfil to St David’s and has grown from a smaller experimental event run two years ago in Glasbury-on-Wye and Merthyr, the brainchild of the late Pete Goodridge, who had for many years believed that the amazing range of work by current Welsh painters was lamentably overlooked and should be celebrated in a biennial exhibition.
The Brecon exhibition will be followed by the next two at Oriel y Parc St David’s and Pembrokeshire College, Haverfordwest from 4 October—30 November before this Celebration of Welsh Contemporary Painting comes to and end at the Futures Gallery , Pierhead, Cardiff, starting on 4 November.
Prom Art Competition 
5th September – 15th September
Exhibition of selected work submitted by local children in response to the PromArt competition. This year the competition is based on Ibsen's Peer Gynt and Edvard Greig’s music. The art work will also be projected above Brecon Town Concert Band when they play the music at their Prom Concert on Monday 30th September.
This year’s PromArt Competition is based on Ibsen's Peer Gynt and Edvard Greig’s music.
The competition is aimed at encouraging children to research the play and the playwright as well as the music and the composeand use their imagination to represent any of the scenes relevant to the music.
ANDREW MORTON & BRECON JAZZ 
…AND ALL THAT JAZZ
1st August – 15st September
An exchibition of eclectic jazz paintings by Andrew Morton along with photography commisioned by Brecon Jazz Club, entitled 'Faces Of Jazz'.
Brecon Jazz Festival enjoys both an international reputation and a local following for outstanding musicanship and swining sounds. The festival has happened every year since 1984 - that's 37 years now! In 2018, the organisers once again programmed their bijou festival offer around the diverse talents of musicians from Europe, South Africa, Cuba, UK and Wales, featuring young artists, different sounds, instruments and styles. Working with partner photographers Gena Davies, Denis Anguige and Bob Meyrick, the BJF team are proud to have captured some of the atmosphere and 'faces of jazz' of the 2018 concerts.
BRECON WELCOMES THE ZULUS! 
4th July – 28th July 2019
In Celebration of King Goodwill's visit to Brecon: 'Retrospective of ‘Sibanye - Brecon welcomes the Zulus!’ group exhibition by local artists and photographers.
An exhibition of photographs and art that was commissioned in 2017 as part of the
King Cetshwayo 135th Celebrations in Wales. These included a series of events organised by The Friends of The Royal Welsh Regimental Museum in partnership with KwaCulture and Maluju Charity. The events occurred at Theatr Brycheiniog, Brecon cathedral and in Cardiff.
The exhibition included photography by Velvet Cole & Nigel Evans and artwork by fromRobert MacDonald, Karin Mear, Gemma Schiebe, Sarah Powell & Angharad Pickering.
SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES
A POWYS PEOPLE FIRST AND THEATR WILDCATS COLLABORATION
25th May – 29th June 2019
- What makes us all the same?
- What makes us all different?
- Do we all deserve respect?
These are the questions that were explored through the Powys People First self-advocacy groups and Theatr Wildcats.
Are all people the same whether they have a learning, a teenager or older person?
Using video, photography, self portraits and sensory experiences the artists explored the themes of similarities and differences.
DIVERGENT CONTEMPORARY ART
COLLECTIVE PRESENTS
DAMAGED NOT DESTROYED
25th April – 19th May 2019
Damaged Not Destroyed was a diverse exhibition, featuring; painting, sound art, video art, photography, graphic design and installation art from artists across Wales and Europe. This exhibition explored how we may struggle through the experiences, challenges and traumas of life, yet at the same time and triumph through adversity by persisting and recognising the warmth and compassion of humanity, as well as the beauty of the world around us.
Artists featured: Rainier Lericolais (France), Jules Nerbard (Madeira), Anne Sønsthagen (Norway), Mark Ingram (Wales), Susan Matthews (Wales) and Fi Latus (Wales).
Wild Things
21st March - 23rd April
An enquiry into our relationship to wildness, in nature and within ourselves, was at the heart of this body of work. Tessa explored this theme using simple materials and dynamic mark making to create large scale constructions, intimate handmade books and installations of objects both made and found.
CELEBRATING WOMEN IN THE OUTDOORS
28th February – 17th March 
An exhibition of art and photography celebrating lives of incredible Welsh women in the outdoors taking part in extraordinary and ordinary activities.
This exhibition was a part of Brecon Women's Festival and was complimented by a number of talks, workshops and day trips to celebrate International Women's Day.
The exhibition featured photography by Billie Charity and drawings and pastels by Ella Wilding. Alongside these were photographs by Mikaela Toczek and photographs of Sian Sykes - paddle boarder on her 1000km journey around Wales, Ruth Pickvance - fell runner, Sara Williams - rally driver, outdoor enthusiasts Juliet Parker Smith and Tracey Purnell, indoor climbers - The Bouldering DabRats, Everest climber Tori James, the Dinky Donkey walker and sheep trekker Julia Blazer and some wonderful black and white images of the 86 year old sky diver, Dilys Price.
Included in the exhibition was a display celebrating the 10th anniversary of Welsh Women Walking
17th January - 24th February
From The Beacons To The Sea
22nd November - 22nd December
This was a selling exhibition of ceramics from the South Wales Potters Group who responded to the theme From The Beacons to The Sea, and artwork from Swansea Print Workshop Collective.
The potters were:
Liz Andrews ~ Jane Blair ~ Dan Boyle ~ Jason Braham ~ Kim Colebrook ~ Matt Jones ~ Angela Hathway ~ Chris Heneghan ~ Lindy Martin ~ Rachel Padley ~ Pauline Paterson ~ Jane Rees Parfitt ~ William Rolls ~ Carole Spackman ~ Claire Spencer Jones
The printmakers were:
Lynne Bebb ~ Alan Figg ~ Dhyana Fritsche ~ Anne Gullick ~ Yvonne Hills ~ Vicki James ~ Robert MacDonald ~ David LaGrange ~ Carol Lawrence ~ Lesley Lillywhite ~ Pat Lowe ~ Ruth Parmiter ~ Sally Price ~ Kelly Rees ~ Viv Rhule ~ Al Roberts ~ Kara Seaman ~ Judith Stroud
Canalworks by Penny Hallas
5th October – 11th November 2018
Centred mainly on a section of the Brecon and Monmouthshire canal in and around Llangattock, this exhibition explored both natural processes and human activity over time with drawings, paintings, video and sculptural elements.
7th – 30th September 2018
An exhibition of shortlisted artwork by local children who entered the PromArt competition. Their work responded to Prokofiev's Peter & the Wolf. The exhibition also included pictures by print maker Victoria Keeble, and mixed media artist Roger Luxton.
28th June – 2nd September 2018
An exhibition celebrating the photographic career of this renowned Motorsport photographer – a career which spans 45 years. Maurice concentrated on Rallying, covering a record-breaking 449 WRC (World Rally Championship) rallies worldwide. This exhibition aims to capture the thrills, colour and atmosphere of this exciting sport.
28th May – 24th June 2018
Developed by digital artists Tim Pickup and Nicola Schauerman, known as Genetic Moo, Microworld Brecon was an immersive room full of generative and some interactive art. As 'Microworld Brecon' The Andrew Lamont Gallery was a dynamic space filled with digital projections programmed by local children and adults at workshops with the artists held during the first week of the exhibition as well as the generative and interactive work designed by the artists.
Genetic Moo won the Founder’s Award of the Lumen Prize for Digital Art in 2013 and have been working with Lumen on shows around the world ever since. Lumen, founded in Llangasty, Brecon, has helped sponsor this show, along with The Usk Valley Trust.
Vulgar Earth
14th April – 20th May 2018
An Artists Collective who used painting, sculpture and installation with a passion and intensity, to re awaken realisations of the direction humanity has taken. See this Virtual Tour of the exhibition:
Abstract Edge
3rd March – 8th April 2018
To coincide with Brecon Women’s Festival 2018 we welcomed Abstract Edge in March and April for an exhibition of mainly women artists, showing a mix of semi-abstract and purely abstract paintings; painting at the edge of abstraction. See this Virtual Tour of the exhibition: