: Amgueddfeydd, Arddangosfeydd a Digwyddiadau

Rhwng y Nadolig a’r Flwyddyn Newydd ddaeth ein genod ni mewn o’r caeau er mwyn cael eu sganio

Diadell Sain Ffagan

A dyma’r canlyniadau…

canlyniadau scanio ar gyfer defaid Sain Ffagan

Mae gennym 3 frid o ddefaid yn Sain Ffagan ac maen nhw i gyd ar y rhestr o fridiau prin

Dafad Hill Radnor

Hill Radnor

Hwrdd Llanwenog

Llanwenog

defaid yn Sain Ffagan

a Mynydd Duon Cymreig.

Bydd ein babis yn dechrau cyrraedd Mis Mawrth,
felly cadwch lygaid ar y wefan am fwy o fanylion yn agosach at yr amser.

What is an aria? That was the question posed by Music Theatre Wales Director, Michael McCarthy to kick-off this very exciting collaborative project. The Make an Aria scheme is a partnership between Music Theatre Wales (MTW) and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama (RWCMD) giving young composers an opportunity to have-a-go at opera. This time, they are using St Fagans Castle and the Museum’s collections as their inspiration. A group of composers from RWCMD teamed with creative writers will ‘make an aria’ from scratch.

So where do you start? A speed-dating session was a good way to establish the best creative match for composer and writer. When everyone was paired-up, curator Elen Phillips gave an introduction to the material for the arias – the story of St Fagans Castle during the Great War.

The Windsor-Clive family of St Fagans Castle were at the centre of events during these turbulent years; Lord Windsor as chairman of the Welsh Army Corps and Lady Windsor as President of the Red Cross Society in Glamorgan. Grief-stricken by the loss of their youngest son, Archer, who was killed in action, they opened the Castle grounds to set-up a hospital run by volunteer nurses or VADs.

The stories were brought alive by looking at objects from the Museum’s collections; a nurses’ uniform from the hospital, a delicate necklace made by one of the wounded soldiers and a field-communion set used on the battlefield. At this point we were joined by members of the Armed Forces community, the 203 Welsh Field Hospital Medics who gave us a completely new take on some of these objects and stories. It just proves that working collaboratively can bring some unexpected and rewarding results. We will continue to work with the Armed Forces in co-curating some of the exhibits in the new galleries at St Fagans but that’s another blog for another day.

We then led the composers and writers on a tour of the Castle and grounds; the old site of the WW1 hospital, the Italian garden where the soldiers recuperated and the greenhouses where the land girls may have worked. Any of these locations could be the setting to perform the arias in the summer of 2015. I think that everyone left with their heads bubbling with ideas. All we can do now is wait.

We were joined this Saturday by two more of our I Spy…Nature drawing competition winners and their families. The winners were shown around the mollusc (shell), marine invertebrate and vertebrate collections as part of their special behind the scenes tour by museum curators Katie Mortimer-Jones and Jennifer Gallichan. The visitors were able to select draws from the mollusc collections to look in and saw a Giant Clam and a cone shell known as Glory of the Seas (Conus gloriamaris), a once sort after shell found in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, to name but a few. Next onto the fluid store, where we keep our fluid preserved specimens such as marine bristleworms, starfish, crabs, lobsters and fish specimens. Lastly the tour finished up in the Vertebrate store where we keep some of the Museum’s taxidermy and skeleton specimens. After the tour, the winners were given their prizes of natural history goodies from the Museum Shop.

Ffermdy Hendre'r Ywydd Uchaf

Mae Elan yn gwirfoddoli gyda fforwm ieuenctid Sain Ffagan. Yn ddiweddar, treuliodd Elen amser gydag ein Uned Adeiladau Hanesyddol ac mae wedi ysgrifennu am ei phrofiad isod;

Arddangosiadau Tîm Adeiladau Hanesyddol

Fel rhan o’r arddangosiadau Tîm Adeiladau Hanesyddol yn Sain Ffagan, es i i Hendre’r Ywydd Uchag i weld saer coed wrth ei waith. Pan gyrhaeddais roedd yn brysur yn gweithio ar ffrâm ddrws ar gyfer y Pentref Oes Haearn newydd gyda phren a oedd o’r safle ac wedi cael ei dorri y bore hwnnw. Roedd rhaid i’r gwaith gael ei wneud gyda llaw heb unrhyw gymorth oddi wrth beiriannau. Roedd e’n fwy na hapus i siarad â ni ynglŷn â’i waith ac i ateb ein cwestiynau. Soniodd ynglŷn â’i hanes proffesiynol, ei fod wedi gwneud NVQ mewn gwaith saer hanesyddol a’i fod newydd orffen ei brentisiaeth ar ôl gweithio yn yr amgueddfa am bum mlynedd. Roedd ei edmygedd tuag at wybodaeth y crefftwyr mwy profiadol yn glir ac roedd yn ymwybodol fod y wybodaeth hon yn dod o brofiad ac nid ar sail cymwysterau.

Esboniodd wedyn sut daethant â’r adeiladau i’r amgueddfa gan ddisgrifio’r cynnyrch terfynol fel ‘flatpack buildings’ wrth iddynt rifo’r holl friciau o amgylch ochrau’r adeilad cyn ei dynnu i lawr a’i ailadeiladu. Defnyddiodd Dŷ Hwlffordd a Gorsaf Drenau Raglan fel esiamplau. Roedd pwysigrwydd cadwraeth yn y broses hon yn eglur wrth iddo sôn mai dim ond tynnu’r hyn sydd angen ei dynnu ffwrdd roedd rhaid gwneud wrth atgyweirio adeiladau. Esboniodd sut byddai datblygiadau newydd sydd ar droed yn Sain Ffagan yn arwain at waith newydd e.e. Palas y Tywysog o Ynys Môn lle bydd rhaid iddynt drin 480kg o bren! Dyma oedd amser gwerth ei dreulio er mwyn deall sut roedd yr adeiladu’n digwydd yn Sain Ffagan.

by Elan Llwyd

We ran an ‘I Spy…Nature’ drawing competition across the summer to celebrate our natural sciences pop-up museum and launch of a new exhibition at National Museum Cardiff. Our young visitors used some of the specimens from the museum collections as inspiration for their drawings. We had some fantastic entries and it was extremely difficult to choose the best nine drawings. However, after much deliberation we have chosen first, second and third places in 3 age categories (under 6, 6-9 and 10-13). The winners will be receiving natural history goodies from the museum shop. Many thanks to everyone who took part, we have really enjoyed seeing all of your wonderful drawings.