The River Teifi - its past, present and future.
The Llais yr Afon project is a partnership project between West Wales Rivers Trust, Save the Teifi, Small World Theatre, spacetocreate, and supported by the Esmee Fairbairn Blue Spaces Programme and The National Lottery Heritage Fund
Llais yr Afon Festival, Cenarth.
9 - 11 August 2024.
Llais yr Afon festival in Cenarth is a free event with a creative programme for all to enjoy. Please help spread the word!
(This programme is in development and some information may change. Times across the programme are to be confirmed. Please check the list of activities and times nearer the time).
A project overview
A new programme of events to put the River Teifi at the heart of the community through arts, heritage and citizen science. It will address community aspirations and produce environmental improvements, and most importantly ensure communities are informed, engaged and involved.
May 2024
The partners are currently trialing a programme of experiential arts activities in schools and communities along the lower Teifi valley. Starting in Cenarth, and working in Llechryd, Cilgerran, Cardigan and St Dogmaels to create an exhibition of visual art, photography, performances captured on film and more in March 2025.
Communities can expect further arts engagement opportunities from March - October 2025 culminating is a large-scale public event that celebrates the River Teifi from source to sea.
There are three main strands that form the project:
1. Creative engagement
The aim of this element will be to create a model of creative engagement by working in-depth with the community of Cenarth and surrounding area, using the manuscript map compiled by the late Idris Mathias of Cardigan as a key inspiration and starting point.
This map was conceived in 1945 and portrays the natural resources of the lower Teifi valley between Newcastle Emlyn and Cardigan Bay, taking nearly seventeen years to complete. We have received a formal approval from the Welsh Place-Names Society for use of the map as part of this project. Small World Theatre and spacetocreate are working with schools to engage in intergenerational conversations about the river not just with young people, but parents, grandparents and the whole community.
Discussions, workshops and activities exploring the past, present and future will provide opportunities to discuss what a healthy river is and how this can be re-imagined in a modern world.
A programme of events
Throughout this project we will be holding a variety of creative engagement events involving a range of different activities such as workshops, visual arts, performance, spectacle, procession, storytelling, river walks, foraging and more.
The aim is to celebrate the creativity within the community and facilitate discussions between interested groups such as farming families, fisherfolk, tourism businesses etc. By exploring cultural links to the river through poetry, art, stories, pictorial mapping and celebration we hope this project will also strengthen feelings of community identity and ownership of the river environment.
Credits: Llais yr Afon artwork by Lucy Burns
Gallery images: Sections of Idris Mathias’ Manuscript Map of the Lower Teifi Valley 1945, with kind permission of The National Library of Wales.
2. Citizen Science
While citizen science can’t replace regulatory monitoring, it is widely agreed that it can play an important role in pinpointing where further research should take place, and/or identifying pollution incidents that should be addressed immediately.
Therefore, this programme will utilise citizen science, where the project aims to develop and trial a citizen science methodology which provides visual evidence of pollution issues for specific locations which are graded in severity. This will result in data which can be easily validated from visual checks of the photos and provides clear evidence of on-the-ground issues which should be followed up. The citizen science output will be an interactive ArcGIS map with WWRT validated data points containing data such as type and source of pollution, grades of severity and georeferenced photos which are extremely effective in highlighting issues, plus prioritising where on-the-ground interventions for delivery by WWRT, NRW, Welsh Water and landowners. For instance, WWRT will use this data to narrow down priority areas where our Farm Infrastructure Assessments can be delivered for farmers in future projects.
3. The People’s Plan
The project will engage communities along the River Teifi to create a ‘People’s Plan’ for the river, to restore the health of this shared asset, the river, but also to fulfil the creative, human and economic potential of the communities that depend on it.
Contact
Sam Vicary, Communications Manager sam@smallworld.org.uk