Conservation work on National Slate Museum objects 16 April 2026 Conservation is at the heart of the National Slate Museum redevelopment project and our conservation team are already hard at work assessing and working on the collections to make sure they look their best and keep them safe so that they can be enjoyed for generations to come when the Museum reopens. Jennifer Griffiths is Senior Conservator of Industry Collections and is one of several team members working on the National Slate Museum collection. here she tells us a bit more about her work. “I’ve started my part of the conservation work with treatment of a pay trolley." said Jennifer." This wooden cabinet contains 49 small pay tins made from tin-plate. The cabinet and all of drawers within the cabinet were extremely dirty with surface and ingrained dirt and the tins, all very heavily corroded. The cabinet can be seen here before and after conservation." "So far, the conservation of the cabinet and 7 of the tins has taken a total of 45 days' work.""Each pay tin takes 2 days to complete and so far, 7 tins have been completed.""Just 42 tins to go!"Over the next few months we'll be taking a closer look at all the other conservation work taking place including cleaning our wooden pattern collection, paper and artworks, furniture and clothing! The National Slate Museum redvelopment project is funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, UK Government via Cyngor Gwynedd as part of the Llewyrch o'r Llechi project, Welsh Government including the Community Facilities Programme, the Wolfson Foundation, Garfield Weston Foundation and other funders. We are extremely grateful to all our funders for their support.
Spring at St Fagans Ellen Davies, 18 March 2026 Spring is a special time at St Fagans. There are daffodils and crocuses in bloom, and the farmyard is a hive of activity. From February to April, Llwyn-yr-eos Farm is alive with the sound of bleating as the expectant ewes take shelter in the lambing sheds. This year, we’re expecting over 350 lambs. Around 200 lambs have been born so far and there’s still plenty more to come! We keep three rare Welsh breeds of sheep at St Fagans:Hill Radnor Llanwenog Welsh Black Mountain Keeping native breeds of sheep is important as they are a vital part of Wales’ farming heritage. You can learn more about these rare breeds in this blog. Once the lambs are born, both the lamb and their mother are marked with the same number, so we know who belongs to who! The ewes and lambs are moved from the main lambing shed into smaller nursery pens, before being turned out into the fields a few days later. Can you spot any of the new arrivals as you walk around the museum? Please note, to protect the welfare of our sheep, no dogs are allowed in the farmyard during lambing. Can’t make it to St Fagans? We’re not streaming live from the shed this year, but you can watch the action from previous years’ on our website.
Celebrating Women Who Lead: Helen Goddard, Project Director, National Slate Museum Redevelopment 6 March 2026 For International Women's Day, we are shining a light on one of the incredible women that’s shaping the future of the National Slate Museum. Let us introduce you to Helen Goddard, Project Director for our redevelopment project. Leading with Purpose As Project Director, Helen oversees every aspect of the ambitious redevelopment of the National Slate Museum. Her role is all about ensuring the project delivers on its full potential creatively, culturally, and for communities across Wales and beyond. “I’m responsible for the project as a whole,” Helen explains, “and for making sure it delivers on its ambition.” A Journey Through Heritage Before joining the museum, Helen worked as an archaeologist and community archaeologist before moving into community development work. She spent many years working in the breathtaking northern and western Isles of Scotland, supporting island communities with heritage and community infrastructure projects. Helen moved to Wales in 2011, driven by a personal ambition to learn Welsh. She later qualified as a museum professional while working for Conwy County Borough Council. Women Leading the Way Helen is passionate about women taking up space in sectors where they’ve historically been underrepresented. While the heritage world has strong female representation, construction remains more male dominated. But at the National Slate Museum, the picture is different. “One of the wonderful things about our project is that there are numerous women in leadership roles,” she says. “Our Head of Site, Elen; Exhibition Development Manager, Ulli; our Curator, Cadi; and our Heads of Capital Projects, Julie and Diane. All outstanding women.” Her advice for other women entering similar fields? “Lead authentically. You don’t need to behave in traditionally male ways to lead. It’s okay to show emotion, to be collaborative, and to trust your team.” Life Beyond the Museum When she’s not leading a major redevelopment, Helen’s full of surprises, including one unforgettable chapter of her life: “I once worked on a fishing boat in the Outer Hebrides!” Inspired by a Strong Woman Helen credits her mother as one of her greatest inspirations. “My mum came from a family of 10 children living in rural poverty and went on to carve out her own destiny, never compromising on her dream to help people. She became a Nurse Practitioner towards the end of her career.” Thanks for sharing, Helen, you are a true leader and inspiration!
Hidden Wildlife in the Museum Garden Josh David-Read, 3 March 2026 Before 2017 the Waterfront Museum’s central garden was plain, and had no interest for wildlife to thrive. Then in came the GRAFT Garden to shake up the soil and to introduce a haven for wildlife in what is a concreted area of Swansea. Over the last two years I have found many species of insects and birds visit the Garden, and some have even made the Garden their home. In GRAFT we do not use any pesticides, and try to use natural organic solutions to the problems posed by pests. For World Wildlife Day I am spotlighting some of our most exciting and annoying bugs and birds that visit the Garden and how they impact the space. Compost Royalty! 👑🌱We produce our own compost on site, this is the best place to spot the royalty of the compost heap, and the best bugs in the business of breaking down organic matter into the lovely soil for our growing beds. We have the humble Earthworm which helps Aerate the soil and breaking the organic matter into useable soil. We have hundreds if not thousands of them! And did you know that there are over 16 different species! Pollinators 🐝🌼 The insects we love the most! The pollinators. These are a collection of insects (and sometimes birds but not in our case) that support our ecosystem. We of course have our Honeybee’s managed by our beekeeper Alyson and a group of students from Dylan Thomas School. At its peak we have over 100,000 bees in our hives!Bee’s play a massive part in global biodiversity and food production and we are lucky to have them here on site! Please keep an eye out on our what’s on pages on the website for your opportunity to see them! Pests 🐛Every gardener will have a battle with insects, be it Cabbage Moth or Slugs eating all our crops! But I am going to highlight a lesser known garden pest called the Aphid. These are tiny black insects that collect in their thousands on plants. Aphids love our Broad beans and Broccoli. They can cause disease in plants so it is important to regulate them. We use companion planting and also some water mixed with fairy liquid to try and support our plants.We also have a super hero in the form of Ladybugs who eat Aphids and help us create balance. Did you know you can buy ladybugs in the post? I didn’t! Birds 🐦I am not a bird watcher, however when I am working in the garden and see birds follow me around the garden it fills me with a little bit of Joy! We found evidence of a nest in our Grapevine last year, I am not sure what species this belonged to, but we also have a resident Robin that calls Graft its home and is its ‘patch’. Robins are extremely territorial and you will rarely see more than one Robin. We haven’t named this one yet, but maybe we should name it Charles Watkins after the inventor and creator of The Robin Goch monoplane …. So next time you visit the museum, take a walk out into the GRAFT garden and see what wildlife you can spot.
The Gwen John Studio Collection at Amgueddfa Cymru Helena Anderson, 3 March 2026 Introduction: The Journey of Gwen John’s Studio CollectionIn 1976, one hundred years after Gwen John’s birth, the National Museum of Wales purchased nearly 1,000 works by the artist from her nephew, Edwin. This collection comprised a handful of oil paintings and hundreds of works on paper that were all part of John’s studio collection.What Is a Studio Collection?A studio collection is all the artworks left in an artist’s studio after their death.When Gwen John died suddenly in September 1939, she left all her property, including her unsold artworks, to her nephew. War had just been declared in Europe and Edwin hurried across the Channel to gather what he could and bring it to the UK for safekeeping, returning after the war to collect the rest. The collection now belonging to Amgueddfa Cymru is the bulk of what remained in Gwen John’s studio, though many works were sold at Matthiesen’s Gallery on Bond Street in London in 1946 and in subsequent exhibitions in the 1950s and 1960s.How the Collection Came to Amgueddfa CymruBy purchasing the remaining studio collection, the museum became home to the largest public collection of John’s work anywhere in the world. The studio collection at Amgueddfa Cymru includes over 900 drawings as well as six oil paintings and a number of sketchbooks. Before the museum purchased the studio collection, it owned just three drawings and four oil paintings by Gwen John.Unfinished Paintings That Reveal Her TechniqueThe Gwen John studio collection gives an insight into the many different subjects the artist depicted and the different styles with which she experimented. John is best known for her close-toned oil paintings of women and girls seated in quiet interiors. The examples in the studio collection are unfinished, giving us an insight into her painting technique. For example, Girl in Profile (NMW A 148) shows where John has scraped back the paint surface where the girl’s hairbow would have been. Presumably, she was unhappy with her first attempt and scraped it away to try painting it again. Study of a Seated Nude (NMW A 4928) is unusual because it shows John has worked from the outer of the edges inwards, leaving the face of the sitter until last. Both paintings give us a glimpse of the unusual chalky ground (the pale base layer she put on the canvas first before painting over it in oil paint). She mixed this herself using a unique recipe for which we still don’t know the exact ingredients.A Vast Body of Drawings and Works on PaperThe most notable feature of the studio collection though is the sheer number of drawings and watercolours in it. While John was more focused in her choice of subjects and technique in her paintings, her works on paper are much more varied. They include landscapes and street views, studies of flowers and trees, sketches of cats and horses, and drawings after portrait photographs. Many works are made in series or sets which repeat the same subject. These can be almost identical (NMW A 15751, NMW A 15752, NMW A 15753), or vary in colour and medium (NMW A 15303, NMW A 15304, NMW A 15305).Recurring Subjects: Churches, Figures, and Everyday LifeThe most frequent subject in her works on paper are figures in church (NMW A 3811). She drew the congregants of her local parish church in Meudon, then copied out these images again and again in her studio before adding watercolour and white pigment (NMW A 3611). The single image repeated the most often is Saint Thérèse of Lisieux and her sister, Céline, as children (NMW A 3536, NMW A 15563, NMW A 15565). It was inspired by a photograph of them, of which Gwen John owned a copy. In each version she drew, John changed the composition slightly, adding and removing curtains, wallpaper, and toys from the background, playing with scale, and changing the colours and patterns of every surface. John used much more vivid colours in her works on paper than she ever did in her oil paintings.What the Collection Reveals About Gwen JohnThe Gwen John studio collection gives us an insight into the artistic practice of one of Wales’s best-loved artists. Containing unfinished oil paintings, sketchbooks, and works on paper, it shows how methodical and experimental she was. It also gives us a glimpse into her world: the places where she lived, her friends and neighbours, her pets, her interest in nature and religion, and her art training. This collection is an invaluable resource, befitting of one of the most famous Welsh artists of the twentieth century.
