Press Releases

Contributions should use an artwork or object in the Museum’s collection as a jumping off point or referent, and can be presented in any medium — including feature articles, personal essays, poetic, art-critical or scholarly texts, films and new digital artworks — as long as they can be presented online. We invite those interested in contributing to browse the Museum’s Online Collection for inspiration: https://museum.wales/collections/online/

The deadline for 200-word proposals is 19th of April 2021 — you’ll find more information about what to include at the bottom of this page. The final contributions should be no longer than 2,000 words, and could also incorporate images and embedded media, as long as they can be hosted on a web platform. The Guest Editor for this issue is Manon Awst, an artist and curator who is based in Caernarfon.

As a theme for this issue, Cynefin/Habitat provides wide scope for reflection. Its meaning and significance will vary substantially depending on factors such as area of upbringing (rural/urban), socio-economic background, age group, language, heritage and political tendencies. According to Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru, it is something customary, habitual, familiar, usual or ordinary… but its spatial qualities intimately connect us to our natural and built environment, which imbues it with materiality and texture as well as memories and associations.

After a year of restriction in movement due to Coronavirus, we’ve all probably spent more time than ever before exploring our immediate environment – our milltir sgwar. It will be fascinating to document how perspectives on Cynefin/Habitat might have shifted as a consequence.

Although we welcome all original ideas surrounding the notion of Cynefin/Habitat, here are a few questions as a springboard

• What does Cynefin/Habitat mean to you as an individual living in contemporary Wales?
• How is it shaped culturally, politically, ecologically?
• Is Cynefin/Habitat a physical place? Can it be digital/online?
• What is the materiality and texture of Cynefin/Habitat?
• What role does language have in the shaping of Cynefin/Habitat?
• How have notions of Cynefin/Habitat been impacted by the recent events of Brexit and/or Covid?
• What role do the Arts play in the shaping of Cynefin/Habitat, and what new forms can we imagine for the near/distant future?

As with previous editions of Cynfas, we are looking for brave and engaging content which hasn’t been published elsewhere, and which reflects and illuminates the richness and diversity of arts practice in Wales, both historically and contemporarily, with reference to work in the Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales Collection.

You do not have to have a professional writing practice or art education to apply. We are very interested in voices of lived experience and those approaching the arts from a different angle, and we’re keen to hear voices responding with respect to BLM and We Shall Not Be Removed. Previous issues of Cynfas explored Black Lives Matter (edited by Umulkhayr Mohamed), Arts in Health (edited by Angela Maddock), Food and Sustainability (edited by Selena Caemawr) and Queer Looking (forthcoming; edited by Dylan Huw).

Application process:

• Email a 200-word summary of your proposed article or project synopsis to sara.treble-parry@museumwales.ac.uk;
• Please include your name, home address, contact details and a brief paragraph about yourself;
• A mixed panel will review the proposals within 10 days and decide which ones to take forward;
• Successful applicants will be paid £250 for their contribution