Now that the dust has settled I thought that I’d write a few words of the Rhondda Assembly that took place in the Park and Dare on 26^th October. It was the final day of NTW’s residency in Treorchy.

Personally the month of October was a great journey that allowed me to feel closer and more connected to my country of birth. During the month I met and worked with some great artists with great ideas, who are proud and passionate about their Valley and hopefully the residency and Assembly can help to deepen NTW’s relationship with the communities of South Wales.

The Rhondda Assembly felt like a development in of Assembly, due to a few factors, in particular the fact that we had a whole building to play with and that fact that on this journey I meet more visual artists than performers and the Assembly was based around their skills.

Terry, Angharad, Sion, Nerea, Thomas, Matthew, Kyle and Simon all did a fantastic job in creating for spaces around the Park and Dare that responded to four questions or statements:

• Positive language leads to positive actions.
• Are there enough creative platforms for expersssion in the Rhonnda?
• What is the Soul of the Rhonnda and what message do you want to send?
• What have you inherited and what will you pass on?

The audience seemed to really engage for the questions, spaces and artist and some great ideas, thoughts and feelings were shared on the evening.

On the night one idea was proposed to take forward with a small amount of money from NTW to help make this happen, this will be headed up by Lisa Hocking, but what is great is that the Rhondda artists involved in the are keen to get involved in this as well as continue to work with each other, which for me is very important, important because the Assembly is a great way to enable and encourage people to talk about their community but quite often action speaks louder than words.

I would like to thank every single person who helped out on the Rhondda Assembly, ALL the staff at the Park and Dare, Simon, Matthew, Thomas ‘its not unusual’ Tudor Jones, Katherine, John, the young people of Valleys Kids (who did a fantastic job) and everyone else.

I look forward to the Next Assembly, details of which will be announced soon.