Hugh Adams – författare

MARGAM PARK was the ancestral home of the Fox Talbots, of whom Henry was a pioneering photographer. Some of the earliest photographic images were made there. Steel made Margam Park, whose gothic mansion looks down on the town of Margam and the works formerly owned by the Fox Talbots. Today, it is Margam Country Park, owned by the local authority and a leisure facility open to the public - and to the workers of those steelworks. A feature of the old park was its ha-ha, a ditch which creates an invisible barrier between mansion and estate. Through stunningly produced photographs this book revisits this birthplace of the form and portrays it anew in contemporary landscape styles. The photographers also explore past class distinctions and the changing social history of both town and estate, a subject addressed in words by one of them, Karen Ingham, and at greater length by Hugh Adams, art lecturer and cultural critic who returns to the scene of his childhood to discuss its artistic and social heritage. The result is a unique and beautiful journey through the history of a place which has significance in industrial, social and photographic history. Co-published with Swansea Institute and Ffotogallery.

As the growth of art in public places continues, Groundbreaking is a timely look at this field from the perspective of one of the leading organisations in the field. Cywaith Cymru/Artworks Wales (formerly the Welsh Sculpture Trust) was among the very earliest bodies which developed and promoted public art in Britain.Groundbreaking reviews more than twenty years of changing practice at Cywaith Cymru through essays, illustration and case studies by artists and practioners. Past trends, current thinking and future orientations are all explored, as are the cultural contexts in which public art takes place and its social significance, both of which are drivers of its distinctiveness. The projects it addresses range from art interventions in the rural landscape to civic art, an increasingly important area in the current era of inter-regional and inter-city rivalry.Heavily illustrated in colour, this book is an inspirational and provocative guide for artists, students, cultural workers, local authorities and the general reader alike.Contributors to Groundbreaking include Hugh Adams, Shelagh Hourahane, Peter Lord, Stephen West, Robin Campbell and Simon Fenhoulet. Editor and artist Iwan Bala is currently a project co-ordinator with Cywaith Cymru. He is the author of Here + Now and editor of Certain Welsh Artists. His own art is examined in Offerings + Reinventions.