MOMA, Wales

MOMA or Museum of Modern Art adjacent to Y Tabernacl ( _en. The Tabernacle) is located in Machynlleth, Powys, Mid Wales.

The Tabernacle was converted in the mid-1980s from a Wesleyan chapel into a centre for the performing arts. Since then the Museum of Modern Art has grown up alongside it, with six exhibition spaces.

The Auditorium of The Tabernacle has excellent acoustics and Pitch Pine pews to seat 350 people. Chamber and choral music, drama, lectures and regularly take place here. A Steinway grand piano has been purchased; translation booths, recording facilities and a cinema screen have been installed; the oak-beamed Foyer has a bar; and extensive access for the disabled has been made possible by a lift.

The Machynlleth Festival takes place in the Auditorium in late August every year. During the week eminent performers take part in events ranging from recitals for children to jazz. Special features are the Hallstatt Lecture on some aspect of Celtic culture and the Glyndwr Award for an Outstanding Contribution to the Arts in Wales.

For the rest of the year the centre can be hired for performances, rehearsals and gatherings. Ty Llyfnant houses music teaching rooms and an art studio while the Green Room doubles as a Language Laboratory where Lifelong learning classes are held.

Exhibitions

Throughout the year MOMA shows "Modern Welsh Art", a constantly changing exhibition featuring leading artists from Wales. Individual artists are spotlighted in a series of temporary exhibitions. In August expert judges and then the public choose the winners of the Tabernacle Art Competition.

The Tabernacle Collection

Paintings and drawings from the Tabernacle Collection are shown in rotation. Works in this permanent collection include "Portrait of William McElroy" by Augustus John, "Toasting" by Stanley Spencer and "Portrait of a Woman" by Percy Wyndham Lewis. MOMA Wales owns "Waterfall, Ogwen", "Cottages, Cilgwyn", "Carreg Cennen" and "Road above Deiniolen" by Sir Kyffin Williams. The Brotherhood of Ruralists is represented by Graham Arnold's "Last Poems (A E Housman)" and "Journal 1997" and by Ann Arnold's "Clare's Countryside" (8) and "The River Dyfi". There are also two drawings of Dylan Thomas by his friend Mervyn Levy.

Peter Prendergast ("Early Winter, Nant Ffrancon Valley" and "Study for Early Winter, Nant Ffrancon Valley") received the Glyndwr Award in 2004, while Shani Rhys James ("Night Kitchen I") is the designated recipient for 2007.

Further reading

* Mike Parker & Paul Whitfield: "The Rough Guide to Wales" (Rough Guides, London, 2003) ISBN 978-1-84353-120-3
* Alistair Crawford: "Made of Wales" (Machynlleth Tabernacle Trust, Machynlleth, 2000) ISBN 978-0-9519971-3-0
* Paul Binding: "A commemorative essay commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art, Wales for the 20th anniversary of The Brotherhood of Ruralists" (Machynlleth Tabernacle Trust, Machynlleth, 1995)
* David Alston, Lynda Morris & Tony Curtis: "The Painter's Quarry: The Art of Peter Prendergast" (Seren, Bridgend, 2006) ISBN 978-1-85411-409-9
* Shani Rhys James: "The Black Cot" (Gomer, Llandysul, 2004) ISBN 978-1-84323-152-3
* Walter Michel: "Wyndham Lewis: paintings and drawings" (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1971) ISBN 978-0-520-01612-5

External links

* [http://www.momawales.org.uk Official site in Welsh and English]
* [http://www.artinwales.250x.com Contemporary Artists in Wales]