Coleg Sir Gar

I visited the Coleg Sir Gar (CSG) pop-up gallery in Carmarthen, although I am not sure if it was intended as a drive to increase student intake or a representation of the work generated by CSG students. The gallery is in a redundant Viyella shop in which maximum use has been made of the wall space and the excellent shop lighting, although the lighting played havoc with my camera’s White Balance which seemed unable to get the balance right between the artificial shop light and the daylight through the huge windows although I did try to correct it in Lightroom.

It felt good to be part of something that produces a collection of such high quality art but what was missing for me was a lack of artists’ statements, I think for the casual viewer or prospective student an understanding of the creative motivation of the student producing the work and the art department to which the student was part of would have created a lot more interest.

Whilst I was there several people peered through the shop-glass at the art work but none entered the gallery, I experienced a similar phenomenon at the Diffusion photographic exhibition in Cardiff and I resolved that by simply going out of the shop to engage with the viewer, inviting them in and escorting them around the gallery space and, wherever possible, introducing and discussing the photographs.

I think the use of pop-ups is great way to introduce art and CSG to a wider audience but perhaps more could be done to direct viewers to the space as I walked past the shop front not realising where I was, and I was looking for the venue.