Yesterday was Canolfan Crefft Rhuthun/Ruthin Craft Centre’s Day 1. Hover over the pictures for more info
Entering the Craft Centre under the flying archway, you immediately embrace a highly successful and engaging community social space, surrounded by what will eventually become a live craft working area. The café delightfully spills out in the sunshine onto tables within the courtyard, giving a continental feel. The roofline mirrors the rhythm of the Clwydian Hills, even though one couple were overheard to say, ‘The roof’s a bit wonky, isn’t it?’ Philistines.
Enter the main gallery and you immediately realise why the Canolfan Crefft Rhuthun/Ruthin Craft Centre is so special. Its contemporary feel and use of light sets of its displays brilliantly, quite literally.
On display in the main gallery is work by internationally renowned sculpture Andrew Logan. His blurb hanging at the entrance tells you, ‘The motorway of modernism is by-passed by the yellow brick road of artistic fantasy’. The late Humphrey Littleton could so easily have said these words during Radio 4’s ‘I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue’.
Instead, the words conjure up the backdrop to the exhibtion's artistic frolic. Art is just a way of quirky people foisting their weirdness on society. And some of Logan’s art is weird, even camp, but it’s art nonetheless. Some of it even demands to be taken seriously.
The exhibition, in taking representative samples of Logan’s work, is a fitting first for the new centre. That it’s in Rhuthun and neither London nor New York is fantastic. Logan’s previously exhibited at all the world’s major venues and his being here puts Rhuthun’s new Canolfan Crefft squarely on the map. London, New York, Paris, Munich... Rhuthun. And why not? Siân Phillips the actress opened the exhibition on Friday evening and there’s a life-like Logan bust of her. There’s also a Logan bust of what you might consider to be the enemy in the next Dr Who series...
The fantasy continues in the other galleries and the sale gallery, with tags for some objects at £5,000 or more. Perhaps not Rhuthun prices but remember the centre will (we trust) lure people who have that sort of bank balance. And if they were cheap, we locals couldn’t or probably wouldn’t marvel at them. And on sale is Logan’s recently published first book. That’s not cheap, either.
Verdict on Day 1: brilliant milestone building, dazzling artspace, cosmopolitan courtyard, entertaining exhibition. Absolutely entertaining exhibition. Welcome back Canolfan Crefft Rhuthun/Ruthin Craft Centre! We've so missed you!
Entering the Craft Centre under the flying archway, you immediately embrace a highly successful and engaging community social space, surrounded by what will eventually become a live craft working area. The café delightfully spills out in the sunshine onto tables within the courtyard, giving a continental feel. The roofline mirrors the rhythm of the Clwydian Hills, even though one couple were overheard to say, ‘The roof’s a bit wonky, isn’t it?’ Philistines.
Enter the main gallery and you immediately realise why the Canolfan Crefft Rhuthun/Ruthin Craft Centre is so special. Its contemporary feel and use of light sets of its displays brilliantly, quite literally.
On display in the main gallery is work by internationally renowned sculpture Andrew Logan. His blurb hanging at the entrance tells you, ‘The motorway of modernism is by-passed by the yellow brick road of artistic fantasy’. The late Humphrey Littleton could so easily have said these words during Radio 4’s ‘I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue’.
Instead, the words conjure up the backdrop to the exhibtion's artistic frolic. Art is just a way of quirky people foisting their weirdness on society. And some of Logan’s art is weird, even camp, but it’s art nonetheless. Some of it even demands to be taken seriously.
The exhibition, in taking representative samples of Logan’s work, is a fitting first for the new centre. That it’s in Rhuthun and neither London nor New York is fantastic. Logan’s previously exhibited at all the world’s major venues and his being here puts Rhuthun’s new Canolfan Crefft squarely on the map. London, New York, Paris, Munich... Rhuthun. And why not? Siân Phillips the actress opened the exhibition on Friday evening and there’s a life-like Logan bust of her. There’s also a Logan bust of what you might consider to be the enemy in the next Dr Who series...
The fantasy continues in the other galleries and the sale gallery, with tags for some objects at £5,000 or more. Perhaps not Rhuthun prices but remember the centre will (we trust) lure people who have that sort of bank balance. And if they were cheap, we locals couldn’t or probably wouldn’t marvel at them. And on sale is Logan’s recently published first book. That’s not cheap, either.
Verdict on Day 1: brilliant milestone building, dazzling artspace, cosmopolitan courtyard, entertaining exhibition. Absolutely entertaining exhibition. Welcome back Canolfan Crefft Rhuthun/Ruthin Craft Centre! We've so missed you!
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Craft Centre