Exhibitions

Working in partnership with the West Wales Veterans Archive and the Historic Branch of the RAF, the Library held an exhibition commemorating the Battle of Britain alongside a special event in the company of Lord Lieutenant Miss Sara Edwards and Second World War veterans in the spring of 2022.

The Beautiful Books exhibition provided an opportunity to highlight some of the Library’s most elegant bindings, and to coincide with the arrival of the Ceredigion National Eisteddfod the A Oes Heddwch?: Traditions of the Eisteddfod looked at the development of the National Eisteddfod. The At Blant y Byd (For the Children of the World) exhibition which looked at the history and development of the Urdd’s Message of Peace and Goodwill received a huge amount of attention on The One Show as the organisation celebrated a notable milestone.

Another centenary was celebrated by hosting the Geiriau | Words exhibition with the University of Wales’ Dictionary of the Welsh Language; it was a pleasure to work with the staff to bring our collections together in order to look back at the development of the Welsh dictionary from its earliest forms to the present day.

For the first time in 30 years the public was given the opportunity to see a selection of prints from the Gregynog collection in the Lasting Impressions: Gregynog Prints exhibition celebrating the art collections of sisters Gwendoline and Margaret Davies and the work of Gregynog Press.

Among the treasures featured in the exhibition were forty etchings by Augustus John, Rembrandt’s iconic self-portrait, and a set of rare and early proofs from James McNeill Whistler’s Thames Set.

Having amassed one of the most important twentieth century art collections in Britain, the Davies’ sisters were generous supporters of the National Library over the years, and in 1951, thanks to their generosity, the Gregynog Gallery was completed and decorated. The following year – a year after Gwendoline’s death, Margaret donated a collection of valuable prints to the Library.

Llafur100

The Library hosted an event in the Pierhead in Cardiff in November 2022 to mark a century of Labour Party dominance of Welsh politics. Speakers during the day included the First Minister the Rt. Hon Mark Drakeford MS, Baroness Eluned Morgan MS, Sir Deian Hopkin and Professor Richard Wyn Jones and selected items from the Library’s collections were on display. The Library also received a digital timeline marking significant events in the history of the Labour Party which can now been seen on our website.

Salem Returns Home to Ardudwy

As part of the Masterpieces in Schools event – one of the National Library of Wales’ outreach projects – pupils at Llanbedr Primary School in Gwynedd were given the opportunity to see the famous Salem painting by Sydney Curnow Vosper in the locality that provided inspiration for the painting. The picture was exhibited at Llanbedr Primary School, the school closest to the site of the chapel that appears in the painting and was unveiled at the school’s morning assembly so that the entire school had the opportunity to see it.

Pupils form Year 5 & 6 also participated in watercolour painting workshops based on the masterpiece, and looked in detail at the techniques used to create the picture. In a second workshop they looked at the Welsh costume, focusing on the paisley pattern of Siân Owen’s shawl.

Later on in the year all pupils at Llanbedr School were invited to the National Library so that they could see where the painting is kept safely, and to learn more about other collections at the Library.

Record: Folk, Protest and Pop

In the autumn of 2022 the Record: Folk, Protest and Pop exhibition opened at the Riverside gallery, Haverfordwest which explored the highlights of the music tradition in Wales throughout the centuries – from the crwth to Catatonia – using various items from The Welsh Music Archive and Screen and Sound Archive.

BBC 100 in Wales: Journalists' Highlights

As the BBC in Wales reaches a landmark milestone of broadcasting to the nation for a century, three of Wales’ leading journalists at a special event in the Drwm. Bethan Rhys Roberts, Felicity Evans and Wyre Davies examined some of the great stories of recent decades – the events of modern Wales as well as wars, the 9/11 attacks and stories that had changed the trajectory of world history – and discussed the importance of journalism in today’s society with the aid of clippings from the BBC Archive held in the Welsh Broadcast Archive.