Dylan Thomas Secondary School Friday the 24th of June

Today was our last day at Dylan Thomas Secondary School, where the children were firstly asked to write all the objects, places, colours and smells that they saw on their route to school this morning.


We then passed around a loom weight, asking what the children thought it was used for, followed by photographs showing the weight being used by a Webster drawn onto ancient ceramics. We also passed around other archaeological artefacts which the children enjoyed handling and learning about.

We then showed the Tessera Hospitalis, asking again if the children knew what it was and the reasons for having one.


We then gave the children paper to draw their own Tessera Hospitalis, simply drawing the outline of a shape that they would like to be remembered by and that will be laser cut within stainless steel and placed in Swansea city centre.

As you can see once again the children created some very interesting designs! The children designed anything from Dragons to The Flying Scotsman.

As the children had a great art room we once again stayed inside to draw the global map. We started by asking the children where they would place Swansea, leading on to ask where they were born, parents were born etc and to draw these locations using marker pens.

Dylan Thomas Secondary School Thursday the 23rd of June

Today we went back to Dylan Thomas Secondary School, where the children were firstly asked to write all the objects, places, colours and smells that they saw on their route to school this morning.

Some saw animals, some the relief of the land, some smelled the bakery and remembered walking past cracked gates.


We then passed around the loomweight  a two thousand four hundred year old object. We asked what the children thought it was used for, followed by photographs showing the weight being used by a Webster drawn onto ancient ceramics. We also passed around other archaeological artefacts which the children enjoyed handling and learning about.

We then showed the Tessera Hospitalis, asking again if the children knew what it was and the reasons for having one.

We then gave the children paper to draw their own Tessera Hospitalis, simply drawing the outline of a shape that they would like to be remembered by and that will be laser cut within stainless steel and placed in Swansea city centre.

As you can see once again from the photographs the children created some very interesting designs!

The children have a great art room so we stayed inside to create the global map using a large roll of paper sellotaped onto the table. We started by asking the children where they would place Swansea, leading on to ask where they were born, parents were born etc and to draw these locations using marker pens. Some children did not want to live on our planet, some deciding to live on Mars and one creating a new universe.



Emma Simmonds

Morriston Comprehensive School Pupils draw 'Tesserae Hospitalis'

Elena and Catrin delivered workshop at Morriston Comprehensive School introducing concepts from the project using 2500-year-old tokens of long distance friendships (tesserae hospitalis).  Each pupil created their own token - tesserae - which will be made into a permanent sculpture to be sited in the city at the end of the project. This video slide show records each of the the pupil's tesserae.    

Words, photographs and video production by Graham Parker

Dylan Thomas Secondary School Wednesday the 22nd of June

Today was our second day of workshops at Dylan Thomas Secondary School.

Artist in residence Catrin Webster engaged with the students whilst completing one in a series of paintings. Catrin takes her inspiration from the surrounding landscape, fixating on the relationship between memory and place.

As volunteers we were able to answer the children’s questions and to in return ask them questions relating to the painting and their own relationship with art as a subject.

Emma Simmonds