MOMA Machynlleth or Museum of Modern Art, Machynlleth (Formerly MOMA Wales( cy, MOMA Cymru)) is an

arts centre An art centre or arts center is distinct from an art gallery or art museum. An arts centre is a functional community centre with a specific remit to encourage arts practice and to provide facilities such as theatre space, gallery space, venues fo ...

and gallery adjacent to (''The Tabernacle'') in

Machynlleth Machynlleth () is a market town, community and electoral ward in Powys, Wales and within the historic boundaries of Montgomeryshire. It is in the Dyfi Valley at the intersection of the A487 and the A489 roads. At the 2001 Census it had a pop ...

Powys Powys (; ) is a county and preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain. Geog ...

, Wales. The Tabernacle was converted in the mid-1980s from a

Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan– Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charle ...

chapel into a centre for the performing arts. Since then the Museum of Modern Art has grown up alongside it, with six exhibition spaces.

Background

MOMA Machynlleth originated as MOMA Wales in 1986 as Y Tabernacl, a centre of performing arts in an old chapel, a private initiative by businessman Andrew Lambert. In 1994 this was expanded with a new complex of art galleries, a recording studio and a language laboratory. In 2016 it gained accreditation from the Museums, Archives and Libraries Division of the Welsh Government and changed its name to MOMA Machynlleth.

Events and exhibitions

The

Machynlleth Festival The Machynlleth Festival takes place in the Auditorium of The Tabernacle, Machynlleth, Wales in late August every year. During the week eminent performers take part in events ranging from recitals for children to jazz. Events The festival begi ...

takes place in the Auditorium in late August every year. During the week events take place ranging from recitals for children to

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

. Special features are the Hallstatt Lecture on some aspect of Celtic culture and the Glyndŵr Award for an Outstanding Contribution to the Arts in Wales. Throughout the year MOMA shows ''Modern Welsh Art'', a constantly changing exhibition featuring leading artists from Wales. There are also a series of temporary exhibitions. In August the international Tabernacle Art Competition takes place.

The Tabernacle Collection

The Tabernacle Collection contains over 400 works and concentrates largely on artists living and working in Wales in the 20th and 21st centuries. Paintings and drawings from the Tabernacle Collection are shown in rotation. Works in this permanent collection include ''Portrait of William McElroy'' by

Augustus John Augustus Edwin John (4 January 1878 – 31 October 1961) was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a time he was considered the most important artist at work in Britain: Virginia Woolf remarked that by 1908 the era of John Singer Sarge ...

, ''Toasting'' by Stanley Spencer and ''Portrait of a Woman'' by Percy

Wyndham Lewis Percy Wyndham Lewis (18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957) was a British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited ''BLAST,'' the literary magazine of the Vorticists. His novels include ''Tarr'' ( ...

. MOMA Wales owns ''Waterfall, Ogwen'', ''Cottages, Cilgwyn'', ''Carreg Cennen'' and ''Road above Deiniolen'' by Sir

Kyffin Williams Sir John Kyffin Williams, (9 May 1918 – 1 September 2006) was a Welsh landscape painter who lived at Pwllfanogl, Llanfairpwll, on the Island of Anglesey. Williams is widely regarded as the defining artist of Wales during the 20th century. Pe ...

. The

Brotherhood of Ruralists The Brotherhood of Ruralists is a British art group founded in 1975 in Wellow, Somerset, to paint nature. Their work is figurative with a strong adherence to 'traditional' skills. Painting in oil and watercolour predominate, with mixed media asse ...

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 Glyndŵr Award in 2004, while Shani Rhys James (''Night Kitchen I'') is the designated recipient for 2007.

The Tannery and the Rural Wales Award

On 5 November 2014 the Montgomeryshire Branch of the

Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales The Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales (CPRW) ( cy, Ymgyrch Diogelu Cymru Wledig (YDCW)), originally named the Council for the Preservation of Rural Wales, is a charity in Wales that aims to secure the protection and enhancement of the co ...

(CPRW) made a special award, the Rural Wales Award, to MOMA for the restoration of the Tannery. The award was made in recognition of the sensitive and high quality restoration of the building. The Tannery was officially opened as an additional art and sculpture gallery at MOMA in May 2014 following its restoration. A detailed record of the building as well as the importance of the Tannery to the Machynleth leather industry, was made before the conversion of the building into an art gallery.Leigh L. A. (2007), ''Yr Hen Danerdy:The Old Tannery. A History of the Leather Industry in Machynlleth, 1610–1900. Montgomeryshire Collections, Vol 95, 103–110.

Performance facilities

The

Auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community ...

of The Tabernacle seats 325 people.

Chamber Chamber or the chamber may refer to: In government and organizations * Chamber of commerce, an organization of business owners to promote commercial interests *Legislative chamber, in politics * Debate chamber, the space or room that houses delib ...

and choral music,

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

, lectures and

conferences A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main ...

regularly take place here. A

Steinway Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan by German piano builder Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth led to the opening of a ...

grand piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

has been purchased; translation booths, recording facilities and a cinema screen have been installed; the oak-beamed Foyer has a bar; and access for the disabled. 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.

References

External links

Official site in Welsh and English

Contemporary Artists in Wales
{{Museums and art galleries in Wales Buildings and structures in Powys Arts centres in Wales Modern art museums Performing arts centres in Wales Machynlleth 1994 establishments in Wales Museums established in 1994 Art galleries established in 1994 Contemporary art galleries in Wales