MOMA Machynlleth or Museum of Modern Art, Machynlleth (Formerly MOMA Wales()) 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 po ...

Powys Powys ( , ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county and Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county in Wales. It borders Gwynedd, Denbighshire, and Wrexham County Borough, Wrexham to the north; the English Ceremonial counties of England, ceremo ...

, 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 The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which involve the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. P ...

. 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 is an annual music festival that takes place in the auditorium of The Tabernacle, Machynlleth, Wales in late August. During the week eminent performers take part in events ranging from recitals for children to jazz. Ev ...

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. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

. Special features are the Hallstatt Lecture on some aspects of Celtic culture and the

Glyndŵr Award The Glyndŵr Award ( Welsh: Gwobr Glyndŵr) is made for an outstanding contribution to the arts in Wales. It is given by the Machynlleth Tabernacle Trust to pre-eminent figures in music, art and literature in rotation. The award takes its name ...

for an Outstanding Contribution to the Arts in Wales. Throughout the year MOMA shows 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 Sarg ...

, ''Toasting'' by

Stanley Spencer Sir Stanley Spencer, CBE Royal Academy of Arts, RA (30 June 1891 – 14 December 1959) was an English painter. Shortly after leaving the Slade School of Art, Spencer became well known for his paintings depicting Biblical scenes occurring as if ...

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 (British magazine), Blast'', the literary magazine of the Vorticists. His ...

. 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, Wellow, Somerset, to paint nature. Their work is figurative with a strong adherence to 'traditional' skills. Painting in oil and watercolour predominate, wit ...

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 Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer, whose works include the poems " Do not go gentle into that good night" and " And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" ''Un ...

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 Shani Rhys James MBE (born 1953)BBC Wales ArtShani Rhys James last updated 28 September 2010. Retrieved 6 November 2011. is a Welsh painter based in Llangadfan, Powys. She has been described as "arguably one of the most exciting and successful p ...

(''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) (), 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 country's landscapes and environment. It ...

(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 Machynlleth 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 theaters, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoriums can be found in entertainment venues, community halls, and t ...

of The Tabernacle seats 325 people. Chamber and

choral A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

music,

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

, lectures and

conferences A conference is a meeting, often lasting a few days, which is organized on a particular subject, or to bring together people who have a common interest. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always d ...

regularly take place here. A

Steinway Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in New York City by German piano builder Henry E. Steinway, Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth le ...

grand piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

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 Lifelong learning is the "ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated" pursuit of learning for either personal or professional reasons. Lifelong learning is important for an individual's competitiveness and employability, but also enhances social in ...

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 museums and galleries established in 1994 Contemporary art galleries in Wales