Madam,

Two items with a link appeared in the Cambrian News of 13 June.

Gwenllian Ashley, who died on 7 June, throughout her life made a priceless contribution to the visual culture of Wales.

In a celebration of her career held at Borth Community Hall, where everyone present had been asked to wear blue, many mentioned to me that Gwenllian had a “good eye”. This is comparable to a musician having “perfect pitch”. It is rare and to be valued.

Many composers have found their personal style through studying folk songs from their native culture.

One of the most important projects for Welsh culture was the collaboration on presenting the Welsh quilt tradition by Jen Jones and Gwenllian Ashley.

It took Jen Jones, an American born in South Africa, to recognise the aesthetic value and creativity expressed in the quilt tradition. When Gwenllian joined Jen to curate and present a series of spectacular exhibitions of Welsh quilts in the Old Town Hall in Lampeter over a period of 10 years, the value of this tradition was understood for the first time.

This impressive Welsh tradition of recycling fabric for quilts is Folk Art which can be compared with “cynghanedd” or four-part singing and is important to preserve for future generations of artists.

Gwenllian also worked in the School of Art cataloguing the ceramics collection begun by the Davis Sisters, who were also responsible for the collection of Impressionist paintings before they became fashionable.

Gwenllian persuaded Ceredigion County Council to create a collection of contemporary art which could be shown in a professional, well-lit gallery created in the Ceredigion Museum. Her enthusiasm infected creative people everywhere and she helped in the careers of innumerable artists who met her.

Never provincial she aimed to take Welsh art to other countries and her passion was always to visit the Venice Biennale to experience the “cutting edge” of art.

Such a towering personality and curator should be remembered in the development of the Old College (the second item featured in the Cambrian News). A space should be devoted to displaying the story of her collecting activity.

Another space or spaces should be used for exhibitions of new work of an international standard as was seen by Gwenllian in the Venice Biennale. Making the Old College a place for life-enhancing exhibitions will generate income for Aberystwyth and the surrounding area.

Gwenllian is to be remembered as an enabler. Excellence in any field is to be celebrated. The Old College should be proud to be linked to Gwenllian and her work.

Yours etc, Mary Lloyd Jones, Iorwerth Avenue, Aberystwyth.

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