VISUAL ARTS
John Howes
has had a long involvement with traditional folk and roots-based
music.
He has promoted music at various levels;
organising clubs, concerts and festivals. He has played in a number of
bands and represented Wales at Inter-Celtic Festivals in Brittany, Spain
and Galicia as well as playing at many folk clubs and festivals in
Britain, recording and appearing on TV and radio.
An interest in song writing has led to a long time partnership with the
Pontardawe based writer and poet Brian Smith which has produced a number
of song and poetry-based performances, including,
Vagabonds in the Earth a
historical song/narrative review about the life and times of Elizabethan
musicians, players and actors.
More recently, in 2009, he researched, wrote, directed and performed the
music for TAN Dance’s stage production of
Oyster Bay which told the
story of the once famous Oyster Fishery of Swansea Bay, Mumbles and the
Gower Coast. In 2011, together with fellow musician Huw Jones, underscored and
played the music for the first act of Michael Sheen’s
Port Talbot Passion. Currently
they are working with the story teller, Owen Staton, developing a
production of themed songs and stories.
www.bearbones.org.uk
For the last thirty years John Howes has lived on the Gwrhyd Mountain
just northwest of Pontardawe in the upper Swansea Valley combining a
career as artist, designer, lecturer, musician and farmer.
He was responsible for establishing and directing the Fine Art programme
at what was Swansea Institute of Higher Education, now Swansea
Metropolitan University.
He has always taken a keen interest in the promotion and development of
the visual arts and has been involved with a number of initiatives
involving artist groups and agencies nationally and internationally.
He has been a trustee with Cywaith Cymru . Artworks Wales, the national
body for public art and residencies in Wales and a National Advisor with
the Arts Council of Wales, serving on the
Creative Wales Award team and
Artists Taking the Lead for
the recent Cultural Olympics. An executive member of the Friends of the
Glynn Vivian Art Gallery. For many years he has been involved with
Sculpture Cymru, an artist led association of sculptors in Wales,
serving as Chair and recently managing two of its major sculpture
exhibitions – Ironstone
(2010) and Castle: Sculptural
Responses (2012) at Kidwelly Castle, West Wales
johnhowes365@gmail.com
MUSIC