Fast facts...

150 Bachelors degrees awarded... including 60 First Class Honours

Nearly

300 alumni welcomed back

3 Graduation ceremonies

70 Masters degrees awarded... including 32 Distinctions

We work with communities

Connecting with communities is a central part of the RWCMD ethos. Drawing on the talents and creativity of our students, we develop new work with a wide range of community partners. Always working collaboratively, we share our ideas, skills and knowledge to create opportunities and we are committed to a future which will see our students emerge powerfully as makers in society.

Breathing new life into Cardiff’s Old Library building

Cardiff’s Old Library building was looking for its purpose, when RWCMD bid to breathe new life into the old stone through vibrant music and drama. Under a long term lease, the College will reimagine the space, working with communities to take it back to its roots as a place for shared education.

Just four days after receiving keys to the building, the internal space was transformed and ready for use as a fully functioning teaching and rehearsal space, with five studios kitted out with technology and equipment. Over the summer, during major work to restore the building, a sixth studio was created thanks to clever use of space.

A June puppetry performance Now & Then wittily telling a colourful story of Cardiff was the space’s first show and was an audience sell-out.

Our expert tutors and students in puppetry and movement ran a special workshop with 80 Year 5 children from Mount Stuart Primary School, exploring coal mining through performance skills. Pupils immersed themselves enthusiastically in the session, and the school told us that it 'moved their learning on.'

90 children came to see Now & Then with their primary schools St Mary the Virgin, Ysgol Gymraeg Pen-Y-Groes and St Paul’s, with the children staying on to try puppetry after the show.

The children were so excited walking back to school they truly felt the experience was like a museum being brought to life. It was so engaging and educational but at a perfect pace where the children were able to follow the story. I’d just like to pass on our gratitude and appreciation, it really was fantastic and something the children will never forget.

St Mary the Virgin School, Butetown, Cardiff

Interactive music sessions across Wales

Despite the challenges of Covid restrictions, music students reached almost 2000 participants across Wales though interactive community engagement sessions, including workshops, performances and events. This work reached more than 70 schools and community venues and spanned all kinds of music from opera to jazz. On average, each activity was delivered to 30 people at a time. This is part of a longer term plan to focus community activity as a major part of the student learning experience, aimed at an holistic training approach for future graduates. As part of this ethos, RWCMD will create 40 music residencies across communities in Wales by 2025.

During the year, Directors of Music and Drama also toured secondary schools across Wales, targeting those in more deprived areas, where they had personal links.

Final year Design students Jasmine Veiga de Araujo and Millie Lamkin spent a year doing weekly workshops at Cardiff’s Oasis Centre, working with refugees on screen printing, sewing and language skills. The participants had creative control over their work, which was incorporated into a larger map as part of the Balance exhibit in London and Cardiff. The Oasis team also created tote bags which were sold at Splott Community Fair.

Around 40% of community engagement was funded through First Campus activity, the HEFCW-funded programme aimed at widening access and targeting those in the lowest areas of deprivation.

Pupils don’t often have a concept of what is beyond the four walls of the school, but you showed them what is out there and busted many a myth! You stretched their imaginations, fuelled their thirst for creativity and inspired them to be a better version of themselves. Thank you for helping them to build their dream!

St Joseph’s School, Port Talbot