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Special Collections

Cardiff School of Art and Design Slide Library

At its peak, the Slide Library contained over 95,000 slides and was for many years the main way for staff and students to access images for presentations and teaching. The slide library was housed within Cardiff School of Art and Design at the Howard Gardens campus and was later moved to Llandaff Library.

The slide library was also used to house slides of significance to the art school such as slides of lecturers’ work, student exhibitions, etc.

In 2018 a review of the collection was undertaken with a focus on retaining slides that had a connection to Wales, Cardiff, or the Cardiff School of Art and Design.

Extent: 5 filing cabinets of slides + 3.5m related material.

Access: Cataloguing work yet to be undertaken on this collection. For access, please contact: SpecialCollections@cardiffmet.ac.uk

A selection of content and subjects from the Slide Library collection is listed below:

  • Art Movements including Performance Art.
  • Art of Great Britain including Art in Wales, Certain Welsh Artists and The Visual Culture of Wales; Imaging the Nation.
  • Artists post 1850 is a selection of slides retained due to the artists connection to CSAD / Cardiff / Wales, including: Iwan Bala, John Gingell, Mona Hatoum, Anthony Howell, Cecile Johnson Soliz, Cornelia Parker, Harry Holland, Terry Setch, Mariele Neudecker, Dave Shepherd, Andre Stitt.
  • Architecture mostly relating to Cardiff places and buildings, including: Cardiff Bay, Cardiff Barrage, Cardiff Castle, National Museum of Wales.
  • The Book
  • Community Art including Cardiff Bay Arts Trust, Pioneers Group, Cardiff Festival 1999.
  • Ceramics - a large collection of images of ceramics with images of both historical ceramic work, ceramics from various countries, ceramic techniques, and work by more contemporary makers. Included are CSAD staff; Alan Barrett-Danes, Mick Casson, Claire Curneen, Michael Flynn, Morgan Hall, Natasha Mayo, Geoff Swindell.
  • Exhibition Catalogues including Butetown Artists, Bay Art.

Cardiff School of Art & Design Slides

A collection of slides which document students’ and staff members’ work, events and exhibitions held at Cardiff School of Art and Design from the 1960’s until the early 2000s. Some of which are listed below:

  • Student exhibitions including Diploma Exhibitions from 1967 to 1980, slides of student work from the subject areas in the 1960s and 1970s, students at work in their studio spaces and Student Degree Show work 1998 - 2002 taken by Mal Bennett.
  • A collection of slides of student work and students working in studio spaces taken in 1995 by the photographer Steve Benbow.
  • A collection of biographical slides shown at the memorial service of Mick Casson (1925 – 2003), former staff member on the Ceramics Degree course. Donated by his wife Sheila Casson in 2004.
  • A collection of slides of work by teaching staff, including Mike Crowther, Glyn Jones, Phil Nicol, Harvey Hood, Tom Piper and Mal Bennett; a Staff/Student show in Chapter Arts Centre in 1972 and an exhibition by 56 group.
  • Slides of Exhibitions held at CSAD including the following:
    • International Ceramic Symposium Exhibition, Cardiff School of Art in 1975.
    • Arts Council Show 1971 in Howard Gardens Gallery
    • Crefft Cymru 1976 in Howard Gardens Gallery (Welsh Arts Council)
  • Slides of Symposiums held at CSAD including the following:
    • International Ceramic Symposium, held at Cardiff School of Art in 1975
    • Action/Ideas Symposium c.1970
    • Cardiff College of Art Symposium 1972.
  • Tom Hudson Slides - Hudson was the director of Studies at Cardiff College of Art 1964 – 1977. A collection of slides relating to art education and the Basic Design Course he developed at Cardiff College of Art, including examples of his students' work.
    • Colour Symposium – Students undertake performative colour experiments on the streets of Cardiff 1967/8
    • Costume performance c.1965.

    Further material relating to this collection can be found at the National Arts Education Archive (NAEA), Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which is a repository of collections relating to the development of arts education in the UK from 1870 to the present day.

  • Slide Library administration - documents and papers related to the history and use of the collection.