A GROUP of former students and staff from the internationally renowned Newport College of Art are hosting an exhibition bringing them together for the first time in 40 years.
There are 36 exhibitors in total with work ranging from animation to sculpture. The majority of the former students graduated in 1980.
Called Forty Years On, the exhibition is on at Newport Museum and Art Gallery in John Frost Square until June 1 and is being curated by former student Neil Carroll.
He said: "The show looks at how art school training and experience at Newport enriched our lives over these past 40 years and led us in many different and exciting directions.
"Each of us has submitted a piece of work which represents what we are about, what we have done, and are still doing, with our lives.
"There is an exhibition booklet of the 36 exhibitors and their assembled biographies, to give visitors fascinating insights into what each of us has achieved and how our early beginnings at Newport have influenced our way in the world."
Among those exhibiting is animator Graham Bebbington who left college to work at Siriol in Cardiff on the animation series SuperTed.
Since then he has been a special effects artist on many well known movies including Disney’s Fantasia and the Warner Brothers film Space Jam.
Graham worked on the 1982 film The Snowman and in 2012 The Snowman and The Snowdog, two movies 30 years apart.
Julia Wolton began her career working with young people at The Winchester Project in 1981. After 30 years of being dedicated to helping youngsters in very challenging situations, she became the London Regional Development Manager of the Brathay Trust.
She led a team of 22 people delivering frontline, targeted, youth-work and a range of gang-intervention programmes across London.
Since February 2012 Julia has been a consultant with ‘Mobilise’ in London, a social purpose business created to reshape the relationship between citizens and their public services.
Bari Goddard left college and formed his own band Knives.
He was a vocalist with Then Jerico and he toured the world playing major venues.
He sang with Jimmy Sommerville of The Communards and supported David Bowie in Paris. Bari has performed with Madonna and is now a successful photographer and filmmaker who has exhibited work at The Louvre.
Cathy Cooper is an award-winning travel photographer who has taken her cameras trekking in the Himalayas, got up close and personal to bears catching salmon in British Columbia, kayaked in the Arctic Ocean and flown along glaciers in The Yukon.
Cathy has a love and passion for her subjects and she has reached a very high standard of achievement with work being shown in prestigious London galleries.
Mr Carroll said: "As a cohort, we have spread out far and wide with a painter in Norway and a photographer on the West coast of Ireland."
Tutors involved include the well-known writer Gillian Clarke who was the National Poet of Wales from 2008 to 2016, world famous sculptor David Petersen who worked on the sets for the movie 2001 A Space Odyssey and created the dragon memorial at Memetz Wood, and the one that tops the National Museum building in Cardiff.
Mr Carroll said: "It would be wonderful if we could encourage the youngsters of Newport to go and engage with this project."
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