City of Culture 2025 ‘My Wrexham’ Schools Project
As part of Wrexham’s City of Culture 2025 bid, pupils from St. Christopher’s and our nine Secondary Schools have a wonderful opportunity to work with former Young People’s Poet Laureate for Wales Martin Daws. The project will involve pupils from each school receiving fun, interactive, spoken word poetry workshops with performance poet Martin focused on the theme of “My Wrexham” looking at local identity and what it means to live here. The project will encourage pupils from often marginalised and vulnerable groups to express their thoughts and feelings about living in Wrexham with their work forming a digital archive on the Tŷ Pawb website.
City of Culture buses
On Friday 14th, Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th January two Wrexham City of Culture buses toured the county, visiting over 50 locations across the Borough, in order to raise awareness and support for the #Wrecsam2025 bid. The buses had on board performers and artists who were hopping off at different locations for a short performance, before jumping back on board and heading to the next location.
The buses were a great way of engaging with the entire community of Wrexham, without encouraging large gatherings or unnecessary journeys.
Performers that took part were;
- Delta Academy Ladies Choir
- NEW Sinfonia Brass Quintet
- Coleg Cambria Musical Theatre
- Luke Gallagher
- Megan Lee
- Andy Hickie
- Delta Academy Youth Dancers
- Eleni Cymru Dance Group
#Wrecsam2025: Grants Summary
In support of the #Wrecsam2025 City of Culture bid, Wrexham County Borough Council was delighted to receive over 70 grant applications from local community groups, business owners and third sector providers, who came up with a fantastic variety of ideas for activities to celebrate the vibrant and diverse culture within the county.
For young people, these events will include workshops teaching performing arts and trade skills; play activities for kids; a photography competition for school children (with a masterclass hosted by local university students passing on their knowledge); and school projects to create an anthology of poems about Wrexham, and to design a mosaic on the theme “What Does Wrexham Mean to Us?”
To recognise our proud local heritage, a project to recreate the historic Wrexham Tailor’s Quilt for a new generation will soon be underway; we’ll see the long awaited return of the Chirk Carnival; Minera Lead Mines will welcome guests to a newly refurbished vistor’s café; and for the older generation, crafting sessions at local care homes, and a special WWII themed costume evening with a swing band to roll back the years!
To celebrate Wrexham’s diverse community, our much valued refugees and asylum seekers will welcomed to crafting sessions and entrepreneurial workshops; our vibrant hip hop community will be showcasing female and non-binary performers; an equal opportunities conference will build on grass roots support for marginalised members of the community; local volunteers will be creating an Autistic Sensory Garden; there will be a powerchair football event to highlight Wrexham’s inclusive environment for disability sports; the local Polish community will be hosting a full day of activities sharing their heritage and traditions, and we’ll be celebrating at a special fusion event with African and Welsh food, fashion and music.
We’re also so excited to see a showcase for Wrexham’s chefs and restaurants, performances from local choirs and orchestras celebrating our Welsh heritage, a display of award winning design and landscaping, the “Wrexfest” event featuring music acts from past, present and future, and an open mic evening with headline performances from the 3 current Welsh poet laureates sharing a stage for the first time ever!
With all this to look forward to, and so much more, we’re incredibly proud of everyone in Wrexham County Borough who has made their pride, passion and enthusiasm a part of #Wrecsam2025.
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