News Centre

Local artist donates painting to proposed Idris Davies Community Learning Hub

Posted on : 22 Mar 2022

Local artist donates painting to proposed Idris Davies Community Learning Hub
Local artist, Roy Guy, has donated a portrait of poet, Idris Davies, to Rhymney Library in preparation for the proposed Idris Davies Community Learning Hub.

Roy Guy of Art and Soul, a successful Welsh artist who has had the pleasure of painting celebrities such as Dylan Thomas, Vernon Watkins, Anthony Hopkins, Richard Burton and Michael Sheen, rediscovered an oil painting he had created of Welsh born poet Idris Davies in his attic and contacted Rhymney community Council, with the aim to donate it to a local building.

Caerphilly County Borough Council Cabinet have unanimously agreed to plans to redevelop Rhymney Town Library as a Community Learning and Support Hub which will provide access to multiple Council services, and to enable access to public sector partners such as Gwent Police, in addition to library services. Plans also provide the use of the reconfigured rooms for community and hybrid working/meeting space.

The proposed scheme includes a redesigned layout to both floors, upgraded lift, meeting spaces, community rooms, digital training and video conferencing facilities, Wi-Fi upgrade, public laptop lounge and a new children’s space, as well as a Welsh language collection space and improvements towards the Council’s carbon neutrality, including a feasibility study to install electric vehicle charge points in the public car park.

The Community Learning and Support Hub will also include the preservation and display of the Idris Davies collection, which is already on display at Rhymney Library, to which Roy Guy’s painting will be added.

Roy Guy said: “I had the painting of Idris Davies in my attic for many years and so I thought it was time that it found a home. I wanted it to be on display in the area that Idris Davies was born, so I am very happy that it will now on display in Rhymney – just across the street from his family home.”

Cllrs Carl Cuss, Local Council Member said: “Firstly, can I thank Mr Guy for his donation, Cllr David Harse and I are very grateful to receive this.

"We are very excited to about the proposed plans for Rhymney Library. The Community Learning and Support Hub would be an asset to the whole community. 

“Digital exclusion is higher in the area than other areas of the county borough and the intention is to provide enhanced broadband, a laptop lounge and video-conferencing facilities which can be used by internal services, external partners, children/young people and local residents.”

For more information on Place Shaping visit: https://www.caerphillyplaceshaping.co.uk/

Recent News
Media Enquiries