Care group with homes in Caernarfon is up for major award
Pendine Park, which has nine care homes in Wrexham and Caernarfon, has been named a finalist at the annual Arts and Business Cymru Awards.
They are in the running for the Arts, Business and the Community award.
The care group has been the headline sponsor of the festival and last year supported the first performance of the opera Gresford - Up From Underground, which tells the story of the 266 men and boys who died in the 1934 Gresford Colliery disaster.
The care group also launched the Pendine Young Musician of Wales competition at last year's festival, and this will return at the 2025 festival.
Professor Paul Mealor, the festival's artistic director and a royal composer, said: "We're so thrilled at the North Wales International Music Festival that along with our lead sponsors and dear friends Mario and Gill Kreft of Pendine, we have been shortlisted for an Arts and Business Cymru award.
"This is a testament to how arts and business can work together to enrich the community.
"Thank you so much, Mario and Gill!"
Lanterns made by the residents of Pendine Park (Image: Supplied)
The Arts and Business Cymru judges were particularly impressed with the lanterns that Pendine Park's Wrexham care home residents created, which adorned the aisles of St Asaph Cathedral at last year's festival.
Sarah Edwards, Pendine Park's consultant artist in residence, said: "Being recognised in this way is such a boost, not just to our staff including all the enrichment team members, but to the residents who put in so much hard work to produce some remarkable art pieces year after year.
"They deliver such a high level of creativity every time they are called on to contribute to events like the NWMIF and they should all be very proud of themselves."
READ MORE: Former landfill on Anglesey transformed into thriving biodiversity and education hub
Pendine Park owner and director Mario Kreft was delighted and said: "We are thrilled to have been shortlisted for this award.
"Our connection with NWIMF has evolved and grown over the years.
"The premiere of the opera was particularly poignant for all of us at Pendine because we had the very great privilege of caring for Albert Rowlands, the last survivor of the Gresford disaster, who celebrated his 100th birthday with us before he passed away in 2020.
"Social care and the arts go hand in hand in enriching lives across the generations and promoting well-being.
"We are passionate about using the arts, whether visual or musical, to enrich the lives of our residents and staff alike."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
14 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers has got wings. Real ones. The cursed heroine of this Soulslike game wakes up with a bad case of amnesia, and then starts sprouting feathers...
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers (PlayStation, Xbox, PC, £44.99) Verdict: A Soulslike with soul Meet Wuchang. Or, as she might be wondering, who-chang? She's woken up in Ming dynasty China with a bad case of amnesia and an even worse case of feathers sprouting from her arm. It's something to do with a curse that's spreading around the land, turning people into monsters, the usual. Only Wuchang has the power to fix things. If Wuchang had played any games in the past decade, she'd know immediately who she is and what's going on. For Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is yet another Soulslike release, inspired by the gameplay established by the Dark Souls series. It's got the same try-try-and-try-again combat, with each enemy encounter turning into a whirl of dodges, parries and slashes. It's got the same challenging bosses, godlike creatures who will test your skills to their limits and beyond. It's got the same system of bonfires — sorry, here they're shrines — at which you revive yourself after inevitably coming a cropper. Which would all be too familiar were it not for Wuchang's (the game's) more singular qualities. The first and most noticeable of these is its setting. Imperial China looks stunning here, a place of hills, cliffs, foliage and — crucially — colour. It's much nicer than the grim greyness of most other games in this genre. Another is how you can make Wuchang (the person) your own — and not just with the increasingly skimpy costumes you can collect for her, poor girl. There are so many options around weaponry, abilities and upgrades that it's often overwhelming, but — once you understand what's what — you can approach this game's fights in a hundred different ways, even switching between them on the fly. It's an exhilarating experience and one that passes the major test for Soulslikes: is there enough here to keep you pressing on, to keep you wanting to master the punishing combat? Yes. The arm feathers may be a bit gross, but this game has wings. Super Mario Party Jamboree: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV (Nintendo Switch 2, £66.99 or a £16.99 upgrade for those who own the original) Verdict: It's party time Rating: Hang on. Didn't I already review this game? Back in October last year? Well, yes and no. This is indeed the same Super Mario Party Jamboree that first came out nine months ago, featuring the same mix of boardgame mechanics and minigame madness. You move your Mario or Luigi or Peach or whoever around a board before competing in quick, frenetic games that have you doing things like slicing vegetables in time with the beat. Except, this time, it's been upgraded and expanded for the Nintendo Switch 2. This means additional minigames that make use of the new console's features, such as its mouse-style controls. Can you drag files into the right folders like you would on a computer desktop? But quickly?! It's fun, I promise. The best additions, though, are for those who have the separately available camera for the Switch 2. In fact, this might be the first game that really shows off what the camera can do. Take the new mode called Bowser Live, in which the eponymous lizard has you and your friends performing for his amusement. With the camera, you and your friends are actually there on the screen. Up to four of you. Your whole bodies. And your gyrations and gesticulations are registered in the game, as you collectively try to punch question mark blocks or balance falling Goombas on your heads. It may sound like the sort of thing Xbox was doing years ago with its Kinect accessories. But this Nintendo version is so straightforward and so technologically sophisticated that it's hard not to be won over.
BBC News
a day ago
- BBC News
Theatre in Dartford praised despite making heavy financial losses
An award-winning temporary theatre in Kent has been branded an "extraordinary success" by its director, despite racking up heavy Orchard West Theatre in Hythe Street, Dartford, posted a net loss of £755,999 for the last financial year, according to the Local Democracy Reporting was built as short-term replacement after its original venue was found to contain potentially dangerous reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) in September Borough Council leader Jeremy Kite also defended the venue, describing it as not operating in "ideal circumstances" but playing an important role in keeping the "spirit and culture" of the town's arts scene alive. In the theatre's annual report, discussed at a meeting of the council's overview and scrutiny committee on Tuesday, its director Tal Rosen wrote: "Despite the challenges of relocation, Orchard West has been an extraordinary success."We were proud to receive national recognition, winning Innovation of the Year at The Stage Awards 2025 and Temporary Structure of the Year at the Festival Supplier Awards."The report added that the theatre generated more than £5m for the local economy and welcomed more than 95,000 customers to 173 performances across 2024 and also employed 18 permanent staff, and had 65 "casual team members." But the report also showed Orchard West making a net loss of £755,999 – equivalent to 34% of its revenue - up from £353,423, equivalent to 14% in in overheads, such as the national minimum wage and other inflationary costs, were among the "financial challenges" blamed. In February Dartford council approved an additional £10m in funding to repair the original Orchard Theatre in Home Gardens, removing Raac and making it safe to use again. It is scheduled to reopen in May authority also gave £500,000 to Trafalgar Events, which runs the theatre, to ensure they could continue hosting at the time, Kite called the decision a "no-brainer" which would still be cheaper than an entire rebuild.
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Telegraph
Kennedy Centre Opera House could be renamed after Melania Trump
The Kennedy Centre's Opera House could be renamed after Melania Trump. Republican Senator for Idaho Mike Simpson proposed the change during a House appropriations committee markup of the centre's funding. Committee members were considering if the change should be made on Tuesday. Mrs Trump is an honorary chairwoman of the Kennedy Centre's board, as is tradition for first ladies. The Opera House is the Washington DC-based institution's second largest theatre, behind the Concert Hall. Mr Trump sacked the chairman of the Kennedy Centre board and its 13 trustees soon after coming into office – making himself chairman and Richard Grenell, his Venezuela envoy, the interim leader. He said his reason for terminating the contracts of members of the board of trustees is that they did not 'share our vision for a golden age in arts and culture '. Since Mr Trump's takeover, the Kennedy Centre's new president has expressed a wish to scrap the current programming and has so far announced a 'big, huge celebration of the birth of Christ at Christmas'. Mr Trump's takeover of the centre – one of the foremost cultural institutions in the US – has been greeted with dismay in the arts world. Lin Manuel Miranda, the brain behind the Broadway musical Hamilton cancelled shows at the centre in March, in protest over Mr Trump. Issa Rae and the musician Rhiannon Giddens also cancelled shows. Ben Folds, the songwriter, and Renee Fleming, the singer, stepped down from advisory positions on the board following the Maga takeover. Vice-President JD Vance and his wife, Usha, were booed by the audience when attending a concert by the National Symphony Orchestra in March.
