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Welsh actor Matthew Rhys is backing a campaign to save in Fishguard, Pembrokeshire.

The theatre was earmarked for closure in 2010 after several loss-making years. Since then, the Friends of Theatr Gwaun group has been campaigning to save it, and have been investigating the possibility of turning it into a community-run arts centre.

Hollywood-based Matthew Rhys has lent his support to the campaign, and there is talk of holding a Welsh film festival in Los Angeles to raise funds.

Christian Bale has been nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actor in The Fighter.

The actor, who was born in Haverfordwest, plays Dicky Eklund in the film, the former boxer and drug addict turned trainer to younger half brother Micky Ward, played by Mark Wahlberg.

Christian Bale as Dicky Eklund in The Fighter 漏 Momentum Pictures

As expected, British actor Colin Firth has picked up a nod in the best actor category for his role in The King's Speech. Both actors are favoured to each pick up an Oscar following their respective successes in the recently awarded Golden Globes.

The 2011 Academy Awards will be held in Los Angeles on 27 February.

Read more about The Fighter on website, find out more about the 2011 Oscars on the 麻豆官网首页入口 News website and see the full list of 2011 Academy Award nominations on .

Plus, listen to a clip of Welsh boxing star Joe Calzaghe talking to 麻豆官网首页入口 Radio 5 Live's Colin Paterson on his reaction to The Fighter.

Going to the cinema to watch a Shakespearian theatre production may seem like an odd concept, but that's just what has planned for February.

's production of King Lear, with Sir Derek Jacobi at the helm in the eponymous role, will visit Llandudno as part of a UK wide tour at the end of February.

Yet before that, the play will be broadcast to cinemas worldwide on Thursday 3 February, with seven cinemas in Wales taking part in the screening.

Sir Derek Jacobi as King Lear. Photo: Johan Persson

The Donmar Warehouse's production of King Lear stars Jacobi in the lead role as the ageing monarch, while supporting cast members include Pippa Bennett-Warner as the innocent Cordelia, Gina McKee and Justine Mitchell as sisters Goneril and Regan, plus Paul Jesson (Gloucester) ,Gwilym Lee (Edmund) and Alec Newman (Edgar).

Jacobi (Lear) and Pippa Bennett-Warner (Cordelia). Photo: Johan Persson

The live screenings on 3 February come just weeks before the production starts an eight-week national tour, which begins at in Llandudno on 22 February, and will run there until 26 February 2011.

For more information on venues in Wales that are screening the production visit the , or for more information on the theatre production in Llandudno, visit the .

The cream of the crop of Welsh acting talent star in a new drama from 麻豆官网首页入口 Cymru Wales this Sunday - just the stuff to banish those Sunday night back to school/work blues.

Eve Myles, Matthew Gravelle, Boyd Clack, Mark Lewis Jones, Gareth Jewell and Steven Meo are among the cast of Baker Boys.

The drama follows the workers of Valley Bara bakery, which lies at the heart of a small south Wales town. Generations have worked, skived, flirted, fought and earned an honest living there. But then the recession bites, and the bakery workers find themselves unemployed overnight.

Gareth Jewell (Owen), Eve Myles (Sarah), Steven Meo (Rich) and Matthew Gravelle (Rob) star in Baker Boys

Eve Myles and Matthew Gravelle in Baker Boys

Characters in the drama waiting at the job centre

With their lives in turmoil, and facing a future on the dole, it looks like the beginning of the end for this close-knit community. Then an outrageous idea from local joker and wide boy Owen, played by Gareth Jewell, opens up a world of possibilities and a chance to find out if they really are all in this together.

This Sunday sees the first of three contemporary, poignant and heart-warming episodes rooted in the reality of a small valley town as the current economic crisis strikes at the heart of its community.

You can see an exclusive preview clip on the Baker Boys programme site.

Plus, there are two articles on the Welsh co-operative movement, and co-operative economy in Wales, on the 麻豆官网首页入口 Wales History website, plus an article by resident Wales History blogger Phil Carradice on socialist and visionary Robert Owen.

A recently refurbished art gallery in Llandudno has won a prestigious 2011 - the only building in Wales to receive the honour this year.

reopened in May 2010 following a massive transformation in a three-year redevelopment that cost 拢5.1 million.

Mostyn in Llandudno. Photo: H茅l猫ne Binet

Gallery space at Mostyn. Photo: Martin Lyons

Mostyn. Image: Martin Lyons

The award, which recognises the best in architecture, design, planning, landscape and public art, is awarded annually by the Civic Trust. Successful projects must also be culturally, socially or economically beneficial, and make an outstanding contribution to the quality and appearance of the built environment.

The Civic Trust Awards ceremony will take place on 4 March where winning projects will be recognised with a Civic Trust Award, Commendation or Community Recognition.

Director of the gallery Martin Barlow was delighted with the news: "We are thrilled to have won a Civic Trust Award, especially as Wales' only winners in 2011.

"Our building is both hugely enjoyed by our many thousands of visitors and is a pleasure to work in; it retains strong links with the past while making a confident and eye-catching statement for the future.

"We believe it is emblematic of Llandudno and its wonderful ensemble architecture and the Civic Trust Award is a recognition of this."

An interactive map showing some of the visual arts highlights in Cardiff has recently launched, complete with video interviews with artists and an overview of the city鈥檚 main artists鈥� groups.

incorporates a Google map, information about the major contemporary art venues and some of the artistic groups that run in the city. It also offers guidance about public transport.

Screen grab taken of the Axis Art Map: Cardiff. Image courtesy of Axis

The website gives a snapshot view of the city鈥檚 contemporary art scene and the work of artists who live and work there. Video interviews with nine Cardiff-based artists include Sam Aldridge, Andrew Cooper, Michael Cousin, Holly Davey, Rabab Ghazoul, Richard Higlett, Alistair Owen, Rebecca Spooner and Dawn Woolley.

The map also features written profiles of Kathryn Ashill, Gordon Dalton, Simon Fenoulhet, Sam Hasler and the 2010 Welsh Artist of the Year Elfyn Lewis (whose work will be exhibited in a new show at Oriel Plas Glyn y Weddw this weekend).

Screen grab of the Cardiff Art Map, and interview with artist Holly Davey. Image courtesy of Axis

Sheila McGregor, Axis Chief Executive, said: "We like the idea of the one-stop-online-shop that not only tells you where to go, but also allows you to 鈥榤eet鈥� significant artists.

"One of the internet鈥檚 greatest benefits is that you can promote the local and regional to a national and, indeed, international audience. That鈥檚 what we hope this Axis Art Map will do for Cardiff."

View the art map at .

Rob Brydon today that he will make his stage d茅but in The Painkiller at the later this year.

One hundred days from now the Lyric Theatre will re-open in a spectacular new 拢18m building, and to mark the countdown it has unveiled highlights from the forthcoming season.

Rob Brydon

Brydon is set to star alongside Kenneth Branagh in The Painkiller, a farce by Francis Veber. This new adaptation is by Sean Foley, who will produce with Branagh, and will open on 29 September 2011.

Brydon said on his Twitter account: "I shall be appearing in my first stage play, The Painkiller, alongside the brilliant Kenneth Branagh, in Belfast, opens 29th Sept... The play will be at the reopening Lyric. I really couldn't be more excited about it."

The works of three very different Welsh artists - Elfyn Lewis, Gareth Parry and Niki Pilkington - will go on show in a feast for the senses this weekend at Oriel Plas Glyn y Weddw in Llanbedrog, north west Wales.

should need no introduction. The Cardiff based artist, originally from Porthmadog in Gwynedd, has had a successful couple of years as he won the 2010 Welsh Artist of the Year award and picked up the gold medal for fine art at the National Eisteddfod in July 2009.

is originally from Nefyn but she now lives and works in Paris. Her work is fresh and stylish, and it has gained her a commission from Sir Paul McCartney no less.

An example of Niki Pilkington's work. Image 漏 the artist

In this exhibition her work is focussed on her own unique portrayal of Welsh idioms and proverbs. This will be Pilkington鈥檚 first full exhibition following her graduation with a first class honours degree in Fashion Illustration from Ravensbourne Academy.

Meanwhile artist Gareth Parry has been exhibiting at Oriel Plas Glyn y Weddw for over 10 years, and is considered by art critics to be one of the best oil painters in Wales. In fact, his first solo show at the exclusive Thackeray Gallery in London in October 2009 saw fans queuing for over 12 hours to buy his work.

The exhibition showing the work of these three artists opens on Sunday 23 January at 2pm, and then runs until Sunday 3 April 2011.

For further information on the exhibition or Oriel Plas Glyn y Weddw, .

A new exhibition at the in Llandudno presents a contemporary response to the 1943 film The Silent Village by Humphrey Jennings.

The Silent Village was a World War Two propaganda film that re-enacted, in south Wales, the Nazi destruction of the Czech village of in June 1942.

The curator of the exhibition, Russell Roberts, invited writer Rachel Trezise and photographers Peter Finnemore and Paolo Ventura to give their responses to the film.

Photo from Mostyn's The Silent Village exhibition. Image: Peter Finnemore

In late May 1942, SS Deputy Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich, ruler of occupied Bohemia and Moravia, was assassinated by Czech resistance fighters. As a reprisal, the village of Lidice was obliterated: the 173 male residents were murdered by firing squad while the women and children were taken to concentration camps, with a few of the younger children sent to live with SS Officers to be Germanised.

Russell Roberts, The Silent Village exhibition curator

Within weeks of the atrocity work had began on translating the events into a film supported by the . In September 1942 a Crown Film Unit crew arrived at the village of Cwmg茂edd, near Ystradgynlais in the Swansea Valley, under the supervision of artist, poet and filmmaker Jennings.

The exhibition at Mostyn will combine Jennings' film plus the responses from the contemporary artists, which focus on the themes of loss and memory. Finnemore has created large scale black and white photographs in his series Everyday, which encapsulate dialogues between objects and place and the passing of human presence.

Welsh author Trezise has penned a short story from the perspective of a Lidice survivor in A Child Called Lidice, while Italian photographer Ventura creates table-top miniature worlds in the series Dead Village using modified dolls, crafted backdrops and props that makes the viewer look again and consider the desolation and destruction of war.

Rachel Trezise

The exhibition preview will take place on Friday 21January, during which Trezise will read from her short story. The exhibition will then run until 12 March 2011.

The Silent Village is a commission in partnership with the . For more information visit the .

Wales-born actor Christian Bale last night scooped the Golden Globe award for best supporting actor for his role in The Fighter.

The ceremony also saw British actor Colin Firth win the best actor award for his role as King George VI in The King's Speech, while The Social Network and Glee were the main winners at the awards night, held at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.

Browse the 麻豆官网首页入口 Entertainment news site for further winners and a photo gallery of the evening's winners.

Perhaps most well-known as the straight talking, no-messin' Nessa from hit 麻豆官网首页入口 comedy Gavin & Stacey, Ruth Jones turns her hand to playing another formidable personality this week in new 麻豆官网首页入口 Four drama Hattie.

Ruth Jones as Hattie Jacques

Hattie tells the story of the tumultuous love life of Carry On star . Happily married to Dad's Army actor John Le Mesurier, Hattie was at the height of her popularity when she began an affair with her handsome young driver, John Schofield.

The drama features scenes that recreate the filming of in 1963, in which Hattie Jacques starred as the manager of an all-female minicab firm called GlamCabs.

It was during the filming of this seventh Carry On film that Jacques embarked on the affair. Despite the danger of a career-threatening scandal, when the film ended she couldn't bring herself to end the affair and Schofield moved into an attic room as a lodger in the family home.

Aidan Turner as John Schofield and Ruth Jones as Hattie Jacques

Welsh star Jones plays Hattie opposite Robert Bathurst, who portrays husband Le Mesurier, while Aidan Turner plays Schofield. Other cast members include Jeany Spark, Marcia Warren, Stephen Crichlow, Jay Simpson, Brian Pettifer and Lewis Macleod.

Hattie is on 麻豆官网首页入口 Four on Wednesday 19 January at 9pm, and then available on 麻豆官网首页入口 iPlayer for the subsequent seven days. Watch preview clips from the drama online now.

Robert Bathurst (John Le Mesurier), Lewis Macleod (Eamonn Andrews) and Ruth Jones (Hattie Jacques). All images: 麻豆官网首页入口/Angel Eye Media Ltd

The programme is followed by the 1963 edition of This Is Your Life featuring Hattie Jacques. Plus, Ruth Jones is set to discuss her role on 麻豆官网首页入口 Radio 4's Woman's Hour on Wednesday 19 January.

Additional links

• Hattie programme information
• 麻豆官网首页入口 News: Eric Sykes hits out at Hattie Jacques drama
• Ruth Jones profile on 麻豆官网首页入口 Wales Arts

Budding film-making youngsters aged nine to 12 will be able to get an insight into the world of film on a course starting later this month.

The will be being delivered simultaneously across three venues in Wales from the end of January (dates currently being confirmed): at in Cardiff, and in Caernarfon, with Galeri offering the course only in the Welsh language.

The programme runs for seven months with two sessions each month: one workshop and one introduced screening, which will compliment the subject of that month's workshop. The course costs 拢70, and will cover a variety of aspects of the film making process including scriptwriting, cinematography, film history and design.

Children at a previous event. Image provided by Galeri, Caernarfon

Galeri Artistic Director, Elen ap Robert said: 鈥淲e feel that there鈥檚 certainly interest out there in how films are made, and children and young people in the area do have a real interest in both watching films and also creating their own films.

"This academy will give these youngsters tips and ideas for creating their films and make them look at films in a different way perhaps.鈥�

For further information please visit the , or .

An exhibition featuring portraits of Queen Elizabeth II will tour the UK to mark the monarch's Diamond Jubilee in 2012, it was announced today.

Queen Elizabeth II by Dorothy Wilding, 1952 Chlorobromide print, 290 x 215 mm
National Portrait Gallery, London (P870(5)) 漏 William Hustler and Georgina Hustler/ National Portrait Gallery, London

The Queen: Art and Image will feature 60 images of the Queen spanning the six decades of her reign, some of which will be on public display for the first time.

The exhibition is set to open in Edinburgh in June before moving onto Belfast in October. It will show at the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff from 4 February to 29 April 2012.

Following the stint in Cardiff, the exhibition will show in London from May to October 2012.

Among the highlights from the works from life are Annigoni's popular life-size 1969 commission for the National Portrait Gallery, Lucian Freud's 2000-01 portrait from the Royal Collection and Justin Mortimer's painting where The Queen's head floats away from her body against a background of vibrant yellow, pictured below.

Among the exhibited photographers for whom The Queen has sat are Annie Leibovitz, Dorothy Wilding and Cecil Beaton - including his iconic Westminster Abbey Coronation image - and Chris Levine's unusual photograph from 2004 of the Queen with her eyes closed.

A selection of unofficial portraits of the Queen will also be on show, from major 20th century artists such as Andy Warhol and Gerhard Richter, as well as less formal portraits by photographers such as Eve Arnold, Patrick Lichfield and Lord Snowdon.

David Anderson, Director General of Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales, said: "Amgueddfa Cymru is pleased to be working in collaboration with the UK鈥檚 other national museums.

"This is an example of how effective partnerships between museums and galleries can make works by such influential artists such as Andy Warhol and Gerhard Richter, accessible to visitors across the country.鈥�

The Queen by Justin Mortimer,
1998 Oil on canvas, 1350 x 1350 mm
The RSA 漏 Justin Mortimer

For more information on The Queen: Art and Image,听 visit the .

The Machynlleth Comedy Festival today announced its initial line-up for 2011, promising a long weekend of stand up comedy in April.

This year's festival makes perfect use of the extra bank holiday, thanks of course to the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. The event starts on Friday 29 April and runs until Sunday 1 May, and follows the festival's successful d茅but in 2010.

Initial acts confirmed so far include Simon Munnery, Josie Long, Jon Richardson, Robin Ince, Pappy's, James Acaster and Isy Suttie amongst others.

Isy Suttie performing at the 2010 Machynlleth Comedy Festival. Photo: Ed Moore

Festival founder Henry Widdicombe said: "I'm so excited about doing it all again this year. The festival has already gained a lot of admirers and we're keen to keep building on what was achieved in 2010 and develop what we believe is a unique event in the UK."

For further information and to see who's on the line-up so far, visit .

It has been confirmed that rugby player Gareth Thomas is in talks with a scriptwriter about a biopic of his life. Hollywood actor Mickey Rourke is hoping to star as Thomas, who came out as gay in 2009.

As reported on the 麻豆官网首页入口 News website, Thomas' manager Emanuele Palladino said: "A script writer has been chosen for the film and is getting to know Gareth.

"The idea is that he will be with him throughout January to get to know Gareth as well as he can. Mickey is extremely hands on in the whole process of the film and is fully intent in bringing this to fruition."

Read more on this story on the 麻豆官网首页入口 News website.

A new photography exhibition set to open in Cardiff later this month shows some of Wales' starkest landscapes, which are far from the idyllic, almost clich茅d images used to sell the country to potential tourists.

Photographer was born in Griffithstown in south Wales and moved away from the country in his youth, but holidayed in typical Welsh tourist spots such as Pembrokeshire. This exhibition shows the contrasting realities of the Welsh landscape: that seen by the many visitors to the country and that experienced by most inhabitants.

Morris moves between tourist hot spots and the terraces and back streets where the majority of people live - often the less beautiful, post-industrial areas that sightseers typically don't see.

Blaenau Ffestiniog by James Morris. Photo 漏 the artist

Llandudno by James Morris. Photo 漏 the artist

Morris commented: "What I was interested in was capturing the built environment, not just the picturesque countryside but the buildings and architecture... Having been brought up in a Welsh family that didn鈥檛 live in Wales, we would always just go to the more idyllic places such as the Pembrokeshire coast and Snowdonia; we went to the kind of places where the tourist board would want you to go.

"But what really intrigued me and captured my imagination when I came back to live in Wales was what the tourist board wouldn't necessarily want you to see.

"I was drawn to the post-industrial places, to the towns and cities which showed the real Wales - they were very different to what outside people expect and I liked that.

"I travelled quite a bit visiting these places which were once the greatest exporters of things like coal and steel - often there was still a visible legacy there and I wanted to reflect on their historical importance."

Dinorwic Slate Quarry (disused), Gwynedd. Photo 漏 James Morris

James Morris: A Landscape of Wales, a project in partnership with the , runs at both Ffotogallery at Turner House, Penarth and the Futures Gallery, The Pierhead in Cardiff Bay from 13 January until 26 February 2011.

For more information visit and .

celebrates its 20th birthday this year, and the gallery is kicking off 2011 with a new exhibition by Anglesey-born artist Iwan Gwyn Parry.

This new collection of work was completed by the artist over a period of two and a half years. The exhibition is based on two primary themes that have inspired Parry over the years: the Irish Sea and specific locations on his native Anglesey.

It will be Parry's first solo exhibition at the Llangefni gallery, following his joint show with artist Darren Hughes back in 2002.

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Paintings by Iwan Gwyn Parry. Images courtesy of the artist, supplied by Oriel Ynys M么n

The artist commented: 鈥淔rom an early age the sea around Anglesey has been an important factor in my life. As a young boy my mother used to take me to Holyhead port to see the ferries and trains arriving and departing.

"Our neighbours worked at RAF Valley, one was a Hawk jet pilot, the other worked in the Met Office preparing forecasts, especially the inshore forecast, which can be heard on the late shipping bulletin. In retrospect, I can say that this was an influence which has shaped my thinking and pre-occupations today.

"Life at Four-Mile-Bridge evolved around the estuary and the sea, the changing of the tide, snorkelling, fishing and bird watching around the sheltered coves near the cob or the windy bend of the inland river up towards Cymyran Bay. I remember my time there fondly.鈥�

Parry has been a lecturer at Coleg Menai in Bangor since 1994, having studied his MA in Painting at the Chelsea School of Art and a BA degree in Fine Art at the Cardiff Institute of Higher Education.

The exhibition runs at the gallery from Saturday 15 January until Sunday 27 February 2011. And on 21 January, Iwan Gwyn Parry will give a talk at the gallery about his work. For more information, .