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It's a tough act to follow the fantastic architectural spectacle that greeted visitors to the Ebbw Vale National Eisteddfod's 'Lle Celf' (Art Space) in 2010. But the Lle Celf at Wrexham, which opened offically last night, rises to the challenge, even if its home on the maes this year is a more modest offering.

People examining photographs in the Lle Celf (Art space).

The Art work is once again of an excellent standard and Lle Celf is a wonderful platform to show the best of Welsh art. This year there's a focus on the past which is fitting as the Eisteddfod celebrates its 150th anniversary.

The main exhibition is a partnership between the Eisteddfod, the National Library and the Arts Council of Wales. It's a celebration of the renowned photographer and local 'Brymbo Boy', Geoff Charles's work. Many will remember the iconic photos he took at many Eisteddfodau over the years and it's fantastic to see the faces of yesteryear enjoying the festival in these captivating still images. It only proves that although fashions might change-the Eisteddfod is always in style!

Browse a collection of photographs taken at Y Lle Celf on the ±«Óãtv Wales Arts website.

Having recently got married, I now have a mound of photographs 'arranged' in haphazard piles on my kitchen table. I can't quite bring myself to painstakingly, er I mean, lovingly arrange them all in the assorted albums and frames that have formed a Tetris-style stack in the living room. Patience is sadly not one of my virtues.

However, my photo-related task pales into insignificance when you consider the gargantuan feat that the Photomarathon UK team are currently undertaking. They're in the midst of setting up the exhibition at The Cardiff Story that will display all, and I mean all, of the photographs taken by the hundreds of competitors from this year's UK event that took place in Cardiff last month.

Checking in during the Photomarathon registration process at the Wales Millennium Centre

Studying the Photomarathon 2011 handbook

The entrants get ready for the start of Photomarathon UK 2011 back in June

Now, maths was never my strong point, but if there were 400 happy snappers who took part in this year's competition, all of whom took one photograph in each of the 12 different competition categories... phew, that's 4,800 photographs in total. (There could have been a nasty Jim-from-the-Apprentice-style mathematical faux pas there.)

These are a few of the images captured on the day in the different categories. Be warned though, these aren't necessarily winning shots as it's all being kept very tight-lipped until the winners are unveiled on Friday evening.

Super Powers by Adam Chard

Entry Number / Work of Art by Catherine Blyth

Drama by Lucy Chippindale

Element by Carwyn Jones

The Photomarathon exhibition opens to the public on Saturday 30 July and runs until Saturday 20 August. For opening times check .

With today, Wednesday 27 July, marking one year to go until the grand opening of the 2012 London Olympics, anticipation surrounding the event is building.

We have a small slice of the sporting action in Wales as the extravaganza literally kicks off with the women's football at the Millennium Stadium on 24 July 2012. Yet there's plenty of Olympics-related events to get involved with in Wales ahead of the start of the 2012 games.

OneÌýsuch initiative is called the Power of the Flame, a series of five major unique projects for Wales funded by Legacy Trust UK. One of the projects is a Wales-wide touring exhibition, Following the Flame,Ìýwhich celebrates the proud sporting heritage of Wales.

The exhibition opened at the in Holyhead, Anglesey on Saturday.ÌýItems on showÌýinclude sporting memorabiliaÌýrelating to Olympians and Paralympians from Wales, photographs of WelshÌýOlympians and Paralympians,Ìýplus extracts from over 70 interviews with leading WelshÌýathletes.

While focusing on the Welsh contribution to the games over the decades, the exhibition will also explain the history of the games from the early origins in GreeceÌýandÌýwill also touch on significant episodes in Olympic history.

The Following the Flame exhibition at Canolfan Ucheldre Centre

The Following the Flame exhibition at the Ucheldre Centre

A display from the Following the Flame exhibition. Image courtesy of the Ucheldre Centre

The Following the Flame exhibition runs at the Ucheldre Centre until Friday 7 October 2011.

Find out more on the Power of the Flame initiative on the and for more info on the Cultural Olympiad in Wales visit the .

Related links

Today the Wrexham and District National Eisteddfod chair has been unveiled to the Eisteddfod executive committee on the Maes.

The Wrexham and District National Eisteddfod Chair

Made from four different types of wood, cedar, sycamore, the African Wenge and the Welsh oak, the chair was created by Dilwyn Jones of Celfi Derw with creative input from students at the local Glyndŵr University. The oak tree used in the chair was cut from the Rhiwlas Estate in Bala where the 2009 Eisteddfod took place.

The chair will be awarded on Friday 5 August for an 'awdl' (ode) in full cynghanedd (strict metre) not exceeding 200 lines. This year's theme is 'Ennill Tir' (to gain ground.)

We are also blogging in Welsh on the ±«Óãtv's Cylchgrawn site during the Eisteddfod week. Take a look at what our bloggers have been saying leading up to the start of the festivities.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams will present the People's Choice art award at the 2011 National Eisteddfod in Wrexham.

Dr Williams will present the award on Saturday 6 August to the artist responsible for creating the most popular piece or collection of work at Y Lle Celf, the visual arts space at the annual cultural event.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams. Photo © Tim Ashley

The National Eisteddfod of Wales awards three gold medals, for fine art, craft, and design and architecture.

It's hoped that the People's Choice prize will get visitors at the eisteddfod to engage with the different works on show, as the public is invited to take a look at all the pieces of art before noting their favourite artist's name on a ballot paper.

The prize of £500 is awarded with the support of the Josef Herman Art Foundation. A Polish émigré artist, Josef Herman lived in Ystradgynlais between 1944 and 1955 and was awarded the Gold Medal for Fine Art at the National Eisteddfod of Wales in 1962.

If you're planning a trip to Wrexham, take a look around the ±«Óãtv's Eisteddfod website for maps, guides, highlights and more. Plus check the for the latest news.

With the National Eisteddfod only a few short weeks away, we've added a few sections to our site so you can plan your Eisteddfod week. Whether you choose to make the trip to Wrexham, or enjoy the delights of the pavilion from the comfort of your armchair or computer, we have what you need!

If you're new to Wrexham and don't know what's happening where during the week then you should take a look at our map which tells you where important parts of the Eisteddfod are, such as the Maes, car parks and the caravan park.

A map of this year's Eisteddfod key locations.

To go with our map we have a series of guides and week's highlights to help you know what's going and what to expect from the week. With so much history to the Eisteddfod, and with special poignancy this year with it being the 150th anniversary, we have a section of our site dedicated to past Eisteiddfodau.

Keep up to date with the latest news from the Maes with our blog, as well as our coverage through the week from Radio Wales and Radio Cymru.

A Pembrokeshire beach that features in the concluding films of the Harry Potter film series is being backed for recognition by a local MP.

Freshwater West beach in Pembrokeshire was the 'home' of the shell cottage that appears in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Take a look at behind-the-scenes photos taken during the construction of the cottage on the ±«Óãtv Wales Nature website.

Shell Cottage. Image by Scotty

Pembrokeshire MP Simon Hart is keen for the beauty spot to gain recognition, and has even written to Potter himself, actor Daniel Radcliffe, to ask for his support. As he states on his website:

"I have written to Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe asking him to endorse my bid to get the county a special mention for its 'location work' – something along the lines of a BAFTA for best location is what I've got in mind.

"I think it would be wonderful if the 'location work' done by Freshwater West could be recognised with an industry award and I hope that Daniel Radcliffe will remember his time spent in Pembrokeshire and endorse my idea."

The future of Swansea's looks a little brighter as the has agreed to lease the venue from Swansea Council, subject to the agreement of legal details that will now be discussed.

The partnership venture will see the Dylan Thomas Exhibition stay on site, with the centre retaining its name and the building becoming home to the .

The Dylan Thomas Centre. Image courtesy of Swansea City Council

The plans would also see the Dylan Thomas Prize Educational Programme based at the centre as well as the University of Wales Global Academy, which delivers the Prince of Wales Innovation Scholarship programme.

In addition, there would be an office for the University of Wales Press and for Awen, the university's business arm, with Swansea Council continuing to manage the exhibition and literature programmes on site.

Councillor Chris Holley, Swansea Council Leader, said: "These are difficult economic times when finances are tight but this deal will save the taxpayer over £300,000 a year while securing the future of the Dylan Thomas Centre.

"It will also ensure the Dylan Thomas Centre retains the Dylan Thomas Exhibition and literature programme and includes a number of exciting new elements that will promote Dylan Thomas and creative writing.

Related links

• Dylan Thomas on ±«Óãtv Wales Arts

A new documentary from ±«Óãtv Cymru Wales this week explores Wales' connection with Hollywood.

As Torchwood has recently enjoyed the Hollywood treatment, new documentary Wales and Hollywood takes a look back at the films that have portrayed Wales over the years, stereotypes, clichés and all.

The documentary goes behind the scenes in Los Angeles, and also talks to Welsh actors including Michael Sheen and Matthew Rhys.

In the programme screenwriter Russell T Davies visits the Malibu Park, which 70 years ago doubled as south Wales in How Green Was My Valley.

Watch a clip of Michael Sheen talking about Wales and Hollywood in which he comments on the American view of Britain and Wales, and remarks how some people in Hollywood often can't differentiate a Welsh accent from other variants in the UK and Ireland:

Also, Torchwood star Eve Myles takes a trip down the Hollywood Walk of Fame to find the Welsh stars who have made their mark in Hollywood. Watch a preview clip from the programme:

Plus, the documentary tells the story of two rabbit-stealing men from Maesteg who helped change the face of Hollywood movies.

Intrigued? Watch Wales and Hollywood at 10.35pm on ±«Óãtv One Wales on Thursday 21 July.

will put the spotlight on emerging photographic artists living and working in Wales this summer with a new series of exhibitions and events.

Entitled Wish You Were Here, the exhibitions will run over the summer months and will take place at Ffotogallery's base in Turner House in Penarth iand also their new off-site temporary arts space at The Dairy in Pontcanna, Cardiff.

The first exhibition in the series is by Cardiff-based artist Dawn Woolley and begins tomorrow, while the preview evening takes place tonight.

Woolley's Visual Pleasure examines the act of looking and being looked at; the artist questions how we interpret what we see and how meaning is created by social regulation, expectation and desire.

Naaien from Cut to the Measure of Desire, 2011 (detail) © Dawn Woolley

Interloper (Stocking Legs), 2008 © Dawn Woolley

In this evening's exhibition preview, 6.30-8.30pm, Woolley will present a new performance specially devised for her exhibition at Turner House.

Other solo artists exhibiting in the series include Rick Davies with Invisible Landscapes, Gawain Barnard with Maybe We'll Be Soldiers and David Barnes with King Tide.

There's also a specially curated group show entitled This Unfolds, which will bring together some of the most exciting recent art graduates from universities in Wales.

Dawn Woolley: Visual Pleasure runs from Thursday 21 July until Saturday 6 August, while Wish You Were Here runs until Saturday 1 October. For more information visit .

Ten Welsh theatres have been placed on 's 2011 Theatre Buildings At Risk register, double the amount of Welsh buildings that made last year's list.

According to The Theatres Trust website, there are estimated to be over 180 theatre buildings in Wales, of which 10 are identified as Theatre Buildings At Risk:

• Palace Theatre, Swansea (Grade II)
• Conwy Civic Hall
• Theatr Harlech
• Parc Hall, Cwmparc, Treorchy
• Pontypridd Town Hall (Grade II)
• Theatre Royal, Barry
• De Valence Pavilion, Tenby
• Albert Hall Theatre, Llandrindod Wells (Grade II)
• St Donats Arts Centre, Llantwit Major
• Corwen Pavilion

Ìý

St Donats Arts Centre, Llantwit Major. Image courtesy of The Theatres Trust Image Library

Interior of Pontypridd Town Hall. Image courtesy of The Theatres Trust Image Library

Mosaic outside Theatre Royal, Barry. Photo © Rob Firman

Over half of the UK theatres on its at risk register, which has risen to 58 since last year, are yet to find the financial and political support needed to secure a viable future.

However, in slightly brighter news, two Welsh theatre buildings have been taken off the list; Theatr Elli in Llanelli (Grade II listed) and the Patti Theatre at Craig-y-Nos (Grade I listed).

For more information on the Welsh venues at risk, visit .

Welsh contemporary artist and sculptor Laura Ford will talk about her intriguing work at the in Swansea at 1pm this afternoon.

The Glynn Vivian is currently showing an exhibition of three major pieces by Cardiff-born artist Ford, entitled Beast and Other Works.

Following the inclusion of Ford's work Beast at the 2005 Venice Biennale, the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery exhibited the work in 2006 as part of the Contemporary Sculpture series. The work was so popular with its visitors that the gallery purchased it for its permanent collection in 2008.

Beast (2005) by Laura Ford, with Espalier Girl (2007) in the background. Image © the artist

Beast and Other Works shows the gallery's acquisition alongside two more recent works by the artist; Espalier Girl (2007) and Mummers (2011).

Mummers (2011) by Laura Ford. Image © the artist

Laura Ford, Beast and Other Works runs at the Glynn Vivian until 4 September.

The artist will talk this afternoon from 1pm about her current exhibition at the gallery and also her recent public art work, Little Bird, which formed part of the annual Locws International exhibition: Art Across the City, in Swansea.

For more information, contact the Glynn Vivian on 01792 516900.

Captain Jack Harkness and Gwen Cooper return this evening in the eagerly awaited new series Torchwood: Miracle Day.

Production may have shifted across the Atlantic ocean but Torchwood still retains its Welsh essence, with part of the opening episode filmed on location in Rhossili, Gower.

American stars Mekhi Phifer, Bill Pullman, Alexa Havins and Lauren Ambrose join the cast for the new series alongside the more familiar Welsh stars such as Myles, Kai Owen and Sharon Morgan.

Watch preview clips on the Torchwood programme page, in which John Barrowman and Eve Myles talk about their characters, and see if you can spot the beautiful Welsh coastline of Gower in the background.

Mekhi Phifer, Eve Myles and John Barrowman in Torchwood: Miracle Day

Torchwood: Miracle Day begins tonight, Thursday 14 July, on ±«Óãtv One at 9pm. Catch the series on iPlayer after each episode's transmission.

Shortly after I'd published my last blog post about the Cardiff Comedy Festival, news of some free stand-up workshops for teenagers came our way at ±«Óãtv Wales Arts towers.

A previous workshop event at the library. Photo: Cardiff Central Library

Photo: Cardiff Central Library

have been in touch about free stand-up comedy skills workshops for 15-19-year-olds that they've organised in conjunction with the festival.

The workshops are running from Monday 18 July to Thursday 21 July, 11am-5pm at the library on The Hayes in the city centre.

It’s completely free to join in, all you need to do is book a place on one of the days.

As well as learning essential stand up skills, confidence boosting techniques and comedy writing skills, there will also be the chance to perform to a live audience at a unique comedy show on Friday 22 July at 7pm.

If you're aged 15-19 and this sounds right up your street, contact the library on 029 2038 2116 for more details and to book yourself a place.

The kicked off yesterday, with Ardal O'Hanlon opening the proceedings alongside Welsh stand-up Wes Packer and Matt Price.

Lloyd Langford

As the comedy fest runs until 30 July, in various venues right across the capital, there's still plenty to see.

There's a mixture of big established names as well as emerging talent on the line-up and a whole hatful of Edinburgh Fringe preview shows to choose between.

The likes of Phil Nichol, Rob Deering, Wil Hodgson, Jimmy McGhie and Welsh lads Lloyd Langford and Elis James will be testing their material before their journeys to the Scottish capital later this summer. (If you missed it, Elis blogged for us about his exploits at the Fringe last year.)

Other highlights of the Cardiff Comedy Festival include workshops for up and coming comedians and the Welsh Unsigned Stand-up Award Final. The semi-finals of the competition that aims to sniff out Wales' newest comedian take place this evening and on Friday evening at Nos Da in Riverside.

Elis James

There's also comedy theatre on offer at , including The Harri-Parris by Llinos Mai and Humanzee by Inkyquill Productions, which is a sequel to last year’s successful comedy Death and the Monster.

The festival finale is also likely to impress. For a start it'll be hosted by Canadian stand-up Craig Campbell, who I thought was rather impressive when I saw him in Cardiff last year while he was supporting Frankie Boyle on his national tour. Craig was also wearing shorts at the tail end of October in Cardiff, which is something to be applauded.

The finale will also feature Richard Herring, Jason John Whitehead and Glenn Wool, as well as the winner of the Welsh Unsigned Stand-Up award.

Visit for the latest information and for details on who's on the line-up.

The opens two new exhibitions this month by African and Welsh artists Romuald Hazoumé and Colin Williams respectively.

Hazoumé, who hails from the Republic of Benin, is considered one of Africa's leading contemporary artists. His work is humorous and wryly political, and delivers incisive social commentary by engaging with local and international history.

He uses a mixture of media such as sculpture, installation, photography, video, painting and also creates simple yet strikingly evocative mask works.

Twin Airbags, 2004 C-type digital print. Courtesy of the October Gallery, London. Photo © Romuald Hazoumé

Meanwhile, a new exhibition that will run over the summer opened at the gallery on Saturday.

Correlation is the first solo show in Wales by Llandudno-based artist Colin Williams. The exhibition consists of three installation pieces, each one a combination of abstract colour and careful construction that plays with the slippage between painting and sculpture.

Detail from Assemblage of 9 Squares by Colin Williams. Image courtesy of the artist

New Mostyn director, Alfredo Cramerotti

Meanwhile, the gallery received a RIBA award last week in recognition of its impressive architectural design following its recent £5.1m expansion and redevelopment. It was one of just seven buildings from Wales to receive such an award in 2011.

Mostyn has also announced that Alfredo Cramerotti has been appointed as the new director of the gallery.

He will take over from current director Martin Barlow, who will step down in September after 14 years at the helm.

The Romuald Hazoumé exhibition runs from 24 July until 4 September 2011 and while Correlation by Colin Williams is already available to view, it will have a celebratory opening to coincide with the Hazoumè exhibition. Correlation will also run at Mostyn until 4 September.

Pembrokeshire-born author Sarah Waters has had another of her hugely popular novels adapted for the screen by the ±«Óãtv.

The Night Watch is the latest of her works to be modified for television, and can be seen on ±«Óãtv Two tomorrow evening at 9pm. Two of her previous novels, Tipping The Velvet and Fingersmith, have both previously been adapted by the ±«Óãtv.

Sarah Waters. Photo © Charlie Hopkinson

The novel was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Orange Prize for Fiction and the 2007 British Book Awards Book of the Year.

The Night Watch is a departure from the familiar Victorian period usually associated with Waters' historical novels, this time to the 1940s and the wartime era in Britain. The novel, which works backwards through the 1940s, tells the story of four Londoners. As it states on :

"Kay, who drove an ambulance during the war and lived life at full throttle, now dresses in mannish clothes and wanders the streets with a restless hunger, searching. Helen, clever, sweet, much-loved, harbours a painful secret. Viv, glamour girl, is stubbornly, even foolishly loyal, to her soldier lover. Duncan, an apparent innocent, has had his own demons to fight during the war. Their lives, and their secrets connect in sometimes startling ways. War leads to strange alliances."

Like Waters' other novels, female and particularly lesbian relationships feature prominently, and the strong female characters in the novel have been matched in the casting of brilliant British actors for the roles.

Anna Maxwell-Martin, who was superb in another recent ±«Óãtv drama South Riding, stars alongside Claire Foy, Jodie Whittaker and Anna Wilson-Jones. The cast also includes Harry Treadaway, JJ Field (who starred in the made-in-Wales film Third Star) and Liam Garrigan.

Claire Foy (Helen) and Anna Maxwell Martin (Kay) in The Night Watch. Photo: ±«Óãtv/John Rogers

Jodie Whittaker as Viv in The Night Watch. Photo: ±«Óãtv/John Rogers

Read a great blog post about the programme over on the ±«Óãtv TV Blog by Martin Boddinson, the production designer on The Night Watch.

In his post Martin talks about the challenge of having to turn the interior stage sets of Lark Rise To Candleford into sets for The Night Watch in just a matter of weeks. He also talks about the various exterior filming locations used and the minute details that have to be researched on such a project to get the interiors, exteriors and even the props perfect, from "the sandbags that will line the streets, even down to the street signs".

The Night Watch is on ±«Óãtv Two at 9pm tomorrow night, Tuesday 12 July, and on the ±«Óãtv iPlayer for the following seven days.

The best of Wales' contemporary visual art now has a new, fresh and modern home at the National Museum of Art in Cardiff.

The new National Museum of Art occupies the entire first floor of the National Museum Cardiff in Cathays Park. Us press types were allowed a sneaky peek round yesterday morning before it opens to the general public tomorrow, Saturday 9 July.

Now, let's get this straight. This may not be the most objective blog post as I've always loved going to the National Museum in Cardiff. One of my fondest memories from my childhood is one of my little sister being scared witless by the roaring woolly mammoth, mean as that may sound.

A gallery in the West Wing, the contemporary arts space at the National Museum of Art. Photo: Amgueddfa Cymru -- National Museum Wales

It's been a while since I paid a visit so I was really looking forward to the opportunity to see the new gallery space. And though I'm certainly not an expert in the field of visual art, it really didn't disappoint.

Whereas previously it had only one gallery to showcase its contemporary art, the museum now has six enormous interconnecting galleries to show its modern wares. Before we were shown the contemporary wing we were given a tour of the entire gallery space at the museum.

We started on the balcony area, which now houses the museum's British and European ceramics and silver collection, before being guided into the Historic Galleries. This is where you can see art that explores Tudor and Stuart Wales and European Old Master paintings of the 16th and 17th centuries.

The historic galleries at the museum. Photo © Amgueddfa Cymru -- National Museum Wales

We then moved into the 'art in 18th century Britain gallery', which features the work of Wales-born painter Richard Wilson and the collection of Sir Watkins Williams-Wynn, before taking a look in the Welsh landscapes gallery.

In here, the 2002 contemporary work by Welsh artist Carwyn Evans, Unlliw, has been reconstructed amongst the paintings and ornate columns of the gallery.

Unlliw is an installation of 6,500 cardboard bird boxes that addresses the debate about how planning policies can impact on the cultural balance of rural areas - a direct reaction by the artist to the then proposed building of 6,500 new homes in his home county of Ceredigion.

Carwyn Evans, Unlliw, 2002-2005. Image © the artist

The installation even obscures one of the paintings - hitting home the idea of a housing development flooding into the Welsh landscape.

After this we had a brief walk through the centre galleries, which were refurbished and redisplayed last year. (During this a slightly late Ivor Davies stumbled through, interrupting the keeper of art Oliver Fairclough's talk with the enquiry of whether he was too late for the breakfast that had been laid on as part of the event!)

The centre galleries are where the Davies' sisters collection of art proudly sits.

The French Impressionism and Post Impressionism gallery. Photo © Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales

There's a lovely timeline that tells visitors when the sisters bought notable paintings and also a screen that displays some of their family photos. It's a nice touch, and visitors can get a real sense of who these remarkable women - who went on to amass one of the greatest collections of French Impressionist paintings - really were.

We then headed to the pièce de résistance: the West Wing, the new home for contemporary art. No Martin Sheen jokes please.

The light is the first thing that hits you: it's bright and impressive, and the lightboxes in the ceiling makes the space look even fresher.

The West Wing. Photo © Amgueddfa Cymru -- National Museum Wales

The clean white walls really accentuate the art works and there's a lovely flow to the place too, as the different gallery spaces are all interconnected through flights of stairs and open large double doors.

Nick Thornton is the head of modern and contemporary art at National Museum Wales. He explained a little about the lay-out of the West Wing, told me what he thinks is one of the must-see exhibits in the new contemporary gallery and explained how the National Museum of Art is working with emerging new artists:

All images in the slideshow are courtesy of Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales and copyright of the respective artists

I also spoke to emerging contemporary artists Manon Awst and Benjamin Walther, collaborators who share their time between Caernarfon and Berlin. They have a sculpture and a painting on show in the West Wing, and Benjamin told me more about the latter, entitled Shine For Me:

"The painting is a piece in its own right, even though it strongly corresponds with the sculpture on display, and talks about the absence of the body. If you look on to it you see a shadow or a ghostly figure marked out with fragile, tender marker pen lines and there is a piece of clothing applied onto the canvas which suggests a three dimensional aspect of it, and the materialisation of something which was there."

Manon added: "I also think it talks about the breaking down of the body, and in a way it connects it to our work in general as it talks about the individual in our current society. So in relation to the exhibition, which talks of roots and identity, in a world where we're moving around so much it's questioning where our base is."

Manon Awst and Benjamin's Walther's work on display at the National Museum of Art. Image copyright of the artists and courtesy of Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales

Benjamin also gave his opinion on the National Museum of Art: "The interconnection between contemporary art practice coming out of Wales and the connection with international artists not living in Wales, that's something quite unique and new for Wales and very important."

There is also a dedicated learning space in the gallery for the first time, where schoolchildren and families will be able to get creative and learn about the exhibits in the museum. Arts learning officer, Eleri Evans, told me more about it and encouraged families to turn up for the opening day activities on Saturday:

And before I left, Mike Tooby (the director of learning, programmes and development) told me a little of what National Museum Wales has planned for the future:

Visit the museum's website, , for more - and if you do visit the National Museum of Art in the near future, tell us what you think of it by leaving a comment below.

John Harrison. Photo: Celf Calon

John Harrison's Cloud Road, an account of his five-month journey through through the Andes, has been named as the English-language 2011 Wales Book of the Year.

The winner of the Welsh-language award was Ned Thomas for his autobiography Bydoedd. Read more about the book and its author on the ±«Óãtv Cymru website.

Harrison grew up in Liverpool, but moved to Cardiff following his postgraduate studies. He works as a freelance writer, lecturer and travel guide in remote regions, and has twice won the Alexander Cordell Travel Writing prize.

Cloud Road was published by Parthian in 2010, and recounts his time travelling in remote villages along the great road of the Incas - the Camino Real, or Royal Road. Harrison walked more than 1,500 miles, from the Equator to Cuzco and to Machu Picchu.

Ned Thomas. Photo: Celf Calon

The other shortlisted English-language works were Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds and What The Water Gave Me by Pascale Petit. The judges on the English-language panel were Francesca Rhydderch, Jon Gower and Deborah Kay Davies.

Ms Rhydderch said of Cloud Road: "Open this book - any page will do - and you will find lyrical, sharply observed descriptions that convey you to another time and place, while keeping you anchored in the realities of the here and now.

"It has a layered texture that comes from deep, unstinting research, and a control of voice that is the hallmark of a committed, well-practised talent. This is an unusually powerful and moving book."

Today the crown for the 2011 Wrexham and District National Eisteddfod was presented to the local executive committee. Designed and produced by John Price from Machynlleth, he is creating his fourth crown for the National Eisteddfod. Each part of the crown represents a different element of the areas around where the Eisteddfod is held. The band of the crown represents a World Heritage site not far from the area, the Pontcysyllte aqueduct.

The National Eisteddfod for Wales 2011 Crown

To complete the Eisteddfod ensemble, over a hundred shoes have been donated to the Merched y Wawr, Save the Children and the Eisteddfod in order to be auctioned off at the Literary Pavillion on the Maes on Thursday the 4th of August. Shoes from Cerys Matthews, TV presenters such as Angharad Mair, politicians and stars of Welsh soap Pobl y Cwm.

The money raised will go to Save The Children's No Child Born To Die campaign.

To learn more about the Eisteddfod this year visit our National Eisteddfod site where we'll keep you up to date in the build up to and during the week of the Eisteddfod.

The £750,000 revamp of has been delayed by a few months due to unforeseen structural problems.

The Colwyn Bay venue, originally scheduled to re-open in the spring, will now open this autumn. Building work is due for completion in August and the theatre is already taking bookings for September.

Though the necessary extra building work is likely to cost tens of thousands of pounds, it is hoped that a contingency fund will cover the extra expense.

Read more on the story on the .

Welsh actor Michael Sheen took over ±«Óãtv 6 Music for an hour on Sunday, in which he played some of his favourite music tracks.

Sheen was the first celeb host of A Month of Sundays, which runs throughout July and August on ±«Óãtv 6 Music. All the guests who will take over the station for an hour over the next two months are involved in the acting world - future presenters will include Sam Taylor-Wood, Richard Ayoade and Sam Riley.

Michael Sheen

Sheen's music selection is as eclectic and varied as his choice of acting roles, and makes for great listening.

He opened the show with David Bowie's Here Comes The Night, remarking how he 'heavily borrowed' from Bowie in his appearance for one of his most recent film roles, nightclub owner Castor in Tron Legacy.

Some of Michael's other choices include offerings by Ultravox, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Elton John, Laurie Anderson, Bob Dylan and Qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

There's also a live version of The White Stripes' take on Dolly's classic Jolene, and what Michael says is his favourite song of all time: Song To The Siren. Though written by Tim Buckley, the version he plays is the first version of the song he ever heard, from an album called Gravelands by The King, a northern Irish Elvis impersonator!

The programme is well worth a listen if you missed it; it's available on the ±«Óãtv iPlayer for the next four days.

This week's ±«Óãtv Radio Wales Arts Show is a mixed bag with Welsh visual arts, literature and music news all crammed in to the 30 minute programme.

Gallery space at the National Museum of Art. Photo: Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales

Wales' National Museum of Art opens to the public on Saturday 9 July at the National Museum, Cardiff. It will showcase the full range of Wales' world-class art collection under one roof in a single series of integrated galleries.

Nicola Heywood Thomas talks to the ' director general David Anderson and director of learning, programmes and presentations Michael Tooby ahead of the exciting opening.

Also on the show, Francesca Rhydderch, the chair of the English language judging panel for the 2011 Wales Book of the Year Award, talks about the literary award ahead of the prize ceremony on Thursday evening.

One English language title and one Welsh language title will each scoop a prize of £10,000 for their respective authors. Take a look at one of my previous posts when I attended the shortlist announcement back in May.

The Taro'r Doc!/Hit The Dock! Percussion Festival takes place in Caernarfon this weekend.

Nicola speaks to musician Dewi Ellis Jones, who will be performing at the festival, and Sioned Webb, the artistic director of the who has been involved in organising the festival.

Plus, folk group Calan drop by ahead of their summer tour. Find out more about it on the .

Listen to the Radio Wales Arts Show on ±«Óãtv Radio Wales at 7pm on Wednesday 6 July, and catch it again on the ±«Óãtv iPlayer for the subsequent seven days.

If you're in or near Milford Haven this evening, you could enjoy a rare screening of some of the earliest silent movies to be made in Wales by one of the pioneers of British cinema.

This evening, the Torch Theatre in Milford Haven will be showing a rare screening of silent movies by William Haggar as part of the Pembrokeshire Schools Film and Animation Festival by the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales.

William Haggar was a larger than life fairground showman who made most of his short movies in the first decade of cinema history. Born in Essex, he lived and worked in Wales for much of his career.

He ran both a travelling cinema (then called a bioscope) and travelling theatre, performed as a stage actor and singer, staged most of his early cinema shows in the fairground and set up permanent cinemas across Wales.

The films that will be shown are A Desperate Poaching Affray, The Bathers' Revenge, The Life of Charles Peace, The Maid of Cefn Ydfa, A Message From the Sea and The Sheep Stealer.

Tonight's screenings will also have a live piano accompaniment and there will be a short talk about each film followed by a question and answer session with the audience. For more information, visit the .

Still taken from a William Haggar film. Image courtesy of the Torch Theatre

To find out more about William Haggar, browse an article written by film historian Dave Berry on the ±«Óãtv Wales Arts website and read about Haggar's flea pit cinema on the ±«Óãtv Wales History blog.

±«Óãtv Wales History blogger Phil Carradice has written a great piece about one of the most successful actors of the 18th century, Sarah Siddons.

Siddons was born in Brecon on this day in 1755. Phil explains:

"Sarah Siddons was the most renowned actress of 18th century Britain. Her performances at Drury Lane and Covent Garden - particularly her portrayal of Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth - were so powerful that audiences swooned and often had to be helped out of the theatre in various stages of distress...

"Siddons was the most famous actress of her day, at a time when the job of actress was at last beginning to become respectable. She held soirées or receptions where the rich and famous - men such as the Duke of Wellington, Edmund Burke and Samuel Johnson - regularly attended."

Read the article in full, and browse some of Phil's previous blog posts on figures from the world of Welsh art and culture:

• Augustus John, bohemian and painter
• Allen Raine, forgotten Welsh writer
• WH Davies: the Welsh Super Tramp
• Ivor Novello, the Welsh nightingale
• William Haggar's fleapit cinema

A number of paintings by one of Wales' defining artists of the 20th century will go under the hammer this week.

Oil paintings, watercolours and prints by the late Sir Kyffin Williams are included in The Chester Sale at Bonhams, which runs this week across 5-7 July with the sale of the paintings scheduled for Wednesday.

Two oil paintings by Williams are up for auction: Snow at Gwastadnant is estimated at £20,000-£30,000 and the other, Snowdonia, is estimated to fetch £10,000-£15,000. Both show examples of the dramatic north Wales landscape for which the artist is most well-known and admired.

A watercolour showing Llyn Dinas, a mountain lake near Beddgelert in Gwynedd, is expected to fetch £900-£1,200, while a pencil and watercolour entitled Welsh Ponies on a Hillside is estimated at £2,000-£3,000.

Snowdonia by Sir Kyffin Williams. Image Copyright © 2002-2011 Bonhams 1793 Ltd.

Llyn Dinas watercolour by Sir Kyffin Williams. Image copyright © 2002-2011 Bonhams 1793 Ltd.

A series of unframed linocut prints called the 'Kyffin Portfolio' will also be sold and is expected to reach up to £2,000. The prints are entitled Venice, Rhosgadfan, The Farmer, his dog and his cottage, Welsh Blacks, The villages of Carmel and Cesarea, and Hunting the Fox.

Hunting the Fox print by Sir Kyffin Williams. Image copyright © 2002-2011 Bonhams 1793 Ltd.

Other works will be auctioned by Bonhams this week by Welsh artists or those associated with Wales, among them pieces by Josef Herman, Karel Lek, David Lloyd Griffith, Gwilym Pritchard and his wife and fellow artist Claudia Williams, Iwan Bala and Malcolm Edwards.

The National Eisteddfod Pavilion at Wrexham

It's less than month to go until the National Eisteddfod in Wrexham opens its doors, and if you're planning a trip to the Eisteddfod, then we have all the information you'll need on our sites. Coverage will include the activities on the Maes, to gigs at Maes B and Maes C, as well as information on admission prices and what to expect at the Eisteddfod.

The crown for the Eisteddfod will also be revealed in a special presentation on the 7th of July. The crown has been designed by John Price from Machynlleth and is his fourth creation for the National Eisteddfod.

Keep up to date with the latest news leading up to the Eisteddfod, and from the Maes during the week with our Arts blog.