Interpreting The Bible and its Visual Expression Within the Cultural Landscape of Wales 1825-1975

The Imaging the Bible in Wales Research Project seeks to record a wide range of artwork from Wales during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that depicts biblical scenes and characters. The Bible has played a vital role in the religious and cultural life of Wales, and the project seeks to interpret the social, political and theological issues that the artworks raise. This work has been enabled through fieldwork and new photography, the results of which are now available to a wide and inclusive audience: biblical specialists, heritage groups, artists and art historians, as well as church and community groups.

Project

Academic field
History
Librarianship
Information & Museum Studies
Theology
Divinity and Religious Studies
Community Arts (including Art and Health)
Affiliation
University of Wales
University of Wales Lampeter
University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies
National Library of Wales Aberystwyth
Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales
Project link
Interpreting The Bible and its Visual Expression Within the Cultural Landscape of Wales 1825-1975
Funders
Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)

arts-humanities.net

Principal investigator
Dr Martin O Kane
Principal project staff
Dr Martin O Kane; Professor Geraint Jenkins; Mr Andrew Green
Start date
Thursday, September 1, 2005
Completion date
Friday, August 1, 2008
Era
Modern
Place
Wales
Digital resources created
Two digital resources have been produced. First an interactive DVD-ROM and second an online database of images. The DVD-ROM is available for purchase as part of the illustrated volume Biblical Art from Wales (Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2010), or is available on its own through the Theology Department at the University of Wales, Lampeter. It contains around 600 images, interpreted according to themes relevant to the overall project and are contextualized through interviews with specialists drawn from the disciplines of theology and art history as well as practising artists. An online database of some 6,000 images has been created and provides additional contextual information such as artist biographies and topographical details.
Source material
Processed digital photographs, copies of which will be held by the University of Wales, Lampeter and the National Library of Wales on hard drives and as DVD-ROM copies. Further audio-visual material consists of audio minidiscs, also archived on CD-ROM/DVD-ROM as well as hard drive back ups, and miniDV tapes, held at the Media Centre, University of Wales Lampeter, with copies at the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales, National Library of Wales.
Data formats
Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF)
Digital Video File (DV)
MySQL
Tagged Image File Format (TIFF)
Metadata standards
Visual Resources Association Core 3.0 (VRA)
Publications

Martin O’Kane and John Morgan-Guy (eds.), Biblical Art from Wales (Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2010).

Martin Crampin and John Morgan-Guy, Imaging the Bible in Wales (DVD-ROM) (University of Wales, Lampeter 2010).

The third publication is the Imaging the Bible in Wales Database, hosted by the National Library of Wales and available at http://imagingthebible.llgc.org.uk.