REIMAGINE WREXHAM
JUNE 9 – 18 JULY, ORIEL WRECSAM
Wrexham has come a long way from being a market town with cattle being driven through the streets and market stalls sprawled across our car parks. We have the largest Industrial Estate in Wales. The second largest in the UK after Trafford Park in Manchester, and one of the largest in Europe, with world leading engineering, research and manufacturing being carried out on our doorstep; a thriving town centre with national brands, quality local businesses, and four markets trading side-by-side; a night-time economy that sees 5000 visitors to our streets on a Saturday night with more than 200 live acts from around the globe performing on any given month; a thriving arts scene with 5 galleries and a multitude of theatres and other performance venues; a thriving university which is particularly popular with EU students who have established a firm base in Wrexham making Glyndŵr University one of the top 20 most popular destinations for EU undergraduate higher education students in the whole of the UK; one of the oldest surviving football clubs in Britain and the oldest professional club in Wales now owned by its supporters; and a revitalised Wrexham Lager.
These are all things we can be proud of and yet we seem to struggle to define ourselves as a town.
So what is Wrexham? It’s not a market town, but then it’s not officially a city either. We’re proud to be Welsh, but we’re a step from the border with England, and enjoy all the economic and transport links that this provides. We have a large urban centre, but most of the county is rural in nature. It’s hardly surprising we have trouble forming an identity!
With this in mind THIS Project invites you to REIMAGINE WREXHAM. Over the next few weeks a group of artists will be in the Oriel Wrexham to do just that, and we want you to get involved. What do you see when you look at the town? What would you like to see happen over the next few years as Wrexham grows and develops? What would give the town the confidence it deserves?
We have a history to be proud of, but we’re here in the present, with the future to plan for ourselves.
All positive contributions are welcome, so let your imagination run wild…
Check out this video made by Leighton Cox of Reimagine Wrexham on Vimeo
