WNO launches community project on anniversary of Ely unrest

Welsh National Opera (WNO) is set to launch a new community engagement project designed to strengthen community connections in the Ely and Caerau districts of Cardiff on the anniversary of public unrest in the area in 2023.

The project, named Ely Bridge, will see the WNO collaborate with Ely-born actor Rakie Ayola to harness music and creativity to ‘strengthen community connections’ in the area. The orchestra’s involvement will support the wider work of the Welsh Government and organisations such as Action in Caerau and Ely.

WNO producer Sandra Taylor, who will lead the project, said: ‘WNO is able to offer unique opportunities for children and young people to work with highly skilled professionals, who can inspire and help raise aspirations. At a time when the arts are being squeezed from the curriculum, this project offers opportunities for creativity, an important part of learning that helps develop curiosity, imagination, choice making and, ultimately, those all-important problem-solving skills needed for future careers.’

The new project is created in response to the deaths of teenagers Kyrees Sullivan and Harvey Evans in an electric bike crash in May 2023. Claims that the boys were being followed by police at the time of the crash spread on social media, prompting disorder which left cars torched, property damaged and 15 officers injured. Having originally denied involvement, South Wales Police later confirmed its officers had been following the teenagers prior to their deaths when CCTV footage of the minutes before the crash was released.

The Ely Bridge programme will see the WNO present workshops in Ely and Caerau primary schools aiming to engage children aged 10-11 in music education. The project aims to reach children at a ‘pivotal age of transition’ where they can often disengage with education and be coerced by criminal gangs into drug trafficking through the practice of county lines.

Results of this first phase will inform the next stage of the Ely Bridge project. In following stages WNO aims extend the programme to secondary schools and include intergenerational activities designed to bring the children together with parents, teachers and community players including social workers, council members, first-responders and officers of the South Wales Police.