Merched Chwarel is a group of four artists – Marged Pendrell, Jŵls Williams, Lisa Hudson and Lindsey Colbourne – whose work is connected to the quarries of North Wales where they each live and work. They will be joined for this project by the curator, Jill Piercy.

As a group of emerging and established artists, Merched Chwarel have developed their ideas with the support of a research and development grant from the Arts Council of Wales. They used this initial phase of their collaboration to search for traces of women’s footsteps and explore physical presence in a previously male‐dominated environment. Their research process was based on walking together in the quarries together with community engagement that developed a layered inquiry exploring industrial heritage, identity, mapping, connection to place, language, mark making and the response of contemporary ‘Merched’ to the quarry legacy.