THE Vale Council’s gallery Art Central launched its Remembering the Great War exhibition. last weekend, with guests including Mayor Howard Hamilton.

Opening the exhibit on Saturday, November 15 Councillor Hamilton led a minute of silence to reflect on those lives affected by war, before introducing the exhibiting artists and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution display "Hope in the Great War".

Councillor Gwyn John, Cabinet Member and Armed Forces Champion for the Vale of Glamorgan Council, said: “As the Cabinet Member for Arts and Culture, I have developed a good understanding about the arts and how they can have a significant and positive impact on our lives.

"This exhibition reminds us of the millions of men and women who fought and gave their lives during the Great War and indeed subsequent wars.”

Curated by the Council’s Arts Development service, the exhibition hosts a number of talented artists, and has arrived at a time of great significance, with 2014 marking the beginning of a four-year centenary of the First World War.

Cardiff based photographer, Jon Pountney, who has documented the First World War Memorials and Monuments across the Vale of Glamorgan using a German Voigtlander camera, said: “The Camera had had once belonged to my Grandfather, which he was given by an Italian Prisoner of war during WW2.

"My grandfather died soon after the war from subsequent over-work and exhaustion, but I am proud to be able to use this camera in recording and remembering both my grandfather and those who gave their lives.”

Ceramicist Tracey Baker’s work explores the life of the often overlooked war horse, which had an average life span of only six weeks on the front during the First World War, with both sides loosing over eight million horses in total during the four years of conflict.

Local Artist Susan Grover has on show a handmade montage "Brothers in Arms" which tells the moving story of her father and his two brothers who all fought during The Great War.

And digital storytelling artist Katrina Kirkwood is exhibiting her project "Isabella and the String of Beads" in remembrance of her Grandmother, one of the few female doctors serving on the front during the First World War, which saw visitors to the gallery and library create an entire strand of colourful strings of DNA using decorated beads.

The exhibition Remembering the Great War will be in Art Central until the Saturday, January 3 and entry is free. Art Central is open to the public from 10am to 4pm Monday to Saturday.

Further information about this and future exhibitions at Art Central can be found at www.valeofglamorgan.gov.uk.