Concrete Poetry: Why Swansea Should Be Your Next Arts and Culture Travel Destination

Following in the footsteps of Dylan Thomas, and inspired by a thriving artist-led scene and dynamic museum programming, we couldn’t agree more with the poet’s assertion that ‘Swansea is a town where art is alive’. ArtRabbit visited Swansea on a brisk September day, keen to explore contemporary art, culture, and history in Wales’s second largest city. With the journey just under 3 hours direct from London Paddington with Great Western Railway, yet feeling further flung than many other major UK cities, consider Swansea your next cultural weekend destination.

Like Plymouth, which we visited earlier this year, Swansea is a large port city bearing all the typical markers: grand Victorian institutional buildings, industrial sprawl, and post-war civic planning make for a visually arresting tour through the city, before you even encounter any of the top-tier art and culture. Once boasting numerous docks, it was an important centre for many trades including coal, tin and copper, mined from all over the South Wales valleys. Heavily bombed during the Second World War, it has undergone waves of regeneration throughout the decades, leading to a palimpsestic urban landscape which has no doubt inspired the city’s numerous resident artists and artists-in-residence.

City Centre

Upon stepping out of Swansea station, you’ll spot three words inlaid in the paving: ‘AMBITION IS CRITICAL’. Commissioned by Swansea City Council in 1993, this is a poem by poet David Hughes, part of a series. This motivating line somehow encompasses a mood to the city’s cultural scene, which produces a huge breadth relative to its population of 250k.

This summer, Swansea’s major art gallery and museum, Glynn Vivian, opened Out of this World, a major new exhibition by artist Heather Phillipson. Following our visit, we spoke to Heather about her work and the research presented at the museum, drawn from the Imperial War Museum archive and Cyfarthfa Castle, in an exclusive piece, to be published later this month.

A few minutes walk from Glynn Vivian, Elysium Gallery is an artists’ studio complex with a bar and gallery open to the public. The gallery itself is extensive, and presents a high-quality programme from artists both local, national and international. Opening to coincide with Swansea Arts Weekend, and programmed in partnership with Ffotogallery, The Imagined Land of Belonging will exhibit work by Latin American and Caribbean Female photographers.

Elysium isn’t the city’s only artists’ studio and gallery. Not surprisingly, considering UWTSD: Swansea College of Art is renowned as one of the best places in the UK to study art, it’s evident that the city retains and nurtures creative talent.

Neighbouring Elysium, GS Artists is a not-for-profit project space founded by artist Jane Simpson seven years ago, and is now run by a group of freelance artists. It aims to offer a ‘place to connect, build links and develop the Swansea art community’. This month, exhibitions have included ILLUMINATE, an exhibition of photographic work which highlights modernist architecture in Swansea, among other cities.

Also worth a visit is Volcano. Set on the ground floor of Elysium’s studio building, in a former department store, it is primarily a performance space but also hosts exhibitions, community groups, fairs and exhibitions, all with a DIY aesthetic.

Maritime Quarter

The walk from the city centre to the Maritime Quarter is mostly pedestrianised, making for a pleasant 10 to 15-minute stroll. Now would be a good time to pull out a copy of Swansea Modernist, published by The Modernist, and make a note of the city’s architectural highlights from the post-war period. A stop at Kardomah Cafe, perfectly preserved since the 1960s, offers up another public art commission in poem form: Michelangelo, Ping-Pong, Ambition, Sibelius, and Girls… by DJ Roberts, a subtle neon in homage to the city’s most famous creative, poet Dylan Thomas.

Once down at the Maritime Quarter, you can learn more about Thomas at the Dylan Thomas Centre. The permanent exhibition Love The Words features interactive displays, recordings, and objects which give insight into the great poet’s life and work.

From here, continue your museum tour at Swansea Museum. Here, a small exhibition titled Remembering the Cockle Women includes loans of photographs, prints, and paintings from the descendants of the Welsh cockle industry’s long-established families, alongside a film work. For a 360-degree, enhanced experience, make a visit to Swansea Indoor Market. One of the UK’s largest working market halls, and, as it happens, another of the city’s modernist icons, to pick up a punnet of cockles with vinegar, still locally picked, for a few pounds. The exhibition closes this weekend, but the dish remains perennially popular.

There are multiple exhibits on at the National Waterfront Museum, which is dedicated to industrial heritage. This is a broad remit, and its 15 themed galleries include large scale industrial machinery used in the coal and tin industries, alongside maritime equipment and social artefacts. Opened this year, Ours to Tell presents works newly acquired by the museum, selected by members of the city’s LGBTQ+ community. It’s a small but moving exhibit. Highlights include a pack of love hearts spelling out a marriage proposal and a ‘Gay News Fights On’ badge from the 1977 Whitehouse v. Lemon trial.

Whilst the museums are a major attraction of the Maritime Quarter, don’t neglect to visit the small but ambitious Mission Gallery. Based in a former seamen’s church, the gallery presents a programme of contemporary visual arts and craft. Upcoming exhibition We Are All Artists will show work by renowned Welsh ceramicist Lowri Davies alongside members of the Chinese in Wales Association.

Swansea Arts Weekend

From Friday, 4 to Saturday, 6 October, Swansea Arts Weekend will be presenting exhibitions, workshops, and performances across the city with partner organisations. Alongside the exhibitions noted above, you can discover events such as Night of the Triangles at GS Artists; Ffiesta am Byth at Volcano and a skate photography workshop in conjunction with the Skin Phillips: 360° exhibition at Glynn Vivian.

Travel with a Long Weekender ticket

Great Western Railway’s Long Weekender tickets offer fully flexible travel at 50% the price of an Anytime Return. Travel on a Friday or Saturday and return on a Monday to take advantage. Book your tickets here.

→ The South West Art Travel Companion: A GWR-Partnered Guide to Exploring the South West, West, and South Wales

Thanks to our partnership with GWR, this guide brings the art-filled landscapes of the South West, West, and South Wales to your doorstep. Travel from one art exhibition to another, discovering how art transforms within the context of its environment. Embrace the convenience of booking ahead and travelling during quieter times with GWR Railcards, tailored for explorers young and seasoned. Plan your journey here.

→ More exhibitions and events in Bristol, Exeter, Falmouth, Swansea, Plymouth and more

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