£650,000 new funding for Swansea city arts gem

LEADING Swansea art gallery the Glynn Vivian has successfully secured almost £650,000 in new funding.

The funding came from Arts Council Wales (ACW and the Imperial War Museum (IWM) – and will help Swansea Council’s city centre gallery to put on top class new exhibitions and to further engage with local communities.

It will be discussed at a meeting of the council’s ruling cabinet on Thursday, March 21.

Elliott King, the council’s cabinet member for culture, equalities and human rights, said, “It’s great that one of our city’s cultural treasures has secured this valuable external funding.

“It’ll mean yet more fantastic art being made accessible to local people and will increase the capacity of the gallery team that already does so much excellent work with visitors and local communities.”

Almost £400,000 of the new funds came from Arts Council Wales. This will allow the gallery to be one of the nine regional bases for the Welsh Government’s new National Contemporary Art Gallery Wales (NCAGW).

This will see the Glynn Vivian and other galleries in this new network exhibit items loaned to them by the National Museum of Wales Cardiff and the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth.

The money allows the Swansea gallery to fulfil the demands of housing national collections by improving elements such as environmental controls and security.

A sum of £250,000 was offered by the IWM/1418 NOW Legacy Fund as a partnership arrangement to host a new exhibition.

This will result in a Turner Prize-nominated artist’s unique commission being installed in the gallery, boosting the global profile of the gallery and of Swansea as an artistic destination. The grant fully funds the project.