Discovering Swansea’s Stories through the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery Collection
The Glynn Vivian Art Galley houses a rich and diverse collection of approximately 12,000 artworks, encompassing everything from painting, works on paper, ceramics, pottery, film, sculpture, textiles and much more.
In 2019, the Gallery curated an exhibition called Swansea Stories based on the themes; City, People, Coast and Favourites, to showcase the finest works from the Permanent Collection – which belongs to the people of Swansea.
While the response to the exhibition was overwhelmingly positive and provided a rich source of material to understand our constantly evolving city, its people and our communities, it also raised questions around collecting, displays, research and commissions.
Following the exhibition, the Gallery team set about developing a project that would seek to find out what Swansea Stories are being told through the collection, but also, what has been left out and why.
With support from is an Esmée Fairbairn Communities and Collections Fund project, run by the Museums Association, the Swansea Stories project was launched, to consider the relevance and usefulness of the gallery’s collection for the city and its people.
To date, the Swansea Stories project has invited many of the Gallery’s community groups, schools, individuals, and the public to respond and share their own stories, through learning and engagement activities, delivered by our learning team.
Through these activities, we hope we can encourage a greater sense empowerment and ownership from the people of Swansea – for what is their gallery and their collection and invite new voices to tell the story of the collection, through displays, interpretation, co-curation, creatives responses, research and new commissions.
Together with our participants we hope we can identify key works that resonate and help us to understand the complex histories of these objects and paintings, to develop new interpretations and commentaries of the works to share with all our visitors.
Read about the Swansea Stories projects
Swansea Stories
Friday 27 September 2019 – Sunday 15 March 2020
To celebrate Swansea’s 50th anniversary as a city, Glynn Vivian presents Swansea Stories in which we are showing the largest selection of our permanent collection ever displayed.
Ten Objects from the Collection
22 July 2022 – 31 October 2022
The Glynn Vivian Team, with the assistance of Dr Zehra Jumabhoy, conducted research on ‘Ten Objects from the Collection’ as part of The World Reimagined, a project that explores nine themes giving us the opportunity to reinvent our past, present, and future.
Will Evans and the ‘Three Night Blitz’, with Mike Lewis
April 2025
A look at Will Evans’ paintings of The Three Night Blitz through the eyes of Swansea resident Mike Lewis.
