Swansea art project celebrates love for the city as it prepares to welcome millions of new visitors
Featuring words of love and welcome from Cerys Matthews, Huw Stephens, Keith Allen, Luke Evans, Michael Sheen and Rachel K Collier
“Swansea… perfectly gilt-edged.” Keith Allen
“Music, Word, Art. Swansea continues to create and shine. Abertawe am Byth!” Huw Stephens
“Let the music play, right through this beautiful place!!” Luke Evans
“Mumbles mile, Cinderellas, leisure centre Saturdays, cider, books and crescent bay dreams.” Cerys Matthews
“As the Sun rises from the sea, So shall Abertawe sing.” – Michael Sheen
“Every tide brings a rhythm in the waves to create something new” – Rachel K Collier
From Swansea, With Love, a show-stopping visual art project featuring words of love and welcome from well-known musicians, actors, comedians and presenters from Swansea and beyond, has been seen popping up around the city, to celebrate its incredible redevelopment and mark the opening of Swansea Arena which is at the centre of the 135m Copr Bay development.
Beautiful phrases, celebrating Abertawe and its music, sunshine, art, creativity, memories and, of course, the gilt edged coastline, have been contributed by musician, author and broadcaster Cerys Matthews, broadcaster Huw Stephens, actor and comedian Keith Allen, actor and singer Luke Evans, actor, producer and activist Michael Sheen andmusician Rachel K Collier.
Taking inspiration crowd-sourced via social media directly from the people of Swansea, the phrases have been brought to life via illustration and animation. The visual art appears on poster sites, digital screens and hoardings across the city, in addition to screens at Swansea Arena and two hand painted murals from Swansea creative agency, Fresh Creative.
Swansea Arena, operated by Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG), is due to host its opening live music show from Royal Blood on 19th March. The iconic, 3500 capacity, multi-purpose arena is gold clad, with a wraparound LED screen, made up of 93,000 LED lights. The venue will host up to 200 live performances a year across comedy, theatre, music and gaming, bringing an additional 260,000 visitors a year to the city, and generating 467 full-time direct and indirect jobs in Swansea.
Joe Bayliss, Head of Marketing and Communications for Swansea Arena, comments: “We are completely delighted to be welcoming the world to Swansea Arena and of course our brilliant city, as it reaches its potential as a cultural destination.
“We commissioned From Swansea, With Love, so that we could share words of love and welcome with residents and visitors alike, and have been overwhelmed with both the creative contributions and the stunning artworks they have become.”
Swansea City Centre is one of the largest urban transformations currently being delivered in Europe; over £1billion is being invested across the city, allowing Swansea to realise its potential to be one of the most vibrant places to live, work, visit and study in the UK.
Swansea Arena is at the centre of the Copr Bay project, which includes a landmark public bridge and a 1.1.acre coastal park, plus apartments and independent restaurants. Delivered by Swansea Council, and advised by development managers RivingtonHark, Copr Bay phase one alone is worth £17.1 million a year to the city’s economy.
The arena also forms part of the Swansea City and Waterfront Digital District project which is being part-funded by the £1.3 billion Swansea Bay City Deal.
Royal Blood is the opening live music show in a 2022 season during which Swansea Arena audiences can expect to see Alan Carr, Jersey Boys, Jurassic Live, Katherine Ryan, Kevin Bridges, Rhod Gilbert, Rob Beckett, Rob Brydon, The Good, The Bad and The Rugby Live, as well as debut Swansea shows from Alice Cooper and The Cult, Diversity, Johannes Radebe, Oti Mabuse, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK and Will Young.
To be the first to hear when shows go on sale for Swansea Arena sign up to the mailing list at Swansea-arena.co.uk.
On social media, follow @SwanseaArena on Facebook and @ArenaSwansea on Twitter. Welsh channels @ArenaAbertawe on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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