“A Pretty Shitty City……” SWANSEA [Twin Town] UK CITY OF CULTURE 2021 Initial Bid CONTENTS CROESO / WELCOME Page 1 OUR AREA Pages 2 - 3 OUR VISION Pages 4 - 8 CULTURAL AND ARTISTIC STRENGTHS Pages 9 - 13 OUR SOCIAL IMPACT Pages 14 - 15 OUR ECONOMIC IMPACT Pages 16 - 17 OUR TOURISM IMPACT Pages 18 - 19 LEADERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNANCE Pages 20 - 21 OUR TRACK RECORD Page 22 FUNDING AND BUDGET Page 22 - 23 PARTNERSHIPS Page 23 RISK ASSESSMENT Pages 24 - 25 LEGACY “... an ugly, lovely town ... crawling, sprawling ... by Pages 25 - 26 the side of a long and splendid curving shore. This LEARNING AND EVALUATION Pages 26 - 27 sea-town was my world.” CLOSING WORDS [Dylan Thomas] Pages 28 APPENDICES Pages 29 - 62 SWANSEA - UK CITY OF CULTURE sense of Place to create opportunities that may otherwise be unreachable. Our bid to be UK City of Culture 2021 From urban deprivation, poverty and stems from an enduring commitment low aspiration in the east, to rural to place culture at the heart of our isolation, ageing populations and lack regeneration and growth. Ours is a tale of of infrastructure in the west, we believe a city of contrasts, continuously grappling that culture is our bridge to greater with the lovely/ugly, rural/urban, people/ equality, engagement and connectivity. place, past/future, east/west balance, Our partnerships are growing stronger, but being one Place and one People, for programming and delivery and we will with pride and ambitions to shine on build on our existing infrastructure, with the world’s stage. We are a city of ‘world sustainability and growth of our cultural firsts’, not a ‘Second City’ – returning and natural assets at the forefront of our to our rightful place as the cultural link programming and legacy planning. between post-industrial and rural Wales. We have a pragmatic approach to Our time to shine has arrived. Our city is leadership, programme development changing rapidly, with urban regeneration and delivery. In our bid, we describe how and population growth creating a UK City of Culture 2021 will frame and landscape ripe for investment, innovation, accelerate our investment in our cultural diversity and connectivity; the likes of and community infrastructure, strategic which we have not experienced since partnerships, community engagement we were at the heart of the industrial and creative and tourism economies. This revolution. This has led us to securing will deliver a number of Step Changes a once in a generation investment for with long term impact and legacy. the city, including a new City Deal which will create a new cultural infrastructure Our evaluation framework will provide for Swansea by 2021. The City Deal will the evidence and tools for us, our bring with it new digital infrastructure partners and other cities, to ensure that which will create thousands of much culture is recognised as an architectural needed jobs; growing creative and tech component of a healthy, sustainable industries and driving innovation, with an city, supporting the long term prospects international connectivity that we want to for growth and community wellbeing. see benefit all our People, in our ‘Lovely, Our legacy will also be intertwined with Ugly’ Place. From a period of looking our long-term sustainability planning back to the heyday of the traditional for regional partnerships, with a new industries, we are looking forward with governance model established, which will a new confidence, tackling head on the genuinely place culture and our People challenges and opportunities facing us. and Place at the heart of the regeneration of the Swansea Bay City Region. We need Culture to connect us more deeply with this new Swansea, drawing on our rich heritage, stories, culture, and Page 1 OUR AREA Swansea is the economic centre of the rural hinterland, which makes up two Our culture, pride and ambition chemicals in the Industrial Revolution. wider Swansea Bay City Region, which thirds of the 378km sq. area. Our They are now characterised as high- has a resident population of 685,000. rural area’s components are broadly Dylan Thomas’ blunt assessment of density communities, with row upon With a contained population of 240,000, defined as Gower, the UK’s first Area of Swansea in 1941 contrasts starkly with row of stone-built terraced housing, Swansea is the second largest city in Outstanding Natural Beauty and the hilly the Swansea now entering the 21st interspersed with post-war council Wales. Residential patterns remain Lliw uplands, including reservoirs, former Century, seeking to reinvent itself with housing estates. The pressure on shaped by our industrial past, with the collieries and Swansea’s highest point at culture and heritage at the forefront of these communities and local services majority of people living and working in Penlle’r Castell. Two major universities, the city’s plans. The breadth and diversity is high and life expectancy, social and the urban heartlands. Our waterfront with student populations of around of Swansea’s history presents a rich economic mobility, skills and employment city centre is flanked to the north and 30,000 add to the vibrancy, diversity and source of cultural inspiration – named are low. Conversely, Swansea West, west by a stunning mix of coastal and innovation emerging in the area, with by the Vikings, and home to a series of including the rural hinterland as upland rural landscapes, enveloped by major campus developments anchoring ‘world firsts’ such as the Mumbles Railway described above, is characterised by a sweeping sandy coastline that defines the north and south of the city. - the first passenger railway in the world. higher socio and economic indicators Swansea Bay, curving around the coast Swansea’s history as a Place also defines of wellbeing. However it has a lack of to the Mumbles headland. The historic Dylan Thomas walked through the challenges now facing our People. digital connectivity, transport and cultural Docklands, now being reborn as the infrastructure, with higher levels of rural SA1 Waterfront area, marks the eastern the bombed-out shell of the Our unique geography and industrial isolation, and disconnection from city- boundary. Forging its way north-east, town centre with his friend legacy has created a city of contrasts, centre lifestyle, culture, recreation and through a series of urban settlements, Bert Trick. Upset at the sight, with inequality between the populations core services. the River Tawe winds through the he concluded: “Our Swansea is of east and west, and disconnect of the formerly heavily industrialised Swansea dead” urban and rural. ‘Swansea East’ was Valley. With spectacular visual effect, formed as dormitories for the once the drama of the dense urban setting, booming industries of copper, tin and boldly meets the sparsely populated Page 2 OUR AREA Having once been at the heart of Wales’ ethnic group, higher than the Welsh is reflected in higher proportions of wellbeing, educational attainment, and Britain’s trade links, the decline in average of 4% and the third highest employment in the service industries. aspiration and tackling poverty. It unifies Swansea’s position as chief exporter, at percentage of the 22 local authorities Commuting patterns point to significant People and contributes to our economy the forefront of the Industrial Revolution, in Wales. Key groups include Eastern estimated daily inflows to Swansea of through tourism, creative and cultural hit us hard. During WWII, Swansea’s Europeans (rising since 2003); a doubling 27,700 (net inflow +8,300), with the industries, vibrancy and sense of Place. Dock was the link to the world’s first of the Bangladeshi ethnic group between majority coming from Neath Port Talbot These are the key outcomes we want full-scale submarine pipeline, but due 2001 and 2011; and a considerable (13,200) and Carmarthenshire (8,600)1. from our strategic investment in the to its logistic significance, became the increase in the Chinese ethnic group. Road arteries and traffic management city, so to move forward without culture target for a ‘three night blitz’ in February The largest ethnic minority populations dominate the landscape and reduce led regeneration would be unthinkable 1941, which saw the city centre and were recorded in the urban Wards of connectivity by creating physical barriers to us. By 2021 we will see a new digital surrounding residential areas flattened. Uplands, Castle and Sketty, the latter two between our historic and suburban infrastructure, new creative workspace, Post-war planning saw the city centre recording ethnic minority populations communities, key assets, infrastructure a new Arena, Aquatics Research Centre shift its axis away from the waterfront, above 10%. Overall, the latest census and natural resources. and the world’s first Tidal Lagoon in-situ; and by the 1960s, the Valley’s industries information revealed some 5,415 all connected by unparalleled digital were in steep decline - leaving behind a residents as Muslim, making this the Health: According to the 2011 Census, capability and infrastructure, via the polluted, scarred and barren landscape. most common religion after Christianity. 78% of Swansea residents assessed installation of 5G and broadband via ‘the The Lower Swansea Valley project their health as good or very good, almost Jupiter Pipe’. With this platform we can was a pioneering attempt to reclaim Education: Swansea is both a city of in tandem with the Wales average. connect and mobilise our businesses this land and reintroduce