To begin at the beginning: Dylan Thomas famously dubbed Swansea an “ugly lovely town” and this rings true as one approaches the Dylan Thomas Centre, which is situated beside the marina with bobbing fishing boats.
This part of Swansea is still undergoing redevelopment and could do with upgrading to create a better impression. However, the Dylan Thomas Centre itself is an attractive pile, constructed of honey-coloured limestone.
The friendly and welcoming staff exude pride in their work and workplace as they point me in the direction of Love the Words, the Dylan Thomas exhibition that opened late last year.
First impressions of the new permanent display, which tells the story of Thomas’s life and works, are of a rather traditional space, albeit a shiny new one.
A circular gallery is chronologically arranged from Thomas’s birth to his early death in New York. One can see many tabletop glass cases and text on walls. “Oh dear,” I thought.
However, how does one tell the story of a writer if not through his writings? So I liberally sprinkled benefit over my doubt and began to engage with the exhibition.
The walls are peppered with quotes from the appropriate stage of the exhibition’s story (a timeline stretches along the edge of the ceiling from start to finish) and these begin to draw visitors in to the unravelling tale.
“The memories of childhood have no order, and no end” struck a chord with me, as did the description of the Kardomah Gang: “…drinking coffee dashes and arguing the toss.”
Surrealist links explored
Throughout the space there are flip-up panels that reveal further quotes, facts and general information. It’s a simple idea but it enhances the experience. I was puzzled by smaller, lower, flip-up panels whose contents were more abstract, as there was no explanation of what they were for. I assume they are for children or wheelchair users but this is not obvious.
Working further around the timeline one reaches a seating area where one can use headphones to hear Thomas’s writings in his own words. This was a special moment as I had only heard one or two recordings of his before.
The headphones are essential in this position as there is significant sound bleed from an art installation around the corner, which makes the exhibition feel more alive but also, sadly, does annoy slightly.
I was blown away to learn of the poet’s association with the surrealist movement and his links with Dalí, Picasso and others. The exhibition is great at delivering gems of information such as this.
Overall, it’s a well-designed exhibition but there are one or two zones where I found it difficult to make the link between object and label. The designers have made it as interactive as possible (a challenge given the nature of the written word, photographs and other printed ephemera) with touchscreens and the flip-up panels.
A model of a radio engages visitors who use a rotating knob to select different broadcasts by Thomas, which I found informative and entertaining.
The art installation in the centre of the gallery mixes video and audio from various broadcasts of the poet’s works into an immersive experience, with the visitor standing in the middle of three video screens. This piece is a welcome artistic accompaniment to the rest of the gallery.
Moving on, visitors come to objects associated with his most famous work, Under Milk Wood. They are held in cases whose design is redolent of medieval reliquaries. Given the nature of the cases’ contents, I felt this was appropriate.
Poignant displays
Throughout the exhibition there is, where possible, primary source material that was either created by Thomas or is closely associated with him, his family and his story.
Understandably, since his death, a great deal of other primary source material has been acquired by collectors and it was wonderful to see this addressed through the temporary exhibition gallery close by which, at the time of this visit, contained a fascinating set of original writing from a North American university’s collections.
The exhibition reaches a poignant end with a case showing Thomas’s tweed jacket and trousers and, finally, his death mask. I found this, and the photograph of the poet in his coffin, moving. It stimulated me to find out even more about the great man.
As a proud Welshman I was more than a little ashamed at my ignorance of the spectrum of Thomas’s work. Perhaps more than any other Welshman, he belongs to the world.
This exhibition, despite minor glitches, admirably introduces visitors to his life, times and works. It takes them from his cheeky happy childhood, through his creative blossoming and, finally, on to 9 November 1953 when he died aged only 39.
Essex Havard is a museum and education consultant
This part of Swansea is still undergoing redevelopment and could do with upgrading to create a better impression. However, the Dylan Thomas Centre itself is an attractive pile, constructed of honey-coloured limestone.
The friendly and welcoming staff exude pride in their work and workplace as they point me in the direction of Love the Words, the Dylan Thomas exhibition that opened late last year.
First impressions of the new permanent display, which tells the story of Thomas’s life and works, are of a rather traditional space, albeit a shiny new one.
A circular gallery is chronologically arranged from Thomas’s birth to his early death in New York. One can see many tabletop glass cases and text on walls. “Oh dear,” I thought.
However, how does one tell the story of a writer if not through his writings? So I liberally sprinkled benefit over my doubt and began to engage with the exhibition.
The walls are peppered with quotes from the appropriate stage of the exhibition’s story (a timeline stretches along the edge of the ceiling from start to finish) and these begin to draw visitors in to the unravelling tale.
“The memories of childhood have no order, and no end” struck a chord with me, as did the description of the Kardomah Gang: “…drinking coffee dashes and arguing the toss.”
Surrealist links explored
Throughout the space there are flip-up panels that reveal further quotes, facts and general information. It’s a simple idea but it enhances the experience. I was puzzled by smaller, lower, flip-up panels whose contents were more abstract, as there was no explanation of what they were for. I assume they are for children or wheelchair users but this is not obvious.
Working further around the timeline one reaches a seating area where one can use headphones to hear Thomas’s writings in his own words. This was a special moment as I had only heard one or two recordings of his before.
The headphones are essential in this position as there is significant sound bleed from an art installation around the corner, which makes the exhibition feel more alive but also, sadly, does annoy slightly.
I was blown away to learn of the poet’s association with the surrealist movement and his links with Dalí, Picasso and others. The exhibition is great at delivering gems of information such as this.
Overall, it’s a well-designed exhibition but there are one or two zones where I found it difficult to make the link between object and label. The designers have made it as interactive as possible (a challenge given the nature of the written word, photographs and other printed ephemera) with touchscreens and the flip-up panels.
A model of a radio engages visitors who use a rotating knob to select different broadcasts by Thomas, which I found informative and entertaining.
The art installation in the centre of the gallery mixes video and audio from various broadcasts of the poet’s works into an immersive experience, with the visitor standing in the middle of three video screens. This piece is a welcome artistic accompaniment to the rest of the gallery.
Moving on, visitors come to objects associated with his most famous work, Under Milk Wood. They are held in cases whose design is redolent of medieval reliquaries. Given the nature of the cases’ contents, I felt this was appropriate.
Poignant displays
Throughout the exhibition there is, where possible, primary source material that was either created by Thomas or is closely associated with him, his family and his story.
Understandably, since his death, a great deal of other primary source material has been acquired by collectors and it was wonderful to see this addressed through the temporary exhibition gallery close by which, at the time of this visit, contained a fascinating set of original writing from a North American university’s collections.
The exhibition reaches a poignant end with a case showing Thomas’s tweed jacket and trousers and, finally, his death mask. I found this, and the photograph of the poet in his coffin, moving. It stimulated me to find out even more about the great man.
As a proud Welshman I was more than a little ashamed at my ignorance of the spectrum of Thomas’s work. Perhaps more than any other Welshman, he belongs to the world.
This exhibition, despite minor glitches, admirably introduces visitors to his life, times and works. It takes them from his cheeky happy childhood, through his creative blossoming and, finally, on to 9 November 1953 when he died aged only 39.
Essex Havard is a museum and education consultant
Project data
- Cost £1.2m
- Main funders Heritage Lottery Fund £935,700; City and County of Swansea
- Exhibition design Real Studios
- AV Centre Screen Productions
