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An early 100th birthday present for Dylan Thomas


C 11th April 2014

The Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea has always been amongst the best places in the world for learning about the life and works of Dylan Thomas. And it’s about to get even better.

Heritage Lottery Fund grant

It was publicly announced yesterday (Thursday 10th April 2014) that the Dylan Thomas Centre team had secured a substantial grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). This grant will be used to design and install a brand new exhibition and to develop a community outreach programme that will help Dylan’s inspirational legacy live on.

Dylan Thomas is allegedly the second most quoted poet in the English language. And, within the year, the permanent Dylan Thomas exhibition at the Centre will become bigger, better and more interactive. All work is set to be finished by October, in time to celebrate Dylan’s 100th birthday.

 “The current exhibition regularly attracts visitors from all over the world, but it’s now 15 years old and this limits our ability to be creative with the large number of Dylan Thomas artefacts that we have as part of our collection. This grant will help create a vibrant learning space and build an exhibition space that will not only help us to display more of our collection but will also enable us to attract unique Dylan Thomas-related artefacts from across the world, making it a truly international heritage hub.”
Cllr David Phillips, Swansea Council Leader


 “As Wales’s city of culture, it’s important that the exhibition isn’t the only point in Swansea where people can access our world class collection of Dylan Thomas materials. This grant will enable us to have an exciting offsite education and community engagement programme to ensure that schools and people of all ages and backgrounds across the city can benefit from learning more about Dylan and his life and work in ways that will inspire them. This will help sustain his legacy not just in the rest of the world, but in his home city of Swansea too.”
Cllr Nick Bradley, Swansea Council’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration


 “Dylan Thomas is not only an iconic Welsh figure, he is also recognised as one of the world’s greatest literary figures and his life and works play a central part in our national heritage. During a year of festivities and celebrations marking his life, the Heritage Lottery Fund is thrilled to be able to play a part in the anniversary celebrations by ensuring that his legacy is secured.”
Manon Williams, Chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Committee for Wales


Actors Matthew Rhys and Ioan Gruffudd feature in the below video. Watch it to find out more about Dylan Thomas, the Dylan Thomas Centre and what the Heritate Lottery Fund grant means to Swansea.

Dylan Thomas 2014 celebrations

Dylan Thomas was born in Swansea almost 100 years ago. He was arguably one of Wales’ most iconic literary legends and naturally, there are a number of great celebrations taking place throughout the year of his 100th birthday. Some of the forthcoming highlights include guided tours of Dylan’s Swansea on April 20 and a performance of ‘Caitlin’ at Swansea’s Grand Theatre from May 12 to May 17.

For a great list of Dylan Thomas 2014 centenary events, head to www.dylanthomas.com.

 

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