Facing adversity, fighting austerity: the cultural rising of Newport
Dylan Moore explores how Wales’ third city turns economic rags to cultural riches
In 2006, the Office for National Statistics moved from its smart offices in Drummond Gate, Pimlico, London to an industrial estate off the Southern Distributor Road in Duffryn, Newport. There was concern at the time that the quality of the organisation’s work would suffer because the country’s leading statisticians would be unwilling to relocate to an area they knew from their own figures languished near the bottom of Britain’s socio-economic league tables. According to the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation, Newport has the highest proportion of small areas in the most deprived 10 per cent in Wales, a rate of almost a quarter. The city has the highest unemployment rate in Wales, and the highest number of benefits claimants. In recent years, already high rates of child poverty have increased, and housing has become less affordable. As the UK emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic, the Centre for Cities published a piece of research that also awarded Newport the unwanted title of the empty shops capital of Britain.
In January 2022, the South Wales Argus reported that a third of Newport’s retail units lay dormant. It was a bitter blow for a proud city, but no surprise to residents, many of whom have long preferred to visit Cardiff or Cwmbran than their own centre for shopping, and where a £100 million retail development opened to great fanfare less than a decade ago has already become the site of major closures and controversy over a lack of clarity regarding a change of ownership. Friars Walk lost its flagship Debenhams store in 2021, the latest in a long litany of shutdowns. The council distanced itself from the issue of empty shops at the time of the Centre for Cities report, releasing a statement that said: ‘A good proportion of empty units are owned by absent or disengaged landlords, but the council is taking action wherever possible to make them take responsibility for taking proper care of their buildings and bring them back into beneficial use.’
Newport’s most infamous absentee landlord is the owner of the iconic Westgate Hotel, who has drawn local ire after evicting Our Chartist Heritage – a charitable organisation at the forefront of keeping alive the flame of the city’s historic connection with Chartism, Britain’s biggest mass movement for democracy, through arts and education events, activities, talks, exhibitions and conferences, including the popular torchlit march each November. The Newport Rising festival marks the anniversary of the 1839 battle at the Westgate during which 22 pro-democracy campaigners were killed by British troops.
Our Chartist Heritage had been using, and refurbishing, the building during a period of good relations with the landlord, putting on gigs, exhibitions and community events that revived more recent memories of the venue’s history, as well as commissioning forensic research that finally proved the long-held local belief about bullet holes still visible in the hotel’s original pillars. The organisation’s co-directors, David Daniel and Gavin Facey, issued a statement expressing their disappointment at being abruptly turned out. Our Chartist Heritage has now moved to a new base at 170 Commercial Street.
It is this dogged determination not to give up – to find a way, against the odds and a backdrop of socio-economic deprivation – that defines Newport’s thriving grassroots creative scene. Bucking trends and defying stereotypes, Gwent sustains the highest levels of self-employment within the creative industries in the whole of Wales, and although negative perceptions of the city persist, Newport creatives were galvanised by the cynical reaction to the city’s bid to become UK Capital of Culture in 2025.
‘No Culture Here’ became an ironic rallying cry in response to scoffing on social media. David Daniel told the South Wales Argus at the time: ‘Most of us are used to negativity whatever the news is about Newport. We know that City of Culture status is aspirational – it’s not awarded to places that are fully developed cultural hubs but [it could] transform how people feel about a place, at a time when we could all use a boost.’ And although Newport’s bid was unsuccessful, there is no doubt that a creative renaissance is well underway in a city that has long danced to its own tunes.
Standard cultural histories of Newport tend to centre on the legendary TJs nightclub and the so-called ‘new Seattle’ scene of the 1990s, but the city’s cultural endeavour has long formed a counterweight to its industrial heritage. A few doors up from the supposed site of Kurt’s proposal to Courtney, the Newport Technical Institute was opened on the east bank of the river Usk in 1910, becoming the Newport and Monmouthshire College of Art in 1958. By the early 1970s the college had become what ITV Wales Political Editor Adrian Masters calls ‘a surprising cultural mecca’, with connections to Magnum photographers Josef Koudelka and David Hurn, artist David Hockney, and musicians including Ian Dury, Brian Eno, Van Morrison and Joe Strummer, who famously discovered reggae in Newport. Masters presented a fascinating documentary for Radio Wales at time of the building’s development into flats, featuring contributions from Hurn, co-founder of the Three Impostors press Richard Frame, and artist John Selway. Newport Museum and Art Gallery on John Frost Square is currently exhibiting work from former art college students, forty years on.
But despite Newport people’s fierce pride in the city’s former glories – look no further than the furious local reaction to the destruction of Kenneth Budd’s Chartist mural in John Frost Square to make way for Friar’s Walk in the first place – there is a clear contemporary context to the recent reinvention of retail outlets and rejuvenation of public space across the city, in particular the swingeing cuts in public expenditure since the Conservatives – and their Liberal Democrat coalition partners – came to power in 2010.
When Newport City Council shut down the Stow Hill branch library in March 2013, a committed group of local residents managed to reopen it, first under the guise of the Handpost Community Library Association, and later as Cwtsh, a micro arts centre that has put on hundreds of classes, presentations and art exhibitions in the decade since. Open mic nights hosted by the indefatigable Alan Roderick at the city’s legendary Murenger House pub raise funds for the Cwtsh and are now approaching their one hundredth edition (poet Mike Jenkins’ recent reading was number 96).
On the other side of the city, just a year later, the Maindee Unlimited initiative also grew out of the closure of a branch library. A group of local residents and partner organisations again pooled resources and skills to deliver a series of improvements for the community that are not only ongoing but ever growing in scope and ambition. The library reopened in 2015 and now hosts both a food pantry, providing for members of the community and saving a tonne of food waste every month, and the Greening Maindee project, transforming neglected spaces into safe and attractive areas for people to enjoy within the city’s most densely urbanised district.
In 2022 the charity delivered The Triangle, which was shortlisted for the 2024 MacEwen architectural award. The Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects described the transformation of a formerly derelict public toilet block into an innovative multi-functional community space as ‘punching way above its weight’. First Minister Mark Drakeford opened the site to the public. John Hallam of Maindee Unlimited explains that the use and dealing of Class A drugs remains an issue in the vicinity, but emphasises the difference the project has made: ‘The Triangle’s democratic spaces are proving something of an antidote to decades of neglect [and residents] are starting to see the space as something shared, and perhaps even important.’
It is highly symbolic that some of Newport’s most innovative renovation and rejuvenation projects have centred around public toilets. Newport communities – often led by committed and charismatic local visionaries – have perfected the art of polishing the most unpromising environments. While the Maindee Triangle has been praised by the Royal Town Planning Institute as ‘a rare green space and community facility’, in Pillgwenlly another formerly derelict public toilet block now operates as the Phyllis Maud Performance Space, named after the aunt of Jan Martin, an artist and community activist who is also behind the Barnabas Arts House on New Ruperra Street, and the independently run Robbins Lane Studios, a recording studio and suite of thirteen creative spaces for artists working in ceramics, paint, textiles and more.
Jan cites the impact of her old school’s transformation into the Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff when she was a twelve-year-old pupil as a lifelong inspiration. Most recently, Jan was behind the conversion of Ruperra Lane into A Place of Wonder. The ‘once maligned, ugly’ former hotspot for fly-tipping and antisocial behaviour has become an urban artwork visitor destination and a place for locals to enjoy spending time with neighbours. Murals painted along its row of disused garages celebrate the history of the locality, with images related to the former cattle market, now the site of an Asda supermarket.
Further into the heart of the city’s most-denigrated district, Andy O’Rourke’s mural at 152 Commercial Road celebrates multicultural Pill through a depiction of the late Windrush generation community elder Fred Isaacs, just around the corner from the site of the former Silver Sands restaurant, a Caribbean cultural hub in the 1970s. Fifty yards further, at Temple Street, Pill carnival queen Alexia Cuthbert and a long-serving Black police officer known locally as PC Val adorn a wall in a mural that also celebrates the many nations represented in the community through a host of flags.
O’Rourke has also been busy in Maindee, decorating the former Pells sweet factory with giant jars of sweets and echoing Maindee Unlimited’s emphasis on greening the area with an entire terrace gable end covered in urban wildlife. Meanwhile, Caerphilly-based Paul Shepherd was commissioned by Newport City Council to brighten the underpasses around the Harlequin roundabout in Shaftesbury beneath the A4042 flyover toward Junction 26 of the M4. Subjects include local heroes John Frost and Lady Rhondda, as well as the Newport Ship discovered during the construction of the Riverfront theatre in 2002.
Elsewhere across the city centre, community arts venues are springing up like flowers in the pavement, proud to wear their grassroots credentials on their suitably unvarnished marketing material. The Cab describes itself as ‘a working class, issue driven community space hosting workshops, concerts and performances’, and is home to hardcore and punk gigs as well as the Reality Theatre Group. In another distinctly Newportonian twist, the venue owes its recent expansion to the busting of a cannabis farm that had been set up in what had seemed inaccessible upper floors. The scourge of empty shops has led to multiple raids on similar ventures in disused buildings across the city centre in recent years, at the former Wildings on Commercial Street, as well as at the Neon, the former Odeon cinema on Clarence Place.
Meanwhile the work of local makers is showcased at Gallery 57, and The Place –occupying the former post office building on Bridge Street – is yet another example of a multi-functional art and community space near the heart of the city. Supported and funded by Arts Council Wales, Newport City Homes and Tros Gynnal Plant, and transformed by the Tin Shed Theatre company, The Place exemplifies the kind of innovative partnership working across sectors that has helped to make creative visions a reality in spaces and places across the city. Driven by a circular economy framework, The Place comprises ‘The Livingroom’, a welcome space led by young people, artist studios, workshop spaces, meeting areas and wellbeing studios. All are available for hire, supporting creatives in Newport and surrounding areas with co-working facilities and networking opportunities.
Such opportunities are also available at the University of South Wales (USW) campus, where creative and digital startup companies are benefitting from structured support from the Newport Creative Industries Cluster Hub (CICH). Managed by Newport City Council in partnership with the USW Startup Stiwdio and delivered in collaboration with other creative organisations in Newport such as Newport Live, the Riverfront Theatre and Community Arts Team, the hub provides vital business and professional skills development programmes alongside grants, increasing the likelihood that new creative freelancers or organisations will survive the first hard few years.
Richie Turner runs the Startup Stiwdio in Newport alongside similar ventures in Cardiff and Treforest. He agrees that Newport ‘has had and continues to have a strong, independent, creative community who have often survived without significant financial and strategic support,’ and says ‘that spirit and entrepreneurial culture of we will do it ourselves should not be lost’.
But he is equally clear that ‘creative individuals and organisations need a stable, sustainable sector to plan and build upon.’ Richie explains how the objectives of the pilot project have been met: creative freelancers and organisations in Newport clearly want a coordinated network focused on business development, marketing and making further connections.
In the words of photographer Kamila Jarczak, who has been a major player on the Newport scene in recent years (the third edition of her Women of Newport project, ‘Community Champions’ is currently on display at the Senedd): ‘what would help is people working together more, supporting each other’s projects and embracing each other’s work.’ Kamila says that exchanging skills and sharing different perspectives and opinions are vital to take creative work forward. ‘There are wonderful people here in Newport, but more could be done to help creatives to access funding, overcome obstacles and plan projects more effectively.’
With artistic activity in Newport firmly on the national radar, and recognition from the Welsh Government about the importance of the creative industries to the country’s economy, it seems strategy and funding are finally coming together with the dreams and ambitions of Newport creatives. Through the Stiwdio’s award winning creative entrepreneurship development programme, 22 new businesses have been created during a four month pilot, smashing the initial target of ten.
The centrality of USW within the wider creative scene across the city echoes previous generations who attended higher education courses in Newport, such as those at the College of Art. Steff Ellis, activity plan coordinator for the city council’s Market Arcade project, which is bringing back into use yet another historic row of empty retail units, says: ‘Newport does not simply attract creatives, but manages to retain them too. Many who attended courses at Caerleon, Clarence Place, Allt-yr-Yn and Nash, seem to have been unable to leave once the course is over.’
‘Go to an exhibition opening, a book launch, a poetry reading, arts festival,’ says Steff, ‘and [you will] see the disproportionate number of past students of creativity in the city. Those who have stayed here not only seem to have enriched the arts in Newport and its environs by their presence, but have an actual desire to go out into its communities and proactively encourage and enrich the lives of many who might otherwise feel alienated from The Arts.’
This emphasis on solidarity and community has been at the heart of the work of Urban Circle (UC), an independent youth arts organisation which ‘aims to help build, promote and sustain constructive community relationships and individual capability for young people living in the different areas of Newport.’ Mohammad Fez Miah, a graduate of Newport’s celebrated documentary photography programme, is Communications Officer for UC, which he explains ‘is as much a community as a company’. Now well into its second decade since beginning as Urban Circle Radio in Pillgwenlly, participants and audiences often come back as teachers, or leave to have children only for those children to show up a few years down the line. Fez says such genuine relationships are key if arts organisations are truly to play a role in tackling social issues such as loneliness and isolation.
It is clear that major arts funders also recognise the value of such a people-centred approach, and Fez was delighted that Urban Circle were recently awarded multi-year revenue funding from Arts Council Wales for the period until 2027, allowing the charity to move from a project-to-project footing to being able to plan for the medium and long term, and at scale. A small percentage of this grant will support the ongoing success of the Reggae and Riddim festival at Tredegar House, but the greater proportion will sustain the roles of dedicated, passionate staff who have successfully enabled generations of young people in Newport to embrace their creativity in a supportive and empowering environment.
Fez says the funding news has been ‘exciting, but heart-wrenching at the same time’ because Urban Circle’s success has coincided with other organisations losing out. He has had several heart to hearts with people from other arts organisations, and says ‘we have a duty of care’ – an attitude reflective of the values behind the Creative Solidarity Network convened by Urban Circle in partnership with many others. Fez explains that this is simply the first step in UC’s work with Platfform to explore a trauma-informed approach to developing deeper, longer-lasting relationships in the creative sector.
Fez calls Newport ‘a city of rebellion, a city of juxtaposition’, and believes the city’s demographic – that is, its people – are key to its constant innovation and consistent incubation of creative excellence. ‘As a historically working class city that has developed diverse multicultural communities through migration, Newport has developed an ability to survive neoliberal systems – because it has had to. That’s trauma: the need to survive is big. And because of that, the willingness to put yourself out there does exist.’ Fez compares the city to Cardiff, twelve miles down the road, where the size and scale of the capital and the way more multicultural communities are ‘segmented off’ have mitigated against its ability to develop a similar creative culture.
Medium-sized does not mean mediocre, as will be evidenced by the opening next month of a brand new 500-capacity venue at Corn Exchange on Newport’s High Street. Bringing yet another historic building back into use, it will supplement Le Public Space – which has its own regeneration story after 25 years on Caxton Place – to provide Newport with the ability to attract bands, comedians and other artists who have outgrown the small venue circuit but who are not yet ready to sell out the O2 in Bristol or the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff.
Fez understands the good intentions behind the local authority’s support for the Friars Walk shopping centre – designed as it was to ‘regenerate’ a dilapidated city centre – but he says simply: ‘society didn’t need that’. As a key player in Newport’s close-knit cultural scene Fez has been involved in ‘almost all’ of the various empty shop projects that have sprung up amid the economic decimation of recent years. ‘They are quiet ways of capturing imagination, ad hoc spurts of creativity,’ he says, ‘but in the medium to long term, they are near-impossible to sustain.’
He understands the risk aversion of local authorities, but dreams of a time when the ‘nothing to lose’ spirit of Newport’s people is let loose in the corridors of power as it is in the closed-down libraries, empty retail units, underpasses, alleyways and derelict public toilets that have hosted the city’s artistic renaissance. ‘The key to a revolution is to believe it’s possible.’
Dylan Moore will be representing Cwlwm at today’s Creative Showcase and Celebration at the Riverfront theatre, Newport.
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