Art lovers usually queue around the block at the launch of a new Banksy exhibition. Not in Port Talbot on a wet Wednesday.
Twelve months after one of the artist’s most eye-catching works, Season’s Greetings, appeared on a steelworker’s garage in the south Wales town, the doors of a former police station where the piece has been moved for safety were opened to the public.
There was no fanfare and no crowd. It must have been one of the most low-key openings for a work by an internationally-renowned artist ever.
A trickle of residents, council officials and local artists attended to view the work, watched over by a couple of security men.
“I think it’s a missed opportunity,” said Gareth Slee, a Port Talbot resident and former steelworker. “I don’t think the council or the government knows what to do with the Banksy. Maybe its because the message is so political. But it seems a shame for the town. We need a boost and this isn’t it.”
The prospect of a contemporary art gallery with the Banksy at its centre has been dangled in front of the town over the last year. But there has been confusion and wrangling over how to pay for it and, for the moment at least, Seasons Greetings sits alone in a chilly space that has not even been painted.
Dawn Spencer-Kelly was surprised she was not having to fight through crowds to see the piece. “They said it was going to help revitalise Port Talbot,” she said. “But there’s nobody here.”
Paul Jenkins, who is making a documentary about the piece and the town’s reaction to it, said he was glad the Banksy was safe and sound. “I love the piece,” he said. ‘What is so extraordinary is how the people have taken to it. But in here it does seem a bit like a caged beast taken out of the wild.”
Craig Jenkins, a street artist, arrived on his skateboard and said it was a shame that the walls had not been given a lick of emulsion. “But it’s understandable in a town that has been hit by austerity and where they can hardly pay for Christmas lights. I hope in the end we’ll be able to do something cool here.”
The Banksy appeared just before Christmas 2018 in Taibach, close to the Tata steelworks. From one angle, it shows a child in a bobble hat with a sled, apparently enjoying a snow shower and trying to catch the flakes on their tongue. But from another it becomes clear that what is falling on the child is ash.
Banksy confirmed the work was his by releasing a video of the mural accompanied by the Christmas song Little Snowflake. The camera rises above the garage and shows Port Talbot’s rooftops and the billowing chimneys of the steelworks and other industrial buildings.
Tens of thousands of people visited the garage. Round-the-clock security had to be introduced to protect the artwork and it created a cottage industry in souvenirs – mugs, coasters, keyrings – carrying images of the work.
The art dealer John Brandler bought the Banksy from Ian Lewis, a steelworker who owned the garage and thus the artwork, for a six-figure sum and promised it would stay in Port Talbot for at least three years.
In May, the 4.5-tonne Banksy was carefully moved to the former police station and earlier this week Neath Port Talbot council issued a modest press release announcing that for three days this week, the Banksy would be open to the public from 11am-3pm.
Nigel Hunt, a Plaid Cymru councillor, said he was frustrated at how some on the Labour-controlled council had failed to make the most of the Banksy. “Some of them are like characters from Charles Dickens,” he said. “We had the global spotlight on us. This is a modern masterpiece and Banksy chose us to be part of the narrative. So much more could have been done.”
It is not too late: the council is still hoping to access funds to create a gallery around the work.
Councillor Annette Wingrave, the cabinet member for regeneration, said progress was being made. “We have been working hard with other agencies to come up with ideas for a permanent display,” she said. “With security, staffing and other costs, the council cannot do this alone but it is hoped that working with others, we can come up with a solution.”