About
Taliesin Arts Centre is Swansea University's dedicated venue for film, live performance and the visual arts, occupying a purpose-built complex on the university's Singleton campus and serving since the 1980s as one of the principal cultural venues for the whole of Swansea, not simply the university community. Named for the legendary sixth-century Welsh poet Taliesin, the centre combines a cinema, theatre, and exhibition spaces under one roof, hosting around ten visiting exhibitions a year across its gallery and pop-up display areas alongside a full programme of film screenings and live performance.
Visitors familiar with the centre's earlier history may recall its dedicated Oriel Ceri Richards Gallery, named for the celebrated Welsh painter Ceri Richards and a fixture of the building since its early years; that specific gallery space closed in 2017 when the ground floor was redeveloped into student activity and study space, a change that reflected shifting university priorities as much as any decline in the centre's commitment to visual art. Exhibition programming has continued since under a broader banner, with 'The Gallery' hosting regular shows by local and touring artists and 'Taliesin Create' — a set of bookable creative spaces including the Mall Room and the Studio — providing additional areas for pop-up exhibitions and displays, meaning the centre's visual art identity persists even without its original named gallery.
As a university-owned and operated venue, Taliesin benefits from institutional backing and a built-in student audience unusual among Wales's arts centres, while its public-facing programming — open to the whole of Swansea and beyond, not restricted to students and staff — has helped the centre maintain a genuinely civic role in the city's cultural life. This dual identity, part university facility and part public arts venue, shapes much of the centre's programming, balancing student-relevant contemporary work with a broader public appeal intended to draw audiences from across Swansea Bay.
Situated on the university's Singleton campus, a short distance from Swansea's seafront, the centre continues to present film, music, dance and visual art exhibitions across a genuinely multi-disciplinary programme, cementing its position as a significant cultural anchor for the city.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- Check the current exhibition and screening schedule online before visiting, as programming varies with the university term-time calendar.
- Combine a visit with a walk through neighbouring Singleton Park and its botanical gardens.
- Exhibition hours may be reduced during university vacations even though the wider building often stays open.
- Campus parking is paid — allow time to find a space during busy event periods.
- The centre's cinema and theatre programme make it worth checking for an evening event alongside a daytime exhibition visit.
- Bus services run directly from Swansea city centre to the Singleton Park campus stop.
Highlights
The Gallery's Rotating Exhibitions
Taliesin hosts around ten visiting exhibitions a year in its main gallery space, presenting work by local and touring artists across painting, photography, sculpture and mixed media. This continuous rotation gives the centre an active visual art identity distinct from a purely film-and-performance venue, and reflects the university's ongoing commitment to public exhibition programming even after the closure of the centre's earlier, specifically named Ceri Richards Gallery in 2017.
Taliesin Create Spaces
Taliesin Create comprises bookable creative spaces including the Mall Room and the Studio, located on the ground floor and providing additional areas for pop-up exhibitions, displays and creative activity beyond the main gallery. This flexible-space model, developed as part of the building's 2017 ground-floor redevelopment, allows the centre to host a wider variety of shorter-term and experimental exhibition formats than a single fixed gallery space would permit alone.
Taliesin Cinema
The centre's cinema is one of Swansea's principal venues for independent, world and repertory film, complementing the visual art exhibition programme and giving the building a genuinely multi-disciplinary identity across film, live performance and visual art under one roof. For visitors combining a gallery visit with an evening out, the cinema and adjoining café make Taliesin a natural full-evening destination on the Singleton campus.
The Ceri Richards Gallery Legacy
Taliesin's earlier dedicated exhibition space, the Oriel Ceri Richards Gallery, named for the celebrated twentieth-century Welsh painter, was a fixture of the building through its early decades before closing in 2017 when the ground floor was redeveloped into student activity space. Though the named gallery no longer operates, its legacy is part of the centre's institutional history and reflects the university's continuing, if evolved, relationship with visual art exhibition at Taliesin under new arrangements.
Collections
Taliesin Arts Centre does not maintain a permanent art collection, instead running a continuous exhibition programme of around ten visiting shows a year across its main gallery and the flexible Taliesin Create spaces, alongside its core film and live performance programming. Following the 2017 closure of the centre's earlier named Oriel Ceri Richards Gallery and the redevelopment of its ground floor, visual art exhibition at Taliesin continues under this broader, more flexible model, reflecting the centre's ongoing identity as a genuinely multi-disciplinary university arts venue serving both Swansea University and the wider city.
Taliesin Create Pop-Up Displays
An ongoing rotation of pop-up exhibitions and displays across the Mall Room and Studio spaces on the ground floor.
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.