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It materialised just before Christmas seven years ago, turning the industrial town of Port Talbot into a destination for culture lovers, but – after much wrangling and soul-searching – was whisked away on the back of an art dealer’s lorry and is more than 1,000 miles from home.
The saga of Port Talbot’s Banksy mural, Season’s Greetings, is being told in a new play opening next week, prompting a flurry of reminiscences and recriminations about what happened after one of the world’s most famous street artists paid a visit to south Wales.
Paul Jenkins, the director of Port Talbot Gotta Banksy, said the idea was to tell the story of the mural and also depict the resilient community of Port Talbot, which is still reeling from the closure of the blast furnaces at its steelworks last year.
“It has turned into an endearing portrait of an embattled town and the celebration of one of the last true working-class industrial communities in the UK,” said Jenkins. “We were rehearsing in Port Talbot last week and the actors got to meet the community members that they will be playing. The people whose remarkable stories we gathered have plenty to say.”
The play features the reflections of a steelworker, Ian Lewis, whose garage the artist chose for his work; a security guard, Kevin Gregory, who had the tough task of protecting it; and the Essex art dealer John Brandler, who bought the mural. “It’s been an extraordinary process, generating a script full of anger, but also incredible resilience and laugh-out-loud humour,” said Jenkins.
The Banksy appeared, as if by witchcraft, in the Taibach area of the town, close to the Tata steelworks (and the childhood home of Richard Burton). From one angle it showed a child apparently trying to catch snowflakes on their tongue. From another it became clear that what is falling on the child is ash.
Tens of thousands of people visited and round-the-clock security was introduced to protect the artwork. It also created a cottage industry in souvenirs – mugs, coasters, keyrings – carrying images of the work.
Brandler, bought the piece from Lewis and in May 2019 the Banksy, all 4.5 tonnes of it, was moved to a temporary exhibition space in the town. No permanent spot in the area could be found and on a bitterly cold February 2022 the piece was taken away on the back of a lorry.
Season’s Greetings is being exhibited alongside other works, by Banksy and Andy Warhol, in Rome. It is possible it could be heading to India and China to be shown there.
Brandler said he was “angry and frustrated” that Neath Port Talbot council had not found a way of keeping the Banksy but said he was pleased the play would tell the story. The council is unapologetic, saying it would have been too expensive to install it in a new venue and cover insurance and loan fees.
But good came out of it. The Banksy may be gone but it has led to a street-art boom in Port Talbot.
Bev Simmonds Owen, one of the leaders of a street-art trail in Port Talbot, said: “Since the Banksy appeared we have had over 150 new pieces of street art in the local area. We created careers for at least four local street/mural artists. We have had artists go into local school and teach street art.”
Simmonds Owen said the biggest achievement had been the Bridge Street gallery, an open air space that attracts street artists from across the UK. “It changes monthly and there is a huge variety of art styles often of different topical issues or themes and it costs the local tax payers nothing. There is no entry fee, making art accessible for everyone in our community.”
Simmonds Owen pointed out that the Hollywood stars Richard Burton, Anthony Hopkins and Michael Sheen had strong Port Talbot links. “I think that the Banksy was a huge instigator for the community to find a new pride in our history as an important and historical place for the arts.”
There is a fresh piece of art on the Banksy garage, a piece by Steve Jenkins highlighting the issue of pollution from cars in the town.
He said: “The Banksy lit touchpaper for art in the area. I think it should have stayed in Port Talbot as anywhere else it’s seen totally out of context. It need the stack of the steelworks visible in the distance to make it perfect.”
When the fight was on to keep the Banksy in Port Talbot, Paul Reynolds, who owns the motorbike shop Kickstart nearby, displayed posters in his shop windows calling for it to stay. He still keeps them rolled upstairs. “Sad, really. It’s great that we’ve got all this new street art. It gives the place some colour. But the Banksy should still be here.”
Port Talbot’s Gotta Banksy will be performed at Sherman theatre in Cardiff from 2-10 May 2025, then at the New Plaza, Port Talbot; Swansea Grand theatre; Torch theatre, Milford Haven and Tŷ Pawb, Wrexham.
