Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay

Art commissions for the world’s first tidal lagoon in Swansea Bay, a pioneering carbon-free energy project.

A Creative Inquiry

The Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay development is proposing to create a 250MW power plant in Swansea Bay, Wales that will be an extremely reliable electricity source offering predictable zero carbon electricity for 120 years. It is a pioneering project which could become one of the many needed answers in addressing our energy needs but it will also create change in the local area, affecting people and the city itself.

Cape Farewell is working with the Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay Ltd team on an creative inquiry on how this change might look like, how it can be harnessed and influenced. Cape Farewell is supported by a range of amazing partners and people in Swansea.

Open Call to Artists

Artists and sculptors have a unique role to play in envisioning what is possible for our future sustainable communities and the ‘canvas’ of the lagoon is a perfect platform to create works that embrace the concept of the Tidal Lagoon and champion it as a beacon of future possibilities. There are two open calls for artists to submit proposals for artworks to be sited on the Tidal Lagoon.
Find out more about the art commissions open call

Major Sculpture Commission

Deadline: Now closed

An open call to international and UK-based artists for initial proposals for a major sculpture. Two shortlisted proposals will each receive a budget of £10,000 to enable further development of the proposals. The shortlist was announced in May 2014 at the Hay Festival.

Multi-Disciplinary Commission

Deadline: Now closed

A call to artists based in Wales for initial proposals for a multi-disciplined artwork. We invite artists from all disciplines to apply, including sound, video, poetry, writing, light installation and dance. Three shortlisted proposals will each receive a budget of £5,000 to enable further development of the proposals. The shortlist will be announced at the Dylan Thomas Festival at the end of October.

Swansea Local Interventions

Deadline: Now closed

A call for all the Swansea locals for proposals to enhance the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon area.

Art & Science Expedition

In partnership with the Tidal Lagoon Project, the University of Swansea, the Metropolitan University and Low Carbon Reserach Institute conducted Cape Farewell an urban art and science expedition. This two-day short, rural and urban expedition around Swansea brought emerging art and design students into dialogue with scientists and leading scientific research in order to stimulate a creative response. Central focus of the dialogue and inquiry was the proposed tidal lagoon in the bay of Swansea. Results of this inquiry were exhibited in 2013.
View the Swansea Lagoon Expedition PDF

Art & Science at Schools

At primary schools a short series of school based workshops for year 5 and 6 classes were run by Colin Izod, Cape Farewell’s Youth Programme leader, to raise awareness about rising sea levels and the power of the oceans and tides as one of the solution to green energy needs. An exhbiition of the creative outcomes were shown at the Waterfront Museum in 2013.

“I think of art, at its most significant, as a DEW line, a Distant Early Warning system that can always be relied on to tell the old culture what is beginning to happen to it.”

Marshall McLuhan

Find out more about the project.
tidallagoonpower.com/projects/swansea-bay/

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