How Banksy sparked a love of colour in a steel city

When Banksy’s artwork “Season’s Greetings” appeared on a garage in Port Talbot in 2018, it sparked a three-year saga that ended with the artwork’s removal from the town.

But more than five years later, a lasting legacy has emerged: a vibrant street art community.

“There were people who did it anyway,” said steelworker and street artist Ryan Davies.

“But there is no doubt about it: when Banksy appeared in the city, it set in motion a scene that had been simmering for a long time.”

Every visitor to the steel city notices the ever-growing collection of street art – from impressive murals to graffiti lettering and tagging.

“Port Talbot is now known for this,” said Ryan.

Ryan, who worked as a stoker at the local steel mill for 33 years, started painting walls over two years ago.

When he’s off duty, he paints with twin brothers Matthew and Aiden Cole. Together they are known as THEW Creative.

One Friday afternoon they were at Margam Football Club, which had commissioned them to paint a mural on its clubhouse in the shadow of the steelworks’ blast furnaces.

With impending mass layoffs At the steel mill, Ryan said, it was a welcome distraction from the daily work that left people feeling “very demoralized.”

“I’m almost 50 and I’m lucky to have paid off my mortgage… but there are guys in their 20s who have just taken out a mortgage, have young children and have a long way to go before they retire – for them it’s very, very nerve-wracking,” he said.

Ryan said the colorful street art throughout the city was a hopeful sight during difficult times.

“You come to the conclusion that the city might actually have an opportunity and that it’s not just about the steel mill,” he added.

“(Banksy) made it clear to ordinary people that art is not just antisocial, it is art,” Aiden said.

“People realised we could have art in our garden, on our children’s bedroom walls, at our football club, at our restaurant – it really spread and there’s a nice scene in Port Talbot at the moment.”

But not everyone in Port Talbot is a fan.

“We were recently accused by some random old man of making the country look like a third world country – to be fair,” Aiden said.

“But I would say the response is overwhelmingly positive,” Ryan added.

“You can’t please everyone, can you?” his friend added.

It was in December 2018 that Season’s Greetings appeared in the garage of steelworker Ian Lewis in Taibach, and after online speculation, it was soon signed by the famous anonymous street artist.

With an estimated 20,000 visitors Crowds of people looking at the artworkTraffic wardens were deployed to direct traffic, and film star Michael Sheen, who grew up in the area, helped fund a plastic shield and round-the-clock security staff.

It was eventually purchased by gallery owner John Brandler and moved to a building in the city center so it could be shown to the public.

But when the agreement to keep it there expired, Mr Brandler moved it out of Wales in February 2022.

“It was a farce,” Ryan recalled.

“It was taken away from us, a very rich person came, bought it and it was gone.”

When asked about this, Mr Brandler said he had bought the artwork with the intention of keeping it in the city and turning it into an international street art museum – but the idea had been rejected by the local council.

A spokeswoman for Neath Port Talbot Council said at the time: “There were discussions about the possibility of keeping the plant in Port Talbot, but the council was told it would have to bear the cost of dismantling and installing it at a new location, continue the insurance and pay a fee of around £100,000 a year to borrow the plant.”

Recalling the dispute, Brandler said: “I travelled to Wales practically every week, which cost me a day and a half of my working time for meetings. Then I was told again and again that it would not happen because – and I quote – ‘Banksy is not Welsh.'”

He added that he was “so, so sad” that the artwork could not stay in the city, which he said “desperately needs tourism.”

Thirty miles away, in Cardiff, the Banksy effect is also palpable.

There, graffiti artist Amelia Thomas, better known as Unity, said: “People have their own feelings about Banksy, but there is no denying that Banksy made it acceptable for people to paint walls.”

“There are a lot of people in Port Talbot who have been painting for years and don’t get any recognition for it, so it’s a bit crazy that it takes someone from outside to paint something for people to really appreciate the locals.”

Amelia grew up in rural Llanfihangel Talyllyn in Powys and said she had always been interested in “making marks on walls”.

“I got in trouble because no one else was doing it and obviously it was me,” she said.

Everything changed when she saw a graffiti magazine in her cousin’s house.

“I thought, ‘Oh my God, there are other people doing this, that’s what attracts me.'”

After moving to Cardiff in the mid-2000s, she found walls she could paint “without being bothered”.

“Today it is much easier to paint on the street without people bothering you because people are used to seeing it. But there are also places where you can say: ‘I am allowed to be here, this has nothing to do with you, leave me alone,'” she said.

Many places in the UK have open walls where artists can paint.

“This is a huge step compared to where we are now,” said Amelia.

For Amelia, expressing herself through art is a way to protect her mental health.

“It’s about making the public aware that this is actually something that benefits the painters. They’re not doing it to annoy you, they’re doing it because they have to, because they feel compelled to, and because it helps them keep their heads above water, because that’s what it is for me,” she said.

“When you paint, nothing else in the world exists. There is only you and this wall.”

Hasan Kamil grew up in Swansea and had a passion for graffiti art.

After working as a graphic designer for five years, he now lives in Bristol and works on creating large-scale murals and bespoke signage.

When he’s painting murals outside, people often stop and ask him about his work, so he says he has a good sense of how the public reacts to art that appears on buildings, walls and underpasses.

“The average perception is, ‘I love the street art, but hate the graffiti, hate the tagging,'” he said.

“But they don’t realize that they coexist and that graffiti was, in a way, there first. That’s why I will always be a huge supporter of graffiti.”

There is another common comment.

“The B-word – Banksy. ‘You’re not Banksy, are you?’ You hear that a lot.”