PR battle in Dylan debate
By Andy Pearson
The PR battle has begun over a tourist attraction devoted to one of Swansea’s favourite sons.
As options are investigated for the city’s Dylan Thomas Centre, the local council has issued a press release headlined: Dylan Thomas Exhibition Will be Improved.
They say that, as austerity measures may see the Centre change function, its permanent Exhibition and related literary programme may move.
However, concerned Dylan expert and businessman Jeff Towns has countered with a public statement titled: The Future of the Dylan Thomas Centre.
Home
He believes that the Centre is the Exhibition’s rightful home, especially with the tourism opportunity afforded by 2014, the centenary of Dylan’s birth.
It’s going to be a fascinating battle to watch as both sides have the ability to use public relations techniques rather well – and both have pressing reasons for their own standpoints.
The council has a professional and efficient communications team, Towns has great contacts amongst the region’s brightest cultural thinkers.
Councillor Graham Thomas, the council’s cabinet member for culture, is quoted in the press release as saying that a joint venture with the University of Wales will secure the Dylan Thomas Centre’s future and that the Exhibition “will be improved to provide a better visitor experience than ever before.
Enhanced
He goes on: “The enhanced exhibition will be an important feature of our plans to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Dylan’s birth and to help attract visitors from across the world.
“The intention is to create a 21st Century hub of culture, academia and business at the Dylan Thomas Centre while saving Swansea taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds in the long-term.”
Towns, meanwhile, says: “It came as a real shock when I learned that the council planned to remove the Dylan Thomas Exhibition from the Centre and reinstall in a different location and on a smaller scale – and that the related literary programme would move with it a also continue at a lesser level.
“To my mind the building without the Exhibition and the related literary programme could no longer be regarded as or be referred to as The Dylan Thomas centre.
Focal
“The building and Exhibition should be the focal point for the 2014 Wales wide celebrations and events. I hope that a solution can be reached that secures both the Exhibition and the literary programme in the Centre along with the financial viability of the building.”
My advice? Watch the South Wales Evening Post as the PR ding-dong develops.
Tags: Cardiff, Dylan Thomas, PR, PR agency, Swansea, Swansea Council, Wales
