South Wales Evening Post column, November 01, 2024
THEY say every day is a school day. Just when you get to the age when you think you know it all, something new comes along to broaden your horizons. A week ago, I didn’t know a thing about community benefit societies. Today, I well on the way to picking the topic as a Mastermind subject. This bit of ‘fast-track’ education is all down to a random meeting with Dan Staveley, co-founder of Swansea’s Elysium gallery and artists’ studios. We met to discuss a totally separate project in west Wales (more on that in a future column). At the end of the meeting, I was staggered at the progress made on the ‘Elysium project’. The Elysium brand has already made its mark on the Swansea landscape, helping to breathe new life into High Street, in particular. Now, Elysium has become a Community Benefit Society (a type of social enterprise), with big plans for a new city centre location, combining studios, a gallery, cafe, education centre and function rooms. The plans centre on a building which ho...
