Love Island 2021 winner Liam Reardon has unveiled a striking new installation at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff that has been commissioned by The National Lottery to inspire change and to encourage the public to think about how they might use some of the £30million raised for good causes each week in their own communities.
The installation in Cardiff is the third of four pieces of artwork that The National Lottery plans to unveil this week across the UK as part of its 27th birthday celebrations. The installation is an anamorphic piece of artwork that, when viewed from a specific angle, says the words ‘CREATE’ in English and ‘CREU’ in Welsh. Once all four pieces have been unveiled, they will form the message ‘BUILD DREAMS, CREATE CHANGE’ to prompt the question ‘what change could you make to improve your local community?’
The installations have been created by leading arts collective Greyworld and inspired by National Lottery funded projects. Each installation has been made from more than 636 National Lottery balls, which represent the 636,000 and more organisations that benefit from the funding across the sports, art, heritage and community sectors.
Included in the artwork are four unique personal objects including a football and paint brush that represent the following four beneficiaries from Wales that have been supported by National Lottery funding:
- Pride Cymru – a volunteer-led charity, which aims to eliminate discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity within Wales. In 2018, it delivered the ‘Making Our Own World: Inspirational figures for LGBT+ people and fantasy’ project, which was an exploration of the ways in which Welsh LGBT+ people have historically engaged with both real and imaginary worlds to create their own in the absence of clear role models.
- Street Football Wales (SFW) – whichuses the power of football to reach the homeless and most socially excluded members of society, boosting their health and engaging them in services to turn their lives around. The charity supports socially isolated and homeless people on their own personal journeys by building a community around football that includes people from the local community, and has patrons of support, including actor Michael Sheen.
- Galerie Simpsons Artists – a Swansea based innovative artists-run gallery which supports creatives in every stage of their career and gives interns a first step onto the industry ladder, a mission it began in 2014
- Cyfannol Women’s Aid Limited – an independent charity based in Pontypool, Newport and Abergavenny, which provides services and support throughout Gwent to people experiencing any form of Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse or Sexual Violence. With support from The National Lottery the project has been expanding the organisation’s current provision and providing services to men, women, children and young people that have experienced sexual exploitation and/or sexual violence.
Love Island 2021 winner Liam Reardon said: “I have been so inspired to learn about the unbelievable impact The National Lottery funding provides for so many communities and projects around the UK. Many local organisations like Street Football Wales have used the funding to help provide open, inclusive and safe environments to play sport, make friends, and build self-confidence. Growing up, I spent a lot of time at my own local boxing ring and this is just the type of place that I know could also benefit so much from The National Lottery’s incredible funding – giving people the chance to come together, build dreams and create real change for themselves and their wider communities.”
Ros Kerslake, Chief Executive of The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Chair of the National Lottery Forum, says: “For 27 years National Lottery funding has been transforming communities, turning dreams into reality and making life better for millions of people. As we emerge from what has been a desperately challenging time, we want to inject hope and encourage communities to imagine what they could achieve with a helping hand from The National Lottery. With £30million raised for good causes each week, we have grants available from £3,000 to £5million. By coming together as communities, and as a nation, we can build, dream and create to change our future for the better and for generations to come.”
The Cardiff installation will be available to view until Sunday 21st November, with other installations popping up in the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, Antrim Castle Gardens in Northern Ireland and Trafalgar Square in London.
