A new exhibition reflecting upon the closure of the last blast furnace in Wales and the community's experiences, memories and hopes for the future is set to open in Port Talbot.
Steeling Ourselves: Reflections from Port Talbot After the Blast Furnace Closure is a collaboration between acclaimed photographer Jon Pountney and leading researchers, including those at the University of Exeter.
Combining striking photography with deeply personal stories from residents, the exhibition captures a community navigating one of the most significant industrial transitions in Welsh history.
The exhibition forms part of the ground-breaking After the End research project, which explores how communities experience endings and transitions, examining themes of memory, resilience, identity, power and resistance.
The project is led by Professor Patricia Kingori, of The Ethox Centre, Oxford Population Health, alongside Laura Salisbury, Professor of Modern Literature and Medical Humanities, and Dora Vargha, Professor of History.
"Steeling Ourselves is a celebration of Port Talbot's people, particularly their strength, creativity, and determination to shape the future while preserving the memories and experiences that matter," said Professor Salisbury, of the Department of English and Creative Writing. "The collection creates a space where art, research and community experience come together, encouraging conversations about belonging, heritage, and what comes next."
"Jon Pountney, whose work is widely recognised for its exploration of memory, community, and social history, offers an evocative portrait of a town at a pivotal moment," adds Professor Vargha, of the Department of Archaeology and History. "His photographs document not only a changing landscape, but also the people whose lives and identities have been intertwined with Port Talbot's steelmaking legacy for generations."
The researchers hope the exhibition will spark wider discussions about the social impacts of industrial change and ensure that local voices play a central role in conversations about regeneration and the future of communities experiencing major economic transitions.
Steeling Ourselves: Voices from Port Talbot After the Blast Furnace Closure opens on 31 July 2026 at The Plaza, Port Talbot, and will be open to the public until 14 August 2026. Supplementary funding for the exhibition has been provided by Exeter's Wellcome Centre for the Cultures and Environments of Health.
Funded by an £8m grant by Wellcome, After the End is an eight-year, multi-sited research project involving interdisciplinary researchers from all over the world. It is seeking to explore and understand different experiences of living through ends, living after the end, and equitable policies that take different ideas of ends and endings seriously.
Through surveys, in-depth interviews, archival research and historical and literary examinations, it seeks to distinguish between 'ending' and 'closure' and counter dominant narratives of the end which make the pain, suffering and experiences of the least powerful invisible.
