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At first glance it’s just another inconspicuous warehouse in an industrial estate a mile and a half from Cardiff Central station. Nestled between car dealerships and Swedish furniture pushers, CULTVR is indistinguishable from its neighbours – until the gates are opened on event days to reveal a cosy leafy picnic garden.
Meanwhile, what’s inside this building is so unique that it has attracted immersive artists and producers from more than 75 countries since it opened in 2019.
With zero footfall in the street outside, and no other nightlife in sight, it seems like a very strange place to put a cultural venue. But then you step inside, and all becomes clear.
A 12m diameter dome hangs from the ceiling in the main venue space, comfortably clearing head height of even the tallest patrons. In the second space, a mezzanine curves around the room, with more shipping containers and an immersive gallery on the ground floor, and two smaller domes upstairs. Rumour has it there are living quarters upstairs for artists in residence, and even a hot tub.
To install the main dome required a ceiling height of at least 8m – the kind you might find in a warehouse on an industrial estate, and rarely anywhere else.
Describing themselves as ‘a not-for-profit home for digital art, music, film, performance, workshops, festivals, education, experimentation and international exchange’, CULTVR could also claim to be the UK’s first permanent immersive arts centre, and Europe’s first dedicated immersive arts lab and venue combining fulldome cinema, XR live performance and digital arts.
At least 50 Arts Council projects have been developed here, and three Immersive Arts projects – with the facility being named in almost 40 further applications in the first round of Immersive Arts funding. Their Catalyst 360º open calls in 2021 were the first XR residency opportunity in Wales, and have been oversubscribed since then, with applications from more than 40 countries.
Work developed at CULTVR has been presented at Ars Electronica in Austria, Society for Arts and Technology (SAT) Montreal, NewImages in Paris, IDFA in Amsterdam, IPS in Japan, and SXSW in Austin, while artforms they’ve worked with and exhibited include contemporary dance, opera, ballet, theatre, live music, animation, games, digital arts, spatial audio, immersive cinema, fine arts, photography, film, cabaret, spoken word, painting, sculpture and immersive dining.
I first encountered CULTVR during Live Cinema UK’s exploration of dome screens in 2018, when the space was yet to open. We went on to run multiple development labs there with the support of the team, and as an individual artist I was also able to complete my DYCP project both in the studio and in the dome. As I’ve moved further into fulldome as a specialism, I’m continually reminded that the importance of this facility, both nationally and internationally, cannot be overstated.
In the emerging medium of fulldome – most recently represented by venues like the Las Vegas Sphere – there is a woeful lack of opportunity for artists to access real world domes. Planetariums are the most common kind of fulldome venues, but they’re simply not set up to support artists to make work, even as they’re increasingly open to exhibiting it.
CULTVR was created from that need. Founders Janire Najera and Matt Wright – then both based in Cardiff – created a Wales-India collaborative fulldome dance film called Liminality. Cue a transformative visit to the Satosphere dome at SAT Montreal, where they presented Liminality as a live performance and saw some incredible work by other artists.
They came home and realised there was nowhere to replicate any of that in the UK, so they quite literally built it themselves – every dome, gallery, bar, office, booth, kitchen, and (allegedly) hot tub; everything sturdy enough to last, but moveable enough to relocate.
Despite all this incredible work, CULTVR is under constant threat. As an artist-led, independent space with no parent organisation or ongoing funding, it’s a challenging existence. Offering creative development time and training opportunities rather than solely focusing on commercial events is a choice the team have made, and it’s the one which benefits other artists much more than it benefits them.
“CULTVR has never been just a venue,” they say. “At the heart of what we do is creative development. We give artists the space, technology, expertise and time to explore ideas that can be difficult to realise anywhere else. As artists ourselves, we know first-hand how important it is to have somewhere to experiment before an idea becomes a finished piece of work.”
Their versatility is a strength, but it means they’re not quite film, not quite art, and not quite music; they cross disciplines, sectors and borders. It’s a perfect combination to fall straight through the funding cracks, and that’s exactly what’s happened frequently since they opened.
For their birthday this month they’ve created a crowdfunder campaign to ask supporters to help cover one month’s rent to give them some much-needed relief, with rewards including a private party in the dome, and tickets for all events next year.
As for that inspiring visit to SAT Montreal, it blossomed into a full-blown international relationship, with an MOU between the venues signed this year. Speaking onstage at the announcement in Montreal, SAT director Jenny Thibault said: “Your place is so inspiring, how you work with artists, how you develop projects with sometimes not that much finance, but you do miracles, and I’m really proud to continue doing miracles with you”.
The next immersive sector event at CULTVR is Fulldome UK Festival – the UK’s international fulldome festival and conference. View all rewards in the crowdfunder campaign here.
