This Wales Online article makes for painful reading - and not just because of the characteristic lack of competent sub-editing. The news that Welsh Government funding for arts and culture has been cut by over 10 per cent in the draft budget for 2024/2025 is extremely worrying for the nation's arts organisations.
And it's not as though the situation isn't already desperate. The head of Amgueddfa Cymru has confessed that some works of art have to be moved for their own protection when it rains heavily, because the buildings that house them are in such a dire state. What's more, this month's issue of long-running magazine Planet is set to be the last due to the loss of Books Council of Wales (BCW) funding, and Wales Arts Review is in a similar predicament, with Gary Raymond having vowed to stop going cap in hand to the BCW.
Raymond's broadside back in October was understandable, but in fairness to the BCW and others, their hands are effectively tied in that they themselves are dependent on what they receive from the Welsh Government. In light of the draft budget cut, the Arts Council Wales is having to reassess its own recently announced five-year funding plan and may have to renege on some of the commitments made. Sadly, cuts, job losses and the enforced closure of certain organisations seem inevitable.
Various chief executives are quoted in the Wales Online piece expressing their dismay and concern. They make the case for the value of the arts in language that usually makes politicians' ears prick up - the contribution to the economy, the importance in terms of Wales' stature on the world stage - but also underline the multiple smaller-scale impacts that cuts will have on communities, the young and the disadvantaged. Amgueddfa Cymru are contemplating starting to charge for entry; if this is a measure they're forced by circumstances to adopt, it'll be another nail in the coffin for equality of access and opportunity.
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