Arts Council Wales responds to Welsh assembly funding announcement

IFACCA/Artshub, 24 February 2005,United Kingdom

Arts Council Wales has released an official statement in response to the Welsh assembly’s budget for culture, applauding the ‘historic increase’ in arts spending while addressing bigger picture concerns. Below is the full statement from the Council: ’There are many things to welcome in this budget announcement. The overall increase of 9.7% in ACW’s budget for the coming year is a good one, particularly given the overall financial climate. The funding for the Arts outside Cardiff is, potentially, one of the most significant investments in the arts in Wales in recent times. The money made available to the resident companies in WMC to cover the unavoidable increases in their costs is essential to the viability of the WMC itself. The £1.16m made available for capital schemes in our theatres is another welcome step forward. In all this we must recognise and applaud the historic increase in spending on the arts since the creation of the Assembly in 1999. All this is undeniably good news. That said, we cannot disguise our concern that – these positive elements apart – there is to be no increase in the core revenue funding of arts organisations – even to allow for inflation - for the next three years. The Council has to be concerned with the health of the whole sector. The substantial increase of recent years has brought many organisations back from the abyss of insolvency. The Council has recently spent £1m of lottery funding to allow some organisations to rethink their futures and achieve stability. If those companies have to absorb inflation for the next three years some of this good work will be undone. In the last years the Council has already started to encourage structural change in the arts sector. We will now face even more difficult decisions in the months ahead as we assess how best to safeguard the advances of recent years. We must work towards more consistent financial planning for the sector. The abolition of stop-go is as important in the arts as in the rest of the economy.’ For further information, CLICK HERE.

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