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Professor Dai Smith has been appointed interim Chair of the Arts Council of Wales (ACW) |
PROFESSOR DAI SMITH APPOINTED AS INTERIM CHAIR OF THE ARTS COUNCIL OF WALESProfessor Dai Smith has been appointed interim Chair of the Arts Council of Wales ACW) to lead the organisation through the review of the Council's role and funding arrangements. Culture Minister Alun Pugh announced the appointment in a statement to Plenary today (Tuesday, 28 March) as part of an announcement on the Terms of Reference for the Review of the Arts Council. The Minister also announced that the Chair of the Review Panel will be Elan Closs Stephens, Professor of Communications and Creative Industries at the University of Wales Aberystwyth and outgoing Chair of S4C. Other members of the Review panel will be announced before the Easter recess. The Culture Minister said : "I am very pleased that Professor Dai Smith will take on the role of interim Chair until the process to appoint a full-term Chair has been completed. As holder of the Raymond Williams Chair in Cultural History at Swansea, Professor Smith is not only a distinguished cultural historian he also has a huge enthusiasm for the arts and is eminently suited to carry out this role. "The role of the Chair is critical in ensuring good governance of the Arts Council. As a charity, ACW members are also trustees and have fiduciary responsibilities to take into account. Under the Royal Charter, I have a responsibility to appoint the Chair. Because of the impending Review, an interim arrangement is needed until the way forward is clear for starting the full appointment process." Professor Dai Smith said : "Art, in all its forms, is the prime expression of the culture and society of Wales. We are now at the start of a vital process of review into the future of arts provision for all the people of Wales and the Arts Council must be the catalyst for a debate stripped of emotion and personalities. As a long-standing member of the Council, I have accepted the role of interim Chair to help facilitate that debate and lead the Council's considered response." Notes on this story: 1. A Plenary motion on 1 February, 2006 committed the Welsh Assembly Government to carry out a Review of the Arts Council. Terms of Reference for the Review have now been agreed by the Culture Committee. The Review will be wide ranging and look at the future framework for funding arrangements which support the arts, including the role of the Arts Council of Wales. The Review will advise the Culture Minister on the existing and future role of ACW in relation to its funding of the arts, including the national arts organisations, the development of the arts in Wales and the development of access and inclusion in the arts and tackling social inequalities. The Review will report before December. 2. Professor Dai Smith BA (Oxford), MA (Columbia) PhD (Wales) has been the Raymond Williams Chair in Cultural History at the University of Swansea since March 2005. He was Professor in the History of Wales at Cardiff University from 1985 to 1992 and then Editor of BBC Radio Wales and Head of Programmes (English Language) at BBC Wales until 2000 when he left to become Pro Vice Chancellor for Research and Regeneration at the Univeristy of Glamorgan . He has also been a Simon Senior Fellow at the University of Manchester and a visiting lecturer at many Universities in Europe and the USA. He is now Series Editor of the Welsh Assembly Government’s Library of Wales for classic works written in English. He joined the ACW on 1 April 2004. His appointment as interim chair has been made under the provision of the National Assembly for Wales Code of Practice for Ministerial Appointments to Public Bodies. 3. Professor Elan Closs Stephens CBE Elan is Professor of Communications and Creative Industries in the Department of Theatre, Film and Television at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth where she has been in turn Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Director and Head of Department since 1975. Her academic interests are Welsh Theatre, Television Drama in the UK and Media Policy. In 1998, having served on a number of Welsh broadcasting bodies including the BBC, she was appointed by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to chair S4C, the Welsh Fourth Channel Authority and was re-appointed for a second term in 2002. She has served on the Council of the National Library of Wales, has been a member and Vice-Chair of the statutory Welsh Language Board and Chair of Chwarae Teg, a company promoting the economic development of women. She has also served as a School Governor. She is currently a Governor of the University of Glamorgan and a Governor of the British Film Institute and Chair of its Audit and Governance Committee. She is currently Chair of the British Council in Wales and a member of the CRE in Wales. Elan was awarded a CBE in the 2001 Queen's Birthday Honours. |
| Wales Assembly Government web site: www.wales.gsi.gov.uk |
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Tuesday, March 28, 2006 |
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