| Wrapping Up Arts Council Report & Turbulence |
Arts Council Uncovered |
| Publicly Funded Journalism , Culture of Wales , October 10, 2021 |
There is a coda to the articles on the Arts Council of Wales of a month ago, below 10th September and 31st August. The Arts Council of Wales, thanks to its financing and backing of a gimcrack of a document, prompted a story for the press in England that to speak Welsh was systemically racist. There is a principle at work. Organisations that neglect their primary purpose in favour of self-invented secondary intentions decline in effectiveness. During the time of no public arts an article dealt with this subject. From "Summing It Up" of 23rd February 2020: "No organisation should include any incidental beneficiary, or stakeholder, or interest group among its intended beneficiaries." The vocabulary of the Arts Council, at least its public face, hardly touches on matters artistic. In Scotland a few years ago, when a similar tendency prevailed, “advocacy, social strategy...demonstrably none of its business" led to the Chief Executive's exit. WAARU, the beneficiary of the £50,000 that caused the rumpus, turns up on a critical site, one that itself has received £20,000 from the Arts Council of Wales. That title is elastic. Since the money went on interviews the organisation is also a Journalism Council of Wales. The presentation of the site itself is a mess, some of the interviews inaccessible. The tone anyhow is hectoring, the boss of WNO for instance being bashed for a tweet written by his predecessor in 2013. The audience will have been miniscule; so much for "value-for-money" runs through our DNA." Unusually the application for the money opens: "Firstly, I want to express my outrage at the situation we find ourselves in when approaching this application." It has a vanity and a falsity to it. A good critic is elevated in status to "an important cultural and critical voice in Wales, as well as an artist in his own right." There are a myriad interviews, these ones have a status "important more than ever, in what is arguably one of the most transformational moments in world history." The CV includes "Associate Editor for Wales Arts Review"- he quit virtually the day he started. A result of the money: "enable more time to think and reflect on his future development as a freelance creative in Wales." The costs of the interviews are high to a dubious extent. The whole thing may be read at https://criticallyspeaking.co.uk/acw-stabilisation-fund-application/. * * * * The site for all its a disorder has an article to catch the eye, headed "The Case Of The Missing Money: how has £20,000 set aside to fight systemic racism suddenly disappeared?" It is an unsatisfactory assemblage which highlights a core of the online world. It hovers between private and public utterance. Anonymity diminishes commitment and clarity. Something went on: "With no announcement or explanation, in the shadow of a bullying scandal that remains unspoken about, the Taskforce has quietly removed all of its social media pages...Others, like the Wales Theatre Freelancers Network (WTFN), faded with a whimper. But it’s this task force that made the most noise, and therefore has the most to answer for. The problem is that, for an organisation striving for transparency and accountability, they didn’t demonstrate too much of it themselves. To this day, it’s not clear who the ‘small collective’ was that started the Taskforce. Transparency also wasn’t seen as being important to their long-term strategy," "Things did go awry, a statement on Twitter, referencing “the extractive actions and abusive behaviour from one particular member (with which the Taskforce has been complicit).” Others came forward with their own experiences of bullying by certain members of the Taskforce. Open secrets were secret no more. Any record of a response from the Taskforce disappeared with the social media accounts; but ultimately, that was it." "There’s no clarity on what happened to the money. The Taskforce – and Fio Theatre, who were holding the money – have a responsibility to provide that clarity...the most frustrating and worrying part of all of this is the fact that nobody seems to care. Why didn’t the Taskforce give any updates for the last twelve months? Why didn’t any of the donors? Doesn’t anyone care that, for perhaps an entire year, seemingly no work was done while £20,000 sat in a bank account? "What about the allegations of bullying and abusive behaviour? Does nobody in the arts care how this was dealt with by the Taskforce? Why haven’t the arts media written about this already? Why aren’t they writing about it now? Why aren’t we angry about any of this?" It is all veiled and tangled. "Broad allegations were then made by WAARU about the behaviour of one individual within the working group. These allegations were raised formally with the pledging organisations and listened to seriously. WAARU operates in an anonymous capacity and felt unable to name individuals, including the identity of the person they were accusing. "The pledging organisations responded to the accusations and with the working group addressed the points raised by WAARU however, it was not possible to resolve all the issues raised satisfactorily due to anonymous nature of the allegations raised." From yet another unidentifiable voice says. "Unable to name the individual...he needs to be held accountable! Enough is enough. The pain and upset he has caused, right across Wales, is deafening. HOLD HIM ACCOUNTABLE." The whole thing is not uplifting. Money from public swills around arts organisations without benefit to the public. All may be read at: https://criticallyspeaking.co.uk/2021/06/22/response-from-pledging-organisations/#comments https://criticallyspeaking.co.uk/2021/06/16/the-case-of-the-missing-money-how-has-20000-set-aside-to-fight-systemic-racism-suddenly-disappeared/ |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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