| A Look-back and Guide |
Arts Policy Report |
| Arts Reports , Wales and United Kingdom , September 14, 2025 |
Reports on culture are regular. A selection is reported on:18 September 2025: Cultural Priorities Policy & Non-attendance at Celtic Festival and Edinburgh Fringe * * * 5 April 2025, 12 June 2025: Jon Gower Report into Theatre * * * * 14 January 2025: Creu Cymru Report “The sector has seen a 25% decline in core government funding since 2010, with Arts Council of Wales making challenging decisions around the dissemination of funds. “Wales is fast-moving towards a crisis in relation to its ageing arts and theatre building stock. Theatres and arts venues are facing vastly increased operational costs, particularly related to energy, insurance and maintenance.” * * * * 11 September 2021: Lamentable Report on Widening Culture "The most obvious first impression is that the authors have no experience, nor much idea, of what is entailed in authoring a public report in the public domain. Since they are without any experience it raises the issue of the procurement process employed in the commissioning." “A document of this quality would not be tolerated in England or Scotland. “It was a press release cut-and-pasted with no attempt to add any editorial or journalistic input. Running to 925 words it was pious, declamatory and vague.” * * * * 21 May 2021: Museum of Military Medicine Heading for Cardiff Bay "The governors of Wales have sought out a museum that is unwanted in the Home Counties. It is being imported to a prime site in the Bay, concreting over a part of a public space in the process." * * * * 27 August 2020: Simon Harris, Bridget Keehan, Stage Directors UK & Arts Council of Wales “Forever Emerging? A report into directing for the stage in Wales.” “Directors felt stuck within a certain scale of work and were unable to progress; where opportunities to direct were limited and declining; where pathways for career progression were frustrated and unclear; where it was perceived artistic directors were staying in role for too long and where creative succession was not happening." * * * * 20 August 2020: Arts Council of Wales Corporate Plan 2018-2023 “The Plan, in making government and people synonymous, shrugs off its obligation to serve the public. It is in the public domain but the public are not expected to read it. The public is certainly not expected to comment." * * * * 25 October 2019: A Plea for a Digital Commons "The Agora was the common space where citizens gathered to meet and to share. In place of the Agora the citizens of Cyberia gather in limited clusterings of the like-minded." * * * * 11 June 2019: Young People and Participation in the Arts "Audiences of Wales have to suffer an arts governance they never asked for. The resolve to deprive us of comedy is as fixed as it is undiscussable." * * * * 03 June 2019: More Evidence-based Decision-making Needed "The relationship between arts policy-makers and the theatre artists who get the cash has taken a curious turn. The men on much better pay are dissatisfied with the women and men who have opted for a life on average of lower reward." * * * * 25 May 2019: The Warwick Commission: More Toughness of Thinking Needed "Those who write about the arts in a policy-formation...a tendency to suffer a deficit in sharpness and rigour. This sentence is a mish-mash, which obscures its meaning." * * * * 18 April 2019: The Error in Arts Thinking “ACW is essentially an enabling body”, was how a policy statement correctly worded it. That was published in the last century, 17th June 1999. It has not just a modesty to it but a realism worth the emulation two decades on." * * * * 09 February 2019: British Council Wales & Visiting Arts “International Showcasing Strategy Strategy for the Arts of Wales Research Report 2018.” "The writing lacks force, at least for the lay reader, with the phrasing opaque and without specificity or example." * * * * 05 January 2019: Yvonne Murphy- The Shortest Artistic Director Job in History "This is a story of poor management and bad decisions....The whole place was absolutely filthy. Ingrained dirt. Not fit for the public. The theatre bar couldn’t be walked into without the soles of your shoes attaching to the sticky floor. Broken bottles and glass littered the floor. Rubbish everywhere. Every room except the café had broken furniture stacked in it." * * * * 21 November 2018: Darren Henley “The Arts Dividend : Why Investment in Culture Pays” “Accessible”, says Hall, “is a lie perpetrated by those who want to sell us shit" Peter Bazalgette’s first speech as Arts Council Chair “The arts create shared experiences that move us to laughter or to tears.” * * * * 12 September 2018: British Council Report on Showcasing "The Welsh arts and cultural sector needs: more export-ready work." * * * * 21 December 2017: Society of Directors Report on Being a Director in Wales “Of 31 events hosted by NTW since May 2014, 20 have been theatrical experiences, as opposed to curated events or online experiences. Of these 20 distinct theatrical presentations, 4 have featured Welsh or Wales-based artist/theatre-makers – none of whom were respondents to the survey or typically identify themselves as directors.” * * * * 09 December 2017 House of Lords Select Committee on Communications “Skills for Theatre: Developing the pipeline of talent” "There is a complete lack of awareness of the careers available in the creative industries... 1 in 50 actors earns more than £20,000 per year....a strong incentive to work for free in order to gain the experience needed to go on to better paid roles." * * * * 08 December 2017: Jargon, Bad Faith, and Arts Council language "Such crude and simplistic descriptions are better suited to the right wing populist drivel beloved by the masses.” The loftiness of disdain is chilly." * * * * 23 December 2013: Very Poor Writing on “the Role of Subsidy in Making Wales.” "This is a poor piece of cultural reportage, half-hearted, unadventurous, dogmatic. It would not be tolerated in England or Scotland Its cause is the lack of any primary contact with anyone in the arts of Wales. Its language is drear, and its cause is clear." |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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