A spokesperson from the Arts Council of Wales said:“The Arts Council of Wales (ACW) has had to make some difficult decisions in the light of declining overall levels of income for developing the arts. The decision to withdraw revenue funding from six clients was made on the basis of rigorous reviews, the criteria of which included their future sustainability and their fit with the Council's strategic objectives and priorities. In two of those cases, the funding will be reallocated to other arts organisations to ensure the provision in the areas is unaffected. More detailed justifications for ACW's decisions have been explained to the individual clients involved, but it would not be appropriate to discuss those decisions in greater detail until the formal appeals process has been completed. However, it should be stressed that clients whose work formed part of review processes were informed of the reviews and offered the opportunity to contribute. There has been some suggestion that ACW has failed to comply with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act and that some clients were unaware of ongoing review processes. Both of these allegations are wholly unfounded. There has also been suggestion that ACW’s regional offices have had no voice in the Council’s spending proposals for next year. This allegation is also unjustified: the decisions involved staff from across the organisation and their expertise was integral to the decision-making process. ACW’s role as the body responsible for developing the arts in Wales inevitably involves making strategic and often difficult decisions about where our resources are invested.” |
| Arts Council of Wales web site: www.artswales.org.uk/ |
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Friday, February 22, 2008 |
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