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GWENT THEATRE’S APPEAL REJECTED
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The appeal by Gwent Theatre against the Arts Council of Wales decision to withdraw funding has been turned down.
Gregg Taylor, the company’s chairman, said everyone was disappointed but not surprised: “The Arts Council’s rules were confined to appealing against the process and not the outcome. In other words we could not challenge the decision itself.”
The Arts Council’s appointed independent assessor failed to uphold the appeal on the basis that the Council had followed its own procedures.
“Our argument is with the substance of the Arts Council’s decision,” said Mr Taylor.
“Far from being advocates for the arts they are cutting public funding to those communities where it is most needed.
“Their decisions will destroy two theatre companies serving the South Wales Valleys - the most economically and socially disadvantaged areas in Western Europe - and also Powys, a large rural county whose children have little or no access to high quality theatre.
“The Arts Council says it has to take tough decisions. Yes, tough on the children and communities denied the creative arts; tough on the people who will lose their jobs; and tough on present and new generations of writers, actors and designers. Tough decisions are always tough on someone other than those who make them.”
Mr Taylor said that having followed the correct procedure and been rebuffed, there would now be a vigorous campaign in the political arena:
“We hear a lot of rhetoric about cultural entitlement, access and participation in the arts. But what we now have is a policy of publicly funded arts provision by postcode.”
Mr Taylor said there was need for a full debate about the future of the arts in Wales: “The fate of Gwent Theatre raises a much bigger issue and the public need to be able to make their views heard in response to the expectations they have of the role of the Arts Council.”
The Welsh Assembly Government’s Communities and Culture Committee has launched an Inquiry to look at access to the arts in Wales as a whole. In particular, it will be looking at the effects of the Arts Council of Wales’ Investment Review which has been responsible for the withdrawal of the theatres’ funding.
Mr Taylor promised that Gwent Theatre would be making their feelings known to the Inquiry and urged as many people as possible to write to the Communities and Culture Committee at the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff
Up to 22,000 children and young people experience performances by Gwent Theatre during any one year either in schools or local communities.
The company serves Monmouthshire, Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Newport and Torfaen, some of these areas with high levels of deprivation.
Gwent Theatre’s core team of six - actors, stage manager, educational and administrative staff - will all lose their jobs. Some of them have been with the company for twenty or more years and delivered work of the highest quality throughout our region. Gwent Theatre also employs up to 40 people in any one year: actors, script writers, musicians, poets and story-tellers, who will also lose work when the cuts take effect.
Worst of all will be the loss of Theatre in Education for the pupils and young people of the area’s schools. In 2009-10 Gwent Theatre delivered 220 performances to 14,213 young people in 219 schools. In addition, it held 81 theatre workshops with 2559 participants. And the highly acclaimed Gwent Young People’s Theatre put on seven productions, with 5183 youth theatre attendances and audience figures of 1,794.
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Gwent Theatre
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Friday, August 27, 2010 |
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