The art and craft collection of the Arts Council of Wales (ACW), which contained over 1,400 works built up from the late 1940s to the late 1970s, has finally been fully dispersed to organisations considered to be more appropriate custodians. A decision was made in the late 1970s that the maintenance and display of the collection was no longer a priority for ACW, but only in 1996 did it receive authorisation to donate the works to others. As no single body in Wales was able to take on the collection in its entirety, years of work have since been done to determine the terms under which the collection could be donated and the institutions to which gifts would be made.
Most of the works were placed with museums in Wales, the majority with National Museum Wales, but other gifts have been made to public sector collections in Wales, to Welsh local authorities for siting in such places as libraries, schools or day centres, and to public collections in England with particular rationales for the deposit of works in their collections. Some works were offered to hospices, and some were donated to arts charities with agreement that the charities might sell them, putting any profits towards their activities. A spokesperson said, "ACW is pleased that so many works are back in the public domain, accessible to the public, in the care of experienced and concerned organisations, and taking their rightful place in the historical panorama of the visual arts and crafts in Wales."
Published: 12-03-2007