A word to Wales
Funding bodies might want to take note of the way the Arts Council of Wales (ACW) has conducted its investment review (p1). This has been a thorough process, which for the first time so far as I am aware, has shown a UK funding body lay out a bold and defined strategy and then measured organisations’ work and value against it. Instead of forms to fill in, business plans were submitted. Instead of being given two months to go from being revenue funded to not-funded-at-all, organisations have been given properly considered time, a transition fund and an invitation to apply for future funding.
The emphasis is weighted on “vibrant, dynamic and compelling” organisations making work in Wales. Those not actively engaged in creating art, let’s call them the culture hosts – like public agencies, like festivals – have been openly sidelined. The logic being, one assumes, to funnel money directly to the frontline arts providers and not the backroom arts deliverers.
The primary focus for Wales appears to be set on building good quality cultural experiences, not a good quantity of them; ACW is keen to emphasise that funds will not be spread thinly but will give funded “arts organisations the resources to thrive, not merely survive”. Good. The arts need to be durable and entrepreneurial, there’s little point in giving a little to a lot only to find the cultural ecology collapses every time budgets are shaved. However ACW has decided which organisations measure up to its standards and vision of quality, the arts sector in Wales can be sure of one thing: the decisions have been arrived at with much greater effort, thought, transparency and detailed scrutiny than has ever been afforded to arts anywhere else in the UK. Arts Council England, in particular, would do well to take note.
No room for a
summer slump
As you’ve likely noticed, news of budgets – namely, their being cut – is the single biggest issue dominating AP this week. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, jittery despair echoing through the pages, budgetary preparation is still crucial: beyond the summer, the situation will be much bleaker. That’s not to say the sector doesn’t have every fighting chance: the sense of urgency in making the case for your organisation and emphasising the public value of the arts is higher than ever – just take the example of Welsh National Opera (p1), persuasively communicating its positive facts and figures. The DCMS is currently doing just that, albeit on a grander, touch more complex, scale. By proving its activity is meeting government priorities, that it is doing so effectively and economically and that its results are crucial for the public benefit, the DCMS (like all other government departments) is working to mitigate and influence the scale of damage done to its budget in the autumn’s Comprehensive Spending Review (p2).
This week Nosheen developed a crush on Stephen Dillane. He played a sardonic Jaques in an otherwise tame production of As You Like It, directed by Sam Mendes. She was surprised and reassured that Russell Brand could be very funny playing Russell Brand in his new film and booked her tickets to see Rimini Protokoll at LIFT Festival.