A warning that some revenue-funded clients in Wales may soon lose their funding has been issued in a special funding bulletin by Peter Tyndall, Chief Executive of Arts Council Wales (ACW). Despite £250,000 of new funding being made available by the Welsh Assembly Government for establishing the English language National Theatre Wales, and a further £1.5m to support the implementation of the Stephens Review (see AP 135), no specific funding is being made available to cover inflation.
In his statement, Tyndall says, “In order to ensure that there is sufficient capacity to deal with the pressures of inflation and key strategic objectives, it is likely that not all of the existing revenue funded clients can be supported in the future.” ACW’s Grant in Aid budget is due to be finalised at a meeting of the Arts Council on 25 January, following which, funding decisions will be announced to the companies involved, and those whose grants are to cease will be given at least six months’ notice of this. ACW’s Lottery budget will be agreed at the same meeting: the Lottery programme is expected to be reduced by as much as £3.5m in 2008/09 “to reflect the combined impact of reduced sales and the diversion of funding to the 2012 Olympics”. The Lottery Capital programme will be reduced further, and no further applications for that programme will be accepted. The amount available for grants to individuals may also be reduced, and, wherever possible, revenue clients will be taken out of Lottery funding altogether. Expressing ACW’s deep concern over the number of high quality applications which are likely to be rejected in future, Tyndall adds, “We will need to streamline the priorities against which we assess grants and narrow the eligibility criteria, and also potentially reduce the maximum grants available.”
Shortly after this announcement, ACW published its draft artform strategy for 2008–2013, indicating the likely emphases for future funding. Consultation on the document has opened, and will run until 25 February, including a series of three regional seminars. Key points include feasibility work towards creating a National Centre for Contemporary Art, an issue which has been a priority since the closure of the ill-fated and short-lived Centre for Visual Arts in Cardiff in November 2000. Other possibilities include the establishment of a National Endowment for Music as a pilot for a National Endowment for the Arts, and an international theatre festival based in Aberystwyth.