response from minister for culture
Following on from several recent articles, podcasts with Political Figures and Arts Representatives, I’ve received an email from the Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnerships (photo left) team.
The email says:
We recognise how important the arts sector is to our economy and the vital contribution it makes to our society, enriching our communities and inspiring future generations.
In October and then again in December, in light of financial crises, we provided additional funding to ACW under a ‘Jobs Protection and Resilience Fund’ - equating to an extra £3.6m for 60 organisations.
This additional funding will help to mitigate some of the budget pressures we know are being faced by the sector, however we have been clear that, as a Government, we have had to take extremely difficult decisions in order to focus funding on the NHS and other core public services.
We have also increased the funding for cultural, arts and sporting institutions in the Draft Budget 2025-26. The Final Budget 2025-26 will be published on 25 February 2025. This is outlined as below:
In 2025/26, Arts Council of Wales’s draft Grant-in-Aid budget from the Welsh Government will be £31.588m, up from £30.493m for 2024/25.
He also hopes to get a meeting in the diary with me in the next few weeks to chat further.
It’s just a shame that this came through on the same weekend that the proposed closure for Cardiff music school was announced and a temporary closure of Cardiff museum took place because of health and safety concerns whilst the scrutiny committee said that St Davids Hall isn’t likely to reopen until at least 2026.
Art is Intrinsic to Wales’ Cultural fabric. It’s in a state of steep decline right now and it needs to be stemmed before it’s gone too far to come back adequately.