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Dateline: 8th January, 2006
Welsh Assembly culture minister Alun Pugh has effectively sacked the chair of the Arts Council of Wales, Geraint Talfan Davies. The minister told Davies on 23rd December that he will not be automatically re-appointed when his term of office comes to an end in March, but the post will be advertised. "Geraint Talfan Davies has not been sacked," Pugh insisted. "He is free to apply for another term of office, but he has told me he doesn't intend doing so." The reason for the change, he went on, is the need for someone to lead on the issue of increasing attendance and participation among disadvantaged groups. The government has, he added, a duty to ensure public money spent on the arts is spread around all Welsh communities. "At present you are much more likely to attend an Arts Council supported event if you are from the professional or managerial class than if you live in a Communities First area. It has to be a major priority to ensure that as many communities as possible benefit from the tens of millions spent from public funds on arts in Wales each year. "I think it is insulting to suggest that people in places like Rhondda are not interested in the arts. Recently there was a touring production of Brassed Off that was critically acclaimed and received tremendous attendance in Valleys communities. I want a strong focus on the access agenda." A statement from Rhodri Morgan, the First Minister, said, "These appointments will be made in accordance with normal Assembly procedures and the advertisements accord with established best practice. It remains open to the current Chair to decide whether he wishes to seek re-appointment." ACW also issued a statement: ""The Council has written to the First Minister to express its deep concern at:
The Assembly's move is being seen by many in Wales as part of an agenda to marginalise ACW. It has already (see our story of 4th December, 2004) removed six major companies - Welsh National Opera, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Academi, Diversions Dance Company, Clwyd Theatr Cymru and Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru - from ACW funding and now funds them directly. Lisa Francis, the Conservative oppositions. culture spokesperson, commented, "The decision not to renew Geraint Talfan Davies's appointment is a spiteful move by a minister who could not get his way in abolishing the Arts Council because of its Royal Charter. It is unbelievably damaging for the Arts Council and the arts in Wales." "The Government's behaviour," she went on, "is exactly what you would expect of an Eastern bloc country thirty or forty years ago where political dictatorships told people which plays and poetry to write or what films to make. I fail to see what is going to be achieved by the Government's approach other than what would amount to a Stalinisation of the arts with Alun Pugh as head of a Politburo of Cultural Correctness." Owen John Thomas, Plaid Cymru's culture spokesman, said, "The intricate problem of restructuring the Arts Council to meet the Assembly Government's designs has barely been discussed within the culture committee or in the Assembly chamber and neither AMs nor the Arts Council have been able to engage in constructive discussions with the Government." Mike German, the leader of the Lib Dems in the Assembly, decribed Davies' 'sacking' as "an act of political vindictiveness", and went on to say, "This decision violates the arm's-length principle and leaves me asking who will decide which operas are put on by the Welsh National Opera. Will it be people who are experts in the field, or will it be Alun Pugh? "It is clear to me that Alun Pugh will be looking for a new Chair who will be little more than a Yes person." In a note on the Theatre in Wales Forum, Peter Doran, manager of the Torch Theatre in Milford Haven who has just been declared Manager of the Year by the TMA, said, "I am deeply shocked by this news, anyone can see that ACW is now looking like the organisation that it should be and hence the sector has a real confidence about it; I have no doubt that this has come from the top. It once again brings into question the proper distance between Government and the arts."
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