This is what cutbacks look like: less art

WNO announce a reduction on its tour dates for 2024-25

The decline has passed, so are we now witnessing the fall?

This week on BRG I have been writing almost exclusively about the way the arts and culture of Wales is being looked after - or more accurately, how that sector is (a real, live, part of the Welsh economy) is not being looked after. I started the week with a note of optimism, pointing to the upgrading of the arts and culture portfolio of Welsh Government being hoisted back to a full ministerial post, back at the top table.

The next day, my careful optimism had been proclaimed not careful enough by the fast-moving sands of time, as Museum Wales pointed out funding cuts would resulting in 90 job losses and the possible closure of Cardiff’s National Museum building. (New Minister for Culture Lesley Griffiths firmly affirmed in the Senedd yesterday that the National Museum would most definitely not close, but there was also no promise of helping to fix the roof, so maybe it will be umbrellas handed out at the door or something).

After that, I was alerted to Gwen Davies’ explosive takedown of the “Machiavellian” culture at the Books Council of Wales in her letter to the Culture Committee this week. As I’ve had my own correlating run-ins with the Books Council of late, I couldn’t let that go without shining a light on it for BRG readers.

Still, now I could get back to writing about art and literature and music and all that stuff.

I’d almost not finished mouthing that reassurance to myself when I saw the statement from Welsh National Opera.

Welsh National Opera has announced that it will be withdrawing two weeks from its previously announced 2024/2025 Season. 

Oh dear.

Due to increasing financial challenges, the Company has had to take the difficult decision to reduce its 2024/2025 Season.  The changes mean that the Company will no longer be touring to Bristol Hippodrome in February 2025, and will not be touring to Venue Cymru, Llandudno in May 2025.

Social media was awash with responses from people from the west of England bemoaning the cutting of the Bristol dates, some of them telling stories of decades of WNO patronage and admiration.

WNO is a somewhat special case in the ongoing saga of the cuts to arts funding in Wales, as it also gets funded by Arts Council England. An 11% cut from the Arts Council of Wales followed a 35% cut in funding from ACE, and all of a sudden WNO, one of Wales’ true international arts brands, is looking at fewer shows in a tour programme.

What we are witnessing now is the true effect of public funding cuts to art and culture. This is no longer an abstract debate about how we value our art. This is no longer a chin-stroking class war about whether artforms that are expensive to create are worth creating. This isn’t a debate about whether your opera is less deserving than my graffiti. We are at the front line. It simply means less art.

Up until now, we may have all been forgiven for thinking funding cuts meant a decimation of the executive class, a clear-out of marketing assistants, an ushering in of the ghosting of consultants. We may have thought funding cuts would be absorbed, as the Arts Council have nobly attempted to do by taking some of their 10.5% cut on the chin. But arts and culture in Wales has been underfunded for a long time. More cuts do not just mean redundancies and leaking roofs. It simply means less art.

It means charging at the door of our museums. Art only for those who can afford it. It means art as an indulgence. It means art and culture is no longer the proof of who we are, but rather it is a hobby. Life becomes a hobby. I’m reminded of Thatcher’s response when asking a student what they studied and the student replied Old Norse. “What a luxury!” said the grocer’s daughter. But culture is not a luxury, and we should not allow ourselves to take it for granted. Culture is what makes a country civilised. I think of Brian Eno’s definition of culture as the things we don’t need to do. Breathing is not culture until it becomes an incantation. Food is not culture, but cuisine is. Cooking around a campfire is culture. Talking across the flames while eating is culture. Telling stories is culture. Listening is culture. Learning is culture. Empathy is culture. Love is culture. Culture is something we deserve. The government should respect that.

Less art - and I suspect the announcement from WNO is the tip of an iceberg just coming into sight of a pattern of shrinking artistic production in Wales - means less civilisation. First Minister of Wales Vaughan Gething spoke of “tough choices”, but as Alun Davies MS said in the Senedd yesterday when addressing Lesley Griffiths, I don’t want to live in a country where the choice is either see my GP or see a Van Gogh. That is not a civilised choice. That is the choice of a failed state.

Gary Raymond is a novelist, author, playwright, critic, and broadcaster. In 2012, he co-founded Wales Arts Review, was its editor for ten years. His latest book, Abandon All Hope: A Personal Journey Through the History of Welsh Literature is available for pre-order and is out in May 2024 with Calon Books.