Sent To The Ministers And The Board
Sent to Vaughan Gething and Dawn Bowden of the Welsh Government and to the board of the Arts Council of Wales.
I am writing to you with a request of assistance regarding the current policies of The Arts Council of Wales.
I’ve been in discussions with the Arts Council of Wales since 2019. Often this has been heated. On occasion, I have had surprising admissions of ‘yes, we ought to be doing more’ but this final communication from Richard Nicholls draws a line under the discussions and I believe there is no further useful debate to be had. Hence my request for your assistance with what I regard as gross negligence resulting in damaging effects of public (Arts Council) policy.
Richard has not answered adequately my questions which he misrepresents in his response (for example I asked for Arts Council of Wales to create a directory of all art projects and not solely for Life Drawing) and the points I raised, I believe, remain valid and urgently need addressing. But, Arts Council of Wales, it is clear, will not address them.
I have given Arts Council of Wales final notice that if I perceive that my business is again affected by Arts Council of Wales grant funding then I will have no option but to seek reparations in a court of law. My sole desire is for a level playing field and the negation of government agency interventions in the marketplace.
I have asked for impact assessments to take place when grants are issued to both existing businesses and to start-ups. Richard says NO, we don’t do this and we will not be doing this.
I have asked that Arts Council Wales be aware of existing businesses and projects so that when they make grants available they can assess the potential for impacting those existing businesses. I suggested a directory of arts providers, to be made available to any that wanted access (I believe schools and colleges would make good use of this resource) and paid for by subscription. The reason for the subscription model is to ensure that the list is up to date. So, say £20 every six months and if payment is not received the organisation or supplier is automatically removed from the list. A simple self-maintaining listing site. Richard says NO, effectively admitting that Arts Council Wales has no interest in knowing what is out there, making them blind to art provision and events that are taking place on their patch. This is the key to impact assessment and so I suggested, tongue in cheek, that I’d make the list for them and provide all of the code to make it a self-sustaining project, but again they said no.
Here are my questions, asked after in-person and zoom meetings and many email exchanges and it's indicative that Richard still misrepresented these questions in his response:
'I’ll ask again and I expect a clear answer to this question, how can you undertake an impact assessment or an assessment of need if you do not know what provision is ‘out there’? Simply asking applicants does not demonstrate robust checks and balances or indeed knowledge.'
'Please give me full disclosure regarding the impact assessments undertaken for the issuing of the grant/s for Cirw Celf and also for the grant for NoNaffArt. I want to see the discussions and the knowledge of existing provisions and why the grants were issued in face of that information.'
The Arts Council Wales, I believe, is willfully damaging small businesses in Wales in their funding of new projects and now I have made them fully aware of the consequences of their actions I believe they are liable for any losses occurring as a result of their funding choices.
Here is Richard Nicholls's final judgement on these matters:
Colleagues at Arts Council Wales have reviewed your most recent correspondence together at a meeting on 29 August. In your email of 25 August, you asked us to respond to specific questions. We understand that these questions are:
1) Creating and maintaining an arts directory of providers of services for life drawing
2) Consideration of services that you and other similar providers may offer, for example, through an impact assessment
To respond to these points specifically:
1) Arts Directory: Colleagues discussed the matter of creating an arts directory of suppliers and concur that as a public body Arts Council of Wales operates under the Public Procurement Regulations (PPR) which governs our own procurement policy. Under PPR the creation of an Arts Directory would be regarded as a closed or preferred supplier list and would inhibit freedom of choice for individuals to select their own partners and suppliers to work with. We would not make recommendations for the procurement of specific contractors, either in a general advisory capacity or to applicants/organisations to whom we may provide financial support through grant awards. To do so would be perceived to be us endorsing or supporting certain providers over others. Under such an arrangement we would also be responsible for maintaining the list, ensuring any work is allocated equally across suppliers and monitoring supplier performance against individual projects, which is not within our remit. Applicants who receive grant funding from us are responsible for and undertake their own project delivery, adhering to their own procurement policy and standards. Therefore, it would not be practical for Arts Council Wales to create an Arts Directory of services as you request.
2) Impact Assessments: We undertake Impact Assessments at the strategic level of policy development. The purpose of our Impact Assessment is to ensure that the policies and strategies that we develop promote the Arts Council’s overall priorities. In this case this means Equalities, Welsh language, and the 7 Well-being goals of the Future Generations Act. This helps us to meet our requirements under the Equality Act 2010, Welsh Language Measure 2011 and Well-being of Future Generations Act. We conduct these assessments across our activities and funding programmes but not for individual funded projects. Therefore, we do not hold the information you have requested. In the interest of fairness and transparency individual applications for grant funding are assessed against our published priorities for funding for each particular programme.
I never asked for endorsement, or in that matter for a directory of life drawing providers. In wider discussions, I did suggest a directory could be used to save money. Instead of grant funding new providers and initiatives the Arts Council for Wales could perhaps direct those in need of services to a directory of providers, maybe giving funding to schools and colleges in the way of vouchers to be used at workshops. Existing providers would be happy with this and there would be no negative impact on their provision. Users would have access to a wide range of local services which existing providers would expand upon given such support.
I am shocked, given Richard's previous assertions that impact assessments for individual projects do indeed take place, that he now states that impact assessments do not take place. I believe this would be a key piece of evidence if I ever had to take the Arts Council for Wales to court.
Finally, I have a good deal of evidence of gross wastage of public money by funded projects. Here are two examples:
Cirw Celf - I was a life model for a session in Cowbridge. In attendance were a teacher and a tutor and myself. Room hire was also a cost. Two students attended. They were from a good school in Penarth, and so I believe from a supporting background. That life drawing session will have cost, and this is a minimum figure, £190. That is £95 per student for two hours of sketching. The students could have been directed to my Cardiff City Centre session and at the time would have been charged £10 each.
NoNaffArt - I delivered models for this project’s life drawing sessions. The first week there were five artists in attendance, some friends of the tutors, the next three, and subsequently just one, then, none. Yes, no clients and the tutors used the sessions as freebies. My point here is that this project was fully funded and likely did impact existing arts provision in Newport and as far afield as Cardiff, people do travel to events you know, it paid wages of the tutors (nice work if you can get it) and more damagingly undercut all other providers because of its funding (they charged £5 per session as opposed to my £13.50 per session).
Cardiff Life Model Collective/Life Drawing Wales delivered an exhibition across Bridgend, Newport and Cardiff of over 40 exhibiting artists with an age range of 16 through to 87. I notified the Arts Council of Wales of this. a couple of years later I was surprised to note that the Arts Council of Wales had no knowledge of Cardiff Life Model Collective/Life Drawing Wales. I have delivered, 50 weeks a year, every year since 2010, art classes in Cardiff. I have worked with every university and every college in South Wales. I pay models the highest rate of any provision in the UK and I do this consistently and without any support. This is the model that ought to be in mind when thinking about developing arts provision, a track record of sustainability, engagement, inclusivity and positive outcomes.
I firmly believe that the talent, skills and enthusiasm of existing provision are being on an ongoing basis fatally damaged by Arts Council of Wales grants of this kind. I believe it is imperative that Arts Council of Wales staff are aware of existing arts businesses for the benefit of both the users, the businesses and the taxpayer.
I request that you seriously look at this information and that you provide me with your thoughts and hope that you will take action and have the Arts Council of Wales work with the existing arts infrastructure rather than in opposition to it.
