Dear Delyth,
I am emailing you in your role as Chair of the Senedd’s Culture Committee to alert you to correspondence I have sent to both Vaughan Gething and Lesley Griffiths (copied below) about the immediate crisis taking place at Welsh National Opera. Without an urgent, emergency, bi-national funding package being secured, WNO will be forced to become part-time, which would obviously be devastating, both for those who work for the largest arts organisation that our nation has, and for Wales itself.
Please can I ask you to read the email below, along with the attached open statement, and view the 176 signatories that I have also attached which show the enormity of feeling about this issue, both within Wales, across the UK and further afield.
I do hope that you will be able to raise this issue with the necessary parties in Welsh Government to encourage cross-border discussions with the Culture Secretary in Westminster, and I know that Rhianon Passmore would be pleased to speak to you about this issue as Chair of the Senedd’s CPG for Music (of which I am a member). I am copying her in to this email so that you can be in touch.
I would also appreciate it if you could raise the issues at your next Culture Committee meeting. I believe that an urgent inquiry needs to take place into the funding model here in Wales, just as is happening in England right now. In my opinion, there is something seriously wrong with the way the system is working currently and proper scrutiny needs to be given to the decisions being made and the principles being applied when allocating funds.
Thank you for your time, and I hope that you will be able to encourage engagement and cooperation between all parties concerned to ensure that Wales’s flagship arts organisation is not dismantled before our eyes.
With best wishes,
Elizabeth Atherton
Begin forwarded message:
From: Elizabeth Atherton
Subject: Welsh National Opera crisis
Date: 5 May 2024 at 17:36:08 BST
To: correspondence.lesley.griffiths@gov.wales, PSCSCSJ@gov.wales
Dear Cabinet Secretary for Culture and Social Justice,
I enclose a formal
statement which has been signed by international figures from
across Wales, the UK and beyond. It describes the highly perilous
position that Welsh National Opera has been placed in due to severe
cuts in their funding from both the Arts Councils of Wales and
England. The unique nature of the
long-standing, bi-national funding agreement for WNO, paired with
the difficult financial landscape in Wales, means that urgent
intervention is necessary.
An online petition set up by the Orchestra of WNO in conjunction
with the Musicians’ Union calling for WNO to be retained as a
full-time company has also now received over 8,000
signatures.
Without emergency financial assistance, Wales stands to lose its
flagship arts organisation, a brand that represents Wales globally
and attracts international talent to our shores. This is a
situation that simply cannot be ignored.
Please can I urge you to read the statement that I am sending and
enter into talks with both representatives of WNO and the Culture
Secretary in England to discuss how WNO's cross-border agreement
for funding can be honoured and an emergency package be put in
place by both administrations to secure the future of the
company.
This is far too important an issue to ignore, and in the run-up to
a General Election it is imperative that the electorate sees a real
commitment to the Arts from our politicians, as a nation which is
proudly developing a core-funded National Music Service, and
particularly given the importance that the Labour Party in England
is attaching to them.
This is a crucial moment, both for WNO, and for the politicians
leading us, and the time is right for our leaders to signal that
they mean what they say about the importance of the Arts. If this
moment is not grabbed, it will be the end of Wales’s largest
Arts organisation and employer as we know it. Politicians should
not simply pay lip service to the Arts in the lead-up to elections
- your support right now would be a clear sign to your electorate
that our politicians are serious about issues that significantly
matter to many who vote for them.
Yours sincerely,
Elizabeth Atherton
Member of the Senedd’s Cross-Party Working Group for Music