Welsh National Opera yesterday inducted two new artistic directors in the hope of digging itself out of a deepening hole. Arts Council England has abolished its touring grant and Wales will not make up the shortfall.
Cardiff, the capital, has meanwhile shuttered its concert hall for the indefinite future.
Conductor Kenneth Woods reports from a land that is losing its music:
Musicians here in Cardiff are putting their homes on the market while Welsh National Opera shrinks daily and St Davids Hall, the NATIONAL concert hall of Wales, sits empty and derelict, with no progress on repairs in nearly 2 years.
This happened under a Welsh Labour Government. Blaming the Tories won’t cut it – what’s the point of devolution if you don’t take responsibility for protecting your own cultural heritage? The national conservatoire ditched their pre-college programme this summer and made dozens of fine teachers redundant.
It’s sadly typical of the #Artspocalypse unfolding in communities all over the UK. Why are @uklabour so slow to act when arts organisations and arts education are crumbling in real time. We don’t have years to wait for task force results and white papers. We need urgent action and emergency funding. And serious reform of our system of funding the arts.
The country that gave the world Richard Burton, Michael Sheen, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Jonathan Pryce has killed off the National Theatre Wales. It’s industrial scale neglect bordering on overt intentional destruction.
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