CC(3) AC 74 Communities and Culture Committee Inquiry into the accessibility of arts and cultural activities in Wales‘. Response from Gwynedd Council Introduction Gwynedd is a rural county with a population of around 120,000. The county covers a large area, from Abergwyngregyn in the north to Aberdovey in the south, and from Aberdaron in the west to Bala and the surrounding area in the east. Maintaining and providing quality services, on a relatively small budget, in a dispersed rural county like ours, is a challenge in itself. Arts and cultural activities have a key role to play in Gwynedd and are enthusiastically supported within the county. The council runs the Archives, Museums and Arts Service (galleries, community arts and performing arts), which contributes to the council‘s aim, namely: ―Serving the county‘s residents by improving their quality of life, protecting and strengthening the county‘s communities, and protecting its unique linguistic, cultural and environmental characteristics‖ Our goal within the Gwynedd Arts Strategy, ‗Future of the Arts in Gwynedd‘ is: 'to improve the lives of everyone in Gwynedd through the arts and to encourage high standards in every sector‘. To achieve this goal, we intend to focus on three areas – reaching everyone, quality and choice, and improving lives. The current economic climate and the need to adapt our provision of services and find savings compels us to consider in detail the role of Gwynedd Council in the future in providing arts and cultural facilities and services. To this end, Gwynedd Council‘s Working Group on Improving Heritage and the Arts is, at present, holding an inquiry into future provision, with the aim of delivering savings and, in some circumstances, providing new and exciting ideas for arts and heritage services in Gwynedd. The working group will report the recommendations of its inquiry to the relevant Council committees during the first few months of 2011. Gwynedd Council’s key points to the Communities and Culture Committee’s inquiry can be summarised as follows: Question 1 1 Do you consider the Welsh Government to have achieved its commitment of ensuring that ‘high-quality cultural experiences are available to all people, irrespective of where they live or their background?’ How effective has its investment in arts and cultural activities been in realising this objective? 1. Due to the rural nature of Wales, ensuring that ‗high-quality cultural experiences are available to all people, irrespective of where they live or their background‘ is extremely difficult. This is also true with regard to the rural and peripheral nature of Gwynedd, which poses a constant challenge to the council. It can be argued that offering free admission to national museums has allowed more people access to these resources, but this has been at the expense of some local attractions and venues, who state that it has affected their own visitor numbers. This creates a complex situation whereby voluntary or independent organisations, or local authorities, cannot compete with locations that offer free entry. 2. CyMAL has provided support and advice for museums in Wales (as the Council for Museums in Wales did previously). This support has been crucial and the dedication of CyMAL‘s officials, with their experience and expertise in the field, has been invaluable. They have certainly enabled Gwynedd Council‘s museums to develop and maintain their services. CyMAL has also published a strategy for the future. There is a variety of museums that provide quality services on relatively small budgets to the local community and visitors. The challenge will be how to continue and build on the good work that has been done in the face of significant cuts in the public sector – particularly as museums are not statutory services. It would be a shame if the investments that have been made so far were to go to waste – standards could fall, we could see a reduction in the level of service and, in some cases, some locations may be closed or services may cease to exist, e.g. in Gwynedd, our Archive and Museum Education Officers are under threat and, as mentioned previously, the Archives, Museums and Arts Service is currently being reviewed. 3. In terms of the arts, there is a perception locally that more support is given to activities outside north Wales and that some companies are not coming to the north often enough. In addition, as some centres or companies receive more funding, their productions are becoming larger, thus leading to higher costs. In turn, this makes it harder for smaller communities to be able to afford these productions, and so they go to the larger venues. It could be argued that this has a negative impact on provision in rural areas, as the arts are becoming more limited, rather than inclusive. 4. In terms of archives, funding provided by the Welsh Government has improved access to collections through a process of recataloguing and a new website for Archives Wales, which is a way of promoting archives services in Wales. This is thought to have extended archival provision, but having said that, it should be noted that the amount allocated to all archives in Wales is relatively small after it has been distributed. 2 Question 2 How exactly are arts and cultural venues – including museums, libraries and archives – actively promoting access, attracting new audiences and encouraging participation in line with the One Wales commitment and the Arts Council’s strategies? In Gwynedd, we achieve this in various ways. These include: 1. Educational, outreach and community programmes, and partnership and multi-agency working, e.g. Gwynedd Council‘s Community Arts Development Officer works closely with Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board on art in health and wellbeing schemes, and Mind in Gwynedd Museum and Gallery. Other schemes such as ‗Criw Celf‘ take young people to various venues as part of an educational programme. 2. Targeting specific audiences; ensuring that our activities are included in national campaigns that involve a strong element of marketing / branding, such as the BBC‘s History of the World; Night Out at the museums; working with community groups; use of exhibitions as an inspiration for workshops. We have received grants from CyMAL towards these elements, e.g. audience development plan; open days. 3. As we have already noted, free admission to national museums has created expectations among the public that all museums are free, even though this is not always the case. Gwynedd Museum and Art Gallery does not charge an entrance fee, but Lloyd George Museum does. It is anticipated that the increasing financial pressures on local authorities will increase the need to revisit local provision and consider options to increase income or to make savings - e.g. charging an admission fee to all museums in the county, charging commission for advice and other services, cutting services, and so on. 4. The archives service runs the following activities, which are a completely natural part of the ethos of the service and the way in which it has always operated, to promote access, attract new audiences, and to encourage people to take part: taster courses, talks in the community, visits to the archives by various groups, collaboration with other groups, catalogues down to item level available on our website, an Education Officer who visits schools and produces teaching packs. 5. Collaboration between the council‘s services is a very important element in increasing opportunities for the public, e.g. Archives and Museums; the Community Arts Unit and Museums and Galleries. 6. Gwynedd Library and Information Service was supported by the Libraries for Life strategy, which provided grants between 2008 and 2011 to modernise 3 library facilities in Wales. By March 2011, six libraries in Gwynedd will have been enhanced – Caernarfon, Bangor, Barmouth, Dolgellau, Nefyn and Tywyn – and there has been an increase in the number of visits and loans. Accessibility has also been promoted, through activities at the new-look venues, including book clubs for adults and children, storytelling sessions and competitions to promote reading. 7. Gwynedd Library Service has also worked with partners to contribute to the aim of increasing accessibility of cultural experiences. As a member of the North Wales Library Partnership, which is also supported by the Libraries for Life programme – we took part in the ‗Frontline‘ training programme. The aim of this project is to ‗develop readers‘, and includes a specialist programme prepared by the Reading Agency, which is a pioneer in the field. The aim is to train all frontline staff in north Wales libraries by the end of 2011. 8. The service also works in partnership with Academi by supporting the Gwynedd Literature Promotion Scheme, which holds literary activities at various venues including theatres, galleries and museums. The scheme in Gwynedd is responsible for maintaining the ‗Writing Squads‘, which promote creative writing among children and young people with the support of local schools. 9. Recently the Service has worked in partnership with Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre to arrange special Bibliotherapy sessions with an experienced leader. This is a literature reading activity, the objective of which is to promote health and wellbeing, as well as enjoyment of literature. We hope to extend this activity throughout the authority in both Welsh and English in 2011. 10. Every library in Gwynedd acts as a point of dissemination of local information, and the service‘s website includes access to a database of associations, including arts groups. Question 3 Is the current network of arts and cultural venues in Wales sufficient, and are there any geographic or other issues that continue to act as barriers to participation (e.g. in rural areas or areas of deprivation)? 1.