Arts Page
9/7/02
New National Gallery could cost £40m
Full details of this article by Karen Price within the Western mail (9/7/02)
There have been five proposals outlined in the NMGW's consultation document:
1. Develop a network of exhibiting partnerships throughout Wales.
2. Create greater access via Internet and other new technology.
3. Greater emphasis on promoting the National Gallery and its work in Wales and beyond.
4. Create thematic presentations of the collection of art in Wales.
5. A new national gallery for art in Wales.

I bet I can guess which ones they go for... proposals 3,4 and 5 - or some combination of these. It actually makes sense to create thematic presentations, if a dedicated gallery is not considered worth the huge investment. However will the promotion of the work of the gallery actually create the thirst for access and involvement we would like, or just use up the resources that could be used for other deserving projects? We would dearly love to host a small proportion of the collection within our site. We have the visitor base to make it successful. (See comment in the right hand column).
(Ed)

1/7/02 Rebecca Kelly wins a competition organised by Harping On Ltd and the Courtroom Gallery, Lampeter, to design a CD cover for the Royal harpist Catrin Finch.
CONGRATULATIONS from all at Artcymru

Front Page 19/6/02

The Assembly's Audit Committee - reports that £4m of funding was wasted on the Centre for Visual Arts in Cardiff that could have gone to other worthy projects in Wales.

The Centre for Visual Arts closed its doors to the public in 2000 after just 14 months in operation, having courted controversy throughout its short life. Many claim that the centre had been created at the expense of working artists in the capital who had their workshops and studios in the building. The artists were forced to leave and this caused a deep resentment within many sectors of the visual arts in the Principality.

The report by the Audit Commission states that the Arts Council for Wales failed to challenge the reliability of the forecast visitor numbers. Just 47,000 visitors went through the doors against the inflated 250,000 forecast within the funding application.

Janet Davies, former audit committee chairwoman said, "The closure of this centre represents a sad loss for the people of Wales. It soaked up almost £4 of funds provided by ACW which other arts projects in Wales could have made good use of."

The present chair of ACW, Sybil Crouch said, "It has been a matter of considerable regret that the investment did not provide the high quality, sustainable exhibition space for contemporary art which Wales requires...
...however, the ACW is continuing to discuss possible visual arts roles for the building with Cardiff County Council."

COMMENT:
Artcymru was vocal in its support for the continuation of the Centre for Visual Arts at the time of the impending closure and ran a petition campaign to prevent the loss of this facility. We did not necessarily agree with the manner in which the artists were removed to make way for the centre, but felt that since so much money had been spent on it it would be foolish to throw it all away.
The petition raised just a little over 100 names (not a lot of support for such a project) and this was, on reflection, not that surprising after having received some critical comments from the artists of Wales who felt they were not considered to be a part of the project.
More disturbingly, we had liaised with the staff of the centre and offered our support. However, not one found the time to send their name in support of the petition, or even notify us of the closure meeting in which we were to hand over the petition.
Ed.

ALSO - Western Mail
"Your views are the big issue"
by Hannah Jones
Please purchase the Western Mail for the complete picture!
Page 11 - 19th June 2002

Consultation on how to best enhance and show the NMCW collections to the people of Wales.

Director of the National Museum and Gallery in Cardiff Mike Tooby explains the initiatives to provide greater access to the wonderful collection.

The gallery are considering many ways to increase access to the 'invisible' collection. The NMCW, like many other galleries and museums have space limitations that dictate the size of the 'visible' collection. In an ideal world we would have access to the full collection of work at all times, but this simply isn't possible. This article in Western Mail addresses these issues and Mr Tooby throws open the challenge for us all to contribute in some way finding solutions to these issues.

Mr Tooby's closing remarks are... "We at NMGW are convinced that everyone in Wales has a vital role to play in answering these questions."

Please visit the NMGW web site and send your views, comments and suggestions. Mr Tooby would like to add these to the consultation process.
You can find the site at www.nmgw.ac.uk

COMMENT:
We at Artcymru would like to offer our site for the purpose of extending access to the collection of the NMGW and every other gallery in the Principality. Our agenda at Artcymru is simply to promote the art and artists of Wales, to Wales and the rest of the world.

We currently receive around 100,000 'hits' on the site per month and would gladly provide space for some of the collection to be exhibited. Perhaps we could show a major work from the collection each month, with a biography of the artist and information about the work. This would quickly build up a valuable educational resource, in keeping with our educational aims and objectives.
Ed.

Please feel free to contact us at: info@welshartsarchive.org.uk with your suggestions and comments.