The Arts Council of Wales will re-open its Investment Review process towards the end of 2021, with decisions made during 2022. This will pave the way for funding to be available to the new Portfolio of funded organisations from April 2023.
-
The Arts Council of Wales’s Investment Review takes place every five years and is the process used to select the group of organisations that will make up the Art Council’s Arts Portfolio Wales. The Portfolio are organisations located across Wales who receive annual revenue funding for their activities.
The latest Investment Review was to have taken place in early 2020, but earlier in the year Arts Council of Wales took the decision, in the light of the onset of Covid19, to defer the process and timetable. Since then, the Council’s focus has been on helping individuals and arts organisations to weather the Covid19 storm. However, the time is now right for Council to set out its future intentions.
More details on the process and concrete dates will be announced over the coming months, but an outline timetable has been agreed:
- The Review process will resume towards the end of 2021.
- An Assessment of applications will take place during 2022.
- A new Arts Portfolio Wales will be announced in April 2023
Nick Capaldi, Chief Executive of Arts Council of Wales said:
“We don’t know how the Covid19 pandemic will progress, but we do know that everyone is desperate to resume activity that the public can access. If safety concerns and social distancing restrictions continue, many organisations will still be focused on survival well into next year. Postponing our Investment Review until late 2021 and early 2022 will allow our arts organisations to plan for a future after reopening. It will also allow them extra time to show how they’re meeting Council’s priorities around the creation and commissioning of new work and engagement with individuals and groups from our diverse communities.”
The Arts Council of Wales currently provides funding of around £28.5 million to Arts Portfolio Wales - a national network of 67 revenue-funded organisations. Arts Portfolio Wales, contains internationally significant organisations such as the Welsh National Opera and the Wales Millennium Centre, major local centres such as Aberystwyth Arts Centre and Ruthin Craft Centre and more community based organisations such as Valleys Kids and Head for Arts.