Engagement

Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford has defended the Welsh Government's decision to spend £4.25m on a piece of land for the Green Man festival.

The Welsh Government has previously said that the purchase of Gilestone Farm in Powys was intended to ensure Green Man has a "permanent home" in Wales, but the festival organisers have said they have no plans to move from their current home at the Glanusk Estate near Crickhowell.

The festival is understood to want to use the farm for sustainable farming and local food production but no business plan has yet been submitted to the Welsh Government by the festival's organisers and will not be provided until next month.

Speaking in the Welsh Senedd in response to questioning by Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies, Drakeford said those running the festival believe that they can do more to contribute to the economy of that part of Wales, "building on the success of their business".

"To do that they need more space in which to be able to develop those further possibilities. That's what lies behind the arrangements," he said.

Drakeford said that in the short term the farm will be leased back to the original owner in order that they can complete the bookings that they have in their tourism hospitality business and to make sure that the crops that have been planted are harvested this year.

"From the very beginning, we knew that the businesses plan from those who are responsible for the festival would be delivered to the Welsh Government in June of this year, and that is what we still expect," Drakeford added. 

"We are working with a trusted partner. We are working with a company that the Welsh Government has known and worked alongside over an extended period of time, as it has grown to be the fifth most successful festival of its kind anywhere in the United Kingdom. 

"We hold the land against the business plan and we will continue to scrutinise the business plan to see whether the objectives that the company have discussed with us can be delivered through it."

A new three-year collaboration agreement between the National Archives and Arts Council England will see the two organisations work together to identify and tackle challenges across culture and heritage. 

By advocating sharing knowledge, skills and data and maximising funding opportunities, the organisations hope to jointly address challenges including diversifying the workforce and improving accessibility and the visibility of collections. They will also aim to help the sector build resilience.

Methods of collaboration will include alerting each other to at-risk collections to facilitate swift preservation action, and promoting “the positive role of archives and collections in placemaking and wellbeing”, the organisations said.

The two organisations already work together on several initiatives that are set to continue.

“This agreement comes at an important time for our sector when many institutions are facing challenges and having to make difficult decisions due to a variety of circumstances,” said Dr Valerie Johnson, Director of Research and Collections at The National Archives.

“I believe that through this new agreement, both partners will be able to support the wider cultural sector much more effectively,” she added.

Sue Williamson, Director for Libraries at ACE, said that the new collaboration will build on “a strong foundation of mutual support”.

“There are many synergies and common areas of interest between archives and public libraries, with some library services being responsible for managing an archive collection. 

“We foresee many opportunities to work together in partnership to support national strategic developments, to share learning and intelligence and to continue to support the wider cultural sector.”

Most people struggle to identify a specific reason why they don’t engage with arts online, a government survey has found.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport's Participation Survey which provides estimates of physical and digital engagement with the arts, heritage, museums and galleries, found that around one in four (27%) people had engaged with art digitally over the past year.

Of those who hadn't, when asked about the barriers they face, 45% said there was "no reason in particular", with 29% saying they were "not interested", and 11% saying they "don't have the time".

Other barriers to digital engagement included having a health problem or disability (8%), it being too expensive (8%), having no access to internet (5%) or "not knowing what is available" (3%).

The study found a negative correlation between digital engagement in the arts and areas of deprivation. The most deprived areas showed 20% engagement in the arts, compared with 31% in the least deprived areas.

Meanwhile, 32% of those in higher managerial, administrative and professional occupations engaged digitally in the arts, compared with 23% of respondents in intermediate occupations and 17% in routine and manual occupations.

Lucy Powell will become Labour’s new Shadow Secretary for DCMS following a cabinet reshuffle.

Manchester Central’s MP since 2012, Powell is a former Shadow Housing Secretary and was Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Secretary of State for Education, before resigning in June 2016.

Powell replaces Cardiff Central MP Jo Stevens, who becomes Shadow Secretary of State for Wales.

She will become the second culture secretary under Keir Starmer and the eleventh since Labour lost power in 2010.
 
Powell described the role as a “big brief with many big issues” which included “making the arts, culture [and] music accessible”.