Legacy inquiry by the Culture, Welsh Language and Communications Committee

I would like to comment on the point below:

Do you and your organisation have a view on the Committee’s ways of working? Are there any new ways of working that could be adopted in future? You may wish to consider its approach to evidence-gathering, scrutiny of the Welsh Government, and new virtual ways of working.

I would like to highlight the lack of engagement with groups that are furthest from benefitting from the public investment in Arts & Culture as highlighted in the 2015 Warwick Commission report Enriching Britain: Culture, Creativity and Growth https://warwick.ac.uk/research/warwickcommission/futureculture/finalreport/ . The key message from that report was that government and the cultural and creative industries need to take a united and coherent approach that guarantees equal access for everyone to a rich cultural education and the opportunity to live a creative life. At the most basic level this is an issue of stark social injustice with tax-payer’s money subsidising activities with the wealthiest, better educated and least ethnically diverse section of the population forming the most culturally active segment. It should be that a function of a committee is to ensure an equality of benefit , in short a fair deal.

The committee should help to ensure Publicly Funded Cultural Organisations do a better job at coming together locally to share resources, devise partnerships and enact a participatory budgeting process, so that people have real democratic control over real tax generated money.

The committee should ensure that public money is being utilised to stimulate and realise the creative potential of individuals and to maximise their cultural and economic value to society.

It is a mistake to think that the under-representation of Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) individuals, women, deaf and disabled people and low-income groups in the Cultural and Creative Industries is purely a social justice issue. It is also very bad for communities and a disincentive to business, diminishing the breadth and depth of creative perspectives, audiences and consumers.

It is essential that the committee takes it upon itself to ensure that the involvement of citizens and communities are reflected in the design and implementation of public resources as regards arts and culture. It would be beneficial to have a process of consistent citizen representation within the mechanics of the committee and that this process is transparent and publicly available.

Allan Herbert Feb 2021