Headline updates from WAI/ACW

• Ireland Wales Shared Statement We welcome the continued inclusion of Culture, Language and heritage in the new Shared Statement 2030, and also the ambition to have a “strong working relationships between the Irish and Welsh Arts Councils, and between Wales Arts International and Culture Ireland.” We will be meeting Culture Ireland in January to develop this. 
• We are working with Culture Ireland again on the Celtic Cousins at Celtic Connections in January 2026 with an ambition of developing a collaboration with Ireland and Scotland around language and music  in north America also in 2026 building on relations created with the International Indigenous Music Summit and through Music showcase events.

• NEN -Northern European Network – Arts Council of Wales is part of this group of Arts Councils of the UK, Ireland, Nordic and Baltic states who convene annually to share policy exchange and practice.  The latest meeting was held in Dublin in January 2025

• NEMO – Northern European Mobility Opportunity – Arts Council of Wales has partnered with the Nordic Culture Fund and the Arts Councils of the UK and Ireland to run a pilot mobility scheme for emerging artists.  The successful applicants have been announced this month

• CEO Dafydd Rhys and Head of WAI Eluned Haf were last week in Dublin at the meeting of Directors of UK and Irish Cultural Institutions to discuss the recently launched UK-Ireland 2030 Cultural Co-operation Programme, which was announced at the UK-Ireland summit in March 2025.

• It has recently been announced in Ireland that the pilot Basic Income for the Arts scheme that runs from 2022-2025 will be developed in to a permanent successor scheme in 2026.