9. Debate on the Culture, Welsh Language and Communications Committee report - Impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the arts sector

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:44 pm on 24 June 2020.

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Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour 4:44, 24 June 2020

Diolch, Dirpwy Lywydd. Thank you very much for this. I'm not used to doing interventions at this point in a debate, but it's a very brief point that I'll ask the Minister to take on board. On page 22 of the report, which I very much welcome and thank Helen Mary and her colleagues for it, Liam Evans-Ford, the executive director of Theatr Clwyd, calls for involvement from the people who run the venues and the companies to build the operational plan, going forward, rather than non-operational bodies coming up with a framework. I suggest to the Minister, as a former arts manager myself, that that is precisely who he needs to be engaging with and listening to, including people like the not-for-profit Awen Cultural Trust in Bridgend, which runs venues big and small, grand, but their objective is not just to spread arts and culture but to actually make people's lives better. Please, please, please listen to those up and down the country, because they are the ones who do democratisation of culture and cultural democratisation all in one great synthesis. Diolch yn fawr iawn, Dafydd.