What discussions has the Cabinet Secretary had within cabinet colleagues and funding bodies about Welsh Government support for the Welsh National Opera with their direct overhead costs of being a national company based in Cardiff whilst going through severe financial difficulties?
Welsh Government funding for the arts is channelled through the Arts Council of Wales (ACW). I have met separately with ACW, Equity and the Musicians’ Union, and the Welsh National Opera to discuss the challenges the organisation has been facing. I have also met with the UK Government Minister of State for Creative Industries, Arts & Tourism and the UK Government Minister for Wales about the situation. We collectively recognised the value of the Welsh National Opera and its work and agreed we want to see a positive long-term future for the organisation.
Details of ministerial meetings are published regularly on the Welsh Government website.
I was pleased to announce additional support of £1m for the ACW’s Job Protection and Organisational Resilience Fund in December. Together with the Welsh Government’s revenue allocation of £1.5m already allocated and the Arts Council of Wales’ investment of £1.1m National Lottery funding, a total Resilience Fund of £3.6m is now supporting 60 organisations across Wales, including support for the Welsh National Opera.