Extra £4.4m funding announced for arts in Wales

A £4.4m annual top-up has been announced for Wales' arts and culture sector after warnings it was in crisis.

The Welsh government's culture minister, Jack Sargeant, said the extra cash as part of next year's Welsh government budget was an 8.5% increase for day-to-day spending.

Earlier this month, the Senedd's culture committee raised concerns over whether Sargeant appreciated the pressure the sector was under.

The minister said the money would support "cherished" cultural bodies.

The Arts Council for Wales has welcomed the money, saying the minister had listened to their concerns and given a "positive signal".

This was echoed by Sport Wales, which will also benefit from the extra cash and posted to social media to say that it would use the funding to "help achieve our ambition of giving everyone the best chance to enjoy a lifetime of physical activity".

The funding in the Welsh government's 2025-26 budget plans is on top of extra money announced earlier this year.

But the arts have previously endured cuts - the budget documents say this helps restore the sector's funding to 2023-24 levels.

Sargeant said: "We are under no illusions about the challenges faced by many of our museums, theatres and cultural spaces, and this budget is a significant step forward from the position we were in last year, providing a real opportunity to move towards a more secure, sustainable footing and to continue that into the future."

This month the minister denied the sector was in crisis following criticism from arts organisations and the Welsh Parliament's culture committee.

In January the committee found that Wales ranked second from bottom of European countries in terms of spending per person on cultural services.

The Arts Council of Wales said the money helped address a 10.5% cut announced by the Welsh government last year.

Chief executive Dafydd Rhys said it was "a positive signal for the sector that the arts are valued by government".

"It's very unusual, from a draft budget to the final budget, to see this increase, and we welcome it. Praise must go to the work of the minister in this - he's listened, he's considered and he's worked quite hard, I understand, behind the scenes to make sure there was an uplift," he told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.

But he said "one budget isn't going to resolve things overnight", adding "in reality, this puts us back to where we were" following the previous 10.5% funding cut.

"We're going to have to evaluate where to prioritise," he said.

"We're not going to knee-jerk here and make any announcements quickly... we will work positively with the government over the next 12 months to secure this as a baseline, and we will have the ambition to increase again next year."

Steffan Donnelly, artistic director and joint chief executive of Theatr Cymru, also welcomed the funding boost.

He told BBC Radio Cymru's Dros Frecwast programme the money "remedies" last year's cuts, but warned that "in the meantime, the damage has been done to the sector".

Delyth Jewell, the Plaid Cymru MS who chairs the culture committee said services are "at breaking point" after a decade of cuts.

"We welcome any additional funding provided, but let's be clear, this is long overdue," she said.

"Culture services are a vital thread in the fabric of what makes life worth living."