Arts Council of Wales to review capital lottery programme

Arts Council of Wales is undertaking a review of its Lottery Capital Programme over the period from 1999 to the present and has commissioned Alun Bond of Artservice, a specialist independent arts consultancy, to assist the Council with the review.

The key aims of the review will be:

• To analyse the breakdown of funding across different programme strands
• To analyse the impact of the programme on the national arts infrastructure and access for the population to major arts facilities
• To analyse the impact of the programme on organisations receiving major capital awards, especially with regard to creative development and their financial performance and sustainability
• To asses the impact on Arts Council revenue funding commitments to organisations in receipt of major Capital awards
• To assess the impact of capital projects on wider regeneration
• To make recommendations on future capital programme policy and priorities.

The review will have a strong focus on the Arts Council's revenue clients and on awards in excess of £250,000. It will consider the range of projects supported, including artform and geographic spread; the regeneration impact of the programme; and the levels of partnership funding attracted to major capital schemes overall. A number of case studies will be carried out into schemes funded through the programme.

The review will involve consultation a variety of agencies, including the Welsh Assembly Government, Local Authorities, arts organisations and venues which have received Lottery Capital Programme funding awards, and other professionals & architects involved with the programme.

Nick Capaldi, Arts Council of Wales Chief Executive said: "For more than a decade, our Lottery Capital Programme has been transforming the quality of buildings and facilities for the arts. From the Wales Millennium Centre to Ruthin Crafts Centre, Galeri in Caernarfon to Aberystwyth Arts Centre, we've helped create in Wales some of the UK's most architecturally distinctive arts buildings. It's important that we take a cool, careful look at just what has been achieved to date, and what now needs to happen in the future."

The Review of the Lottery Capital Programme is timed to run alongside the Arts Council's wider Investment Review, the most radical and far reaching examination of funding to arts organisations that the Arts Council has ever undertaken. The Investment Review will help identify, next year, the 'portfolio' of organisations who will be at the heart of the Arts Council's future strategy to develop the arts in Wales.