Opportunities and Threats

Opportunities and threats …short of sounding a bit like a project manager.. My concerns at the moment are less about what part of the chapel I’m going to save up to complete next, but the threats to the community and environment around me. Despite the very real cuts that have been going on in our local area in recent times which have created very active campaigns to support our local hospital services, day care etc. we have so far not had to worry about our fantastic cultural services. It appears that is about to change yesterdays local newspaper front page reported the suspension of the Director of Aberystwyth Arts Centre. It is a flagship art centre with public funding from the Arts Council of Wales and a fantastic programme including everything from panto to contemporary art, a comprehensive community arts programme… I could go on and on. Aberystwyth Arts Centre sits under the umbrella of Aberystwyth University, and it is this institution that appears to be pulling the strings of change at the arts centre. The university is undergoing a huge overhaul in its administrative system creating a series of Schools or Institutes under which the arts centre is being ‘pulled back into the fold’ and the expectation appears to be that the arts centre building will be used far more for the timetabling of student classes. Will this effect the public that rely so heavily on the services it provides? The university says not, and perhaps this is a real opportunity for positive change to make the arts centre more sustainable (it has not balanced the books for several years). We can only hope as the alternative is not something I’d like to imagine.
Unfortunately, the same edition of the local newspaper also reported that the local county council needs to save over £4 million over the next four years, and mentions a ‘re-provision of the county museum, library and leisure services’ as opportunities for savings. It has taken forty years to build up the excellent cultural and heritage services in mid Wales (that also support the tourist economy I might add) – lets up that the next five years won’t see us destroy all that we have worked for.