Brass bands in Wales may well be the latest group of community organisations to face the effects of severe cut backs in government funding to the arts.

Austerity

Following the announcement that the Arts Council of Wales will be undertaking a major overhaul of the £23.5million budget it allocates to over 70 different arts and cultural organisations in the Principality, concerns have been raised that brass bands may well be the first to feel the effects of the new era of financial austerity.

Drastic cuts

The BBC Wales political programme ‘Dragon’s Eye’ reported yesterday that the outcome of the review could well see drastic cuts to the approximate £400,000 funding received by the Cardiff based music body Ty Cerdd, as soon as the new budgetary year starts in 2011.

It's never been about cuts, it's been about using taxpayer's money wellWelsh Arts Council Chairman, Dai Smith

Essential support

Ty Cerdd incorporates the Welsh Amateur Music Federation and the Welsh Music Information Centre, two organisations that have provided essential support to the amateur arts movement in Wales in differing forms for over 40 years.

Although the budget that brass bands in the Principality have been able to access through Ty Cerdd is believed to be around £20,000 per year, the prospect of that amount being drastically cut, or even ended, has caused something of a political furore in the National Assembly in Cardiff Bay.

Taxpayers money

And although Welsh Arts Council Chairman Dai Smith is reported to have said: "It's never been about cuts, it's been about using taxpayer's money well", other people are less convinced that proposed cuts will have any beneficial effect.

One of the contributors to the 'Dragon’s Eye' programme was Iestyn Davies, a respected political analyst, who also happens to be principal cornet of the Llwydcoed Band near Merthyr Tydfil.

Serious

He told 4BR: "There are very serious proposals. Brass band haven’t always had the priority within the Welsh Arts Council they deserve, and as a result it could be very difficult for bands to be an integral part of a sustainable arts ecology of development and enterprise in the Principality."

National Youth Band

Cuts to Ty Cerdd could mean the loss of access to help bands in funding music purchases, instruments, repairs and small ‘one off’ projects, whilst there is also growing concern over the effects it could have on the National Youth Brass Band of Wales, which is administered under it’s Welsh Amateur Music Federation arm.

Political suicide

Although there has been general agreement that the Arts Council would have to look at its role as either an arts funder or arts developer in Wales, one contributor to the programme suggesting that any decision to reduce community arts based funding was 'political suicide'.