Culture Shock: Culture and the new EU-UK Relationship
Speech by Eluned Haf at TY Cymru (Wales House) Brussels at the launch of the Culture Shock Report by the Culture, Communications Welsh Language and Sports Committee of the Welsh Parliament
Bienvenue; bienvenidos, welcome to Wales House – Croeso i Dy Cymru
Thanks to Welsh Government for hosting us here. Hoffwn ddiolch i Delyth – thanks to Delyth Jewell Chair of the Culture Committee for co-hosting this event and to all of you for attending. We’re thrilled to welcome On The Move mobility info points, Culture Action Europe, IETM and many more of our cherished partners and European networks here.
I’m Eluned Haf, Head of Wales Arts International the international Agency of the Arts Council of Wales. Our purpose is “…to nurture Wales’ international artistic, creative and cultural potential in a way that is fair to the planet and to people.”
We have a dual complimentary role: to support the development of the arts in Wales through international engagement; and nurturing Wales’ growing international cultural relations and supporting Welsh Government’s diplomacy agenda.
Culture Shock – the Senedd’s Culture and the new relationship with the European Union is both important and sobering.
Some of the statistics in this report does not make pleasant reading at all. For example
- 43% of members surveyed said that Brexit had affected their confidence at being able to find work in the arts and entertainment sector.
- Lost €74 million in film and tv funding to the UK in 2018 (within Creative Europe)
- Before the pandemic and Brexit, No Fit State would have 1-2 touring productions per year (9-35 company), 80 performances per year in EU – now, productions same scale but it’s 55 performances in the EU (largely to do with 90 day rule), having to turn down EU bookings.
- For Welsh National Opera, Visa restrictions are a particular issue, 66% increase in additional costs with the NHS surcharge.
The report highlights how the divorce settlement between the UK and the EU continues to be unsatisfactory – and the stubborn parents are still talking about the finance agreement rather than the cultural rights and wellbeing of future generations. Not the diplomatic approach needed to transcend challenges. But I put it to you that by improving our cultural relationships will improve diplomatic efforts which offers a re-set to our trade agreements too.
The irony of the shift in Wales is that since 2015, to navigate he swollen seas and the adoption of the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act, merely a few months before the Brexit vote, the shift has been towards a wellbeing culture with seven communal goals.
As much as I personally may wish I didn’t have to experience Brexit, it’s important and very humbling to experience life outside the European club – and to see how many communities be they from under- represented global majority communities or those who felt forgotten in deprived post industrial communities like Ebbw Vale.
It has forced us to listen to communities and try and understand the reasons, many of which are rooted in a sense of inequality, including cultural ones.
With the perfect storm of Brexit, Covid, economic downturn and climate emergency, and opposing governments in London and Cardiff, the road-map that has helped us at Arts Council of Wales to shape our new international strategy to support artists to work internationally is the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act which came into law in 2015.
As the Arts Council of Wales we are duty bound to the Act, like 45 public bodies in Wales, which has inspired us to develop what I call our new Cultural Wellbeing approach, which is becoming of interest globally.
Wales became the first nation in the world through this Act to make culture and our Indigenous language Cymraeg the fourth pillar of Sustainable development alongside social, economic and environmental pillars.
In areas such as in Arts and Health, Policy inspired by the Wellbeing Act is leading to real change in communities through social prescribing thanks to a groundbreaking agreement with the National Health Service Confederation; the act enabled our partnership with Natural Resources Wales that lead to our new Climate Justice Action Plan.
A small nation like Wales can make extraordinary things happen and our artists play a key role in that and help to reach across continents, be that through cultural shock waves or by nurturing cultural relationships which can in turn help with diplomacy.
Earlier this year the quick election caught us all off guard…..
With the same party in government at UK and Wales level, we hope that the ripples from our Wellbeing Cultural approach will be felt across the UK and beyond and into the re-set with the EU.
We can anticipate more alignment on policies relating to equalities, diversity and a globally responsible culture and we also hope that Wales and the First Minister Eluned Morgan, an ex-Member of the European Parliament will now have greater influence in Westminster and an understanding and a personal commitment to the EU. There are three Welsh MPs with key ministerial roles in this area (Nick Thomas-Symonds MP, Stepnen Doughty MP and Chris Bryant MP).
But what does the re-set mean in cultural terms? Culture is critical not just in terms of re-building the relationship but to rebuild trust – “Brexit casts a long shadow” which affects perceptions on both sides.
For me, Culture IS part of the answer. But not just as a subset of Trade. We have had cultural links which transcend trade and wars. Can we in the margins of the re-negotiations of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement have a Cultural Pact?
The Labour government has called for an “improved and ambitious relationship” with Europe, including a new UK-EU security pact and stronger bilateral partnerships with partners including France, Germany and Joint Expeditionary Force allies.
For us at the Arts Council of Wales we want to understand the EU, UK Government and Welsh Government’s positions on three key areas in the context of this re-set:
- Removing barriers for Wales/UK artists touring in the EU and EU artists touring in the UK in a reciprocal arrangement
- The potential for the UK to have third country membership of Creative Europe
- Greater investment in cultural networks within and between the UK and the EU
We are approaching these in the context of our new international strategy for Arts Council of Wales in which we have a vision of cultural wellbeing not JUST in Wales but as an approach to cultural and international relations.
The Arts Council of Wales’ vision is that “Art is part of the daily lives of the people of Wales, connecting us to each other and the world around us, integral to our well-being, and inspiring us for generations to come.”
Across the UK we are working with our sister Arts Councils to re-think how we support artists to work internationally, how we make it more equitable, sustainable and limit the barriers for artists to work internationally. Alongside key networks such as On the Move, we are working on the mobility of artists internationally. On behalf of our 4 Nations partners, we host Arts InfoPoint UK to enable international artists to come to the UK.
With additional investment by Welsh Government and a longstanding partnership with British Council we also nurture Wales’ cultural relations. We work in strategic partnership with many in Wales and internationally including Welsh Government’s strategic partners like the Future Generations Commissioner, Urdd Gobaith Cymru youth movement and Academi Heddwch (Wales Peace Academy).
The Team Cymru cultural well-being approach to Cultural Relations came to the fore in 2022 around the challenging FIFA Men’s World Cup which opened up greater opportunity for the arts and sports to unleash untapped potential for Wales’ wider international engagement. Tim Cymru’s work developed a focused ambition and shared values to realise our combined international potential.
Chwarae teg (fair play) is a value that has been at the core of Wales’ international collaborations for centuries. Cultural icon Iolo Morgannwg in the early 19th century led the way in searching for fair trade and cultural relations that were rooted in anti-slavery. A renowned poet, Iolo used his creativity to re-imagine a different, more equitable and peaceful future, something which artists across the world can relate to today. Shared humanity, peace and respect are still values driving Wales’ cultural relations with a renewed sense of global responsibility that is enshrined into law by the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.
A century ago, it was this sense of global and local purpose that drove remarkable women after the First World War to walk Wales collecting signatures of 400,000 women for a peace petition and to then travel across the Atlantic to present it to the President of the US calling for the creation of what became the League of Nations. Their peace campaign helped to create Wales’ Temple of Peace which continues to inspire and shape Wales’ cultural relations and view of the world.
In 2024 to mark the centenary of such peace activism, young women in Wales worked with the Children’s Poet of Wales Casi Wyn and animator Efa Blosse Mason to create the Urdd Gobaith Cymru’s annual peace message.
There have been many dark moments over the past five years since Brexit including in the darkness of war in Europe. We are reminded by poet and the Archdruid Mererid Hopwood of the agility, fragility and strength of a feather. In her poem Colomen Heddwch she asks the Dove of peace to hold us in the “peace of your light”. We can apply that to our cultural relationships too.
Like the shaft of a feather,
transcend your fragile form,
and agile, strong,
let your song take flight,
until you hold us in the peace of your light.
Arts and culture, like the dove in this poem, hold the light for peace and can transcend other challenges.
And with the re-set of the EU-UK relationship we want that to be agile and strong so that all our songs can take flight.
Diolch yn fawr am wrando – thank you very much – merci Beaucoup
*Poem by: Mererid Hopwood