Visual arts

Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford has defended the Welsh Government's decision to spend £4.25m on a piece of land for the Green Man festival.

The Welsh Government has previously said that the purchase of Gilestone Farm in Powys was intended to ensure Green Man has a "permanent home" in Wales, but the festival organisers have said they have no plans to move from their current home at the Glanusk Estate near Crickhowell.

The festival is understood to want to use the farm for sustainable farming and local food production but no business plan has yet been submitted to the Welsh Government by the festival's organisers and will not be provided until next month.

Speaking in the Welsh Senedd in response to questioning by Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies, Drakeford said those running the festival believe that they can do more to contribute to the economy of that part of Wales, "building on the success of their business".

"To do that they need more space in which to be able to develop those further possibilities. That's what lies behind the arrangements," he said.

Drakeford said that in the short term the farm will be leased back to the original owner in order that they can complete the bookings that they have in their tourism hospitality business and to make sure that the crops that have been planted are harvested this year.

"From the very beginning, we knew that the businesses plan from those who are responsible for the festival would be delivered to the Welsh Government in June of this year, and that is what we still expect," Drakeford added. 

"We are working with a trusted partner. We are working with a company that the Welsh Government has known and worked alongside over an extended period of time, as it has grown to be the fifth most successful festival of its kind anywhere in the United Kingdom. 

"We hold the land against the business plan and we will continue to scrutinise the business plan to see whether the objectives that the company have discussed with us can be delivered through it."

London-based Czech and Slovak language school Okénko is hosting an online auction of artworks to raise money for Ukraine.

The week long auction, co-hosted by artists Tereza Bušková and Lucie Hüskovà, features works by 25 prominent Czech and Slovak artists.

Proceeds will go to help relief efforts in Ukraine, specifically to the People in Need Foundation SOS Ukraine.

Online viewing and bidding will be available from 15 May, with the auction concluding with an in-person exhibition at London’s Czech Embassy on 22 May, which will also feature debates and a creative workshop.

Attendance is free but registration is required on Eventbrite. 

Applications are now open for the latest round of DCMS/Wolfson Fund for galleries and museums in England.

With £4m available in total, museums, galleries and museum services can submit bids of up to £300,000 for projects improving display and interpretation, visitor experience, access and environmental controls and conservation.

Institutions must be, or have previously been, members of an Arts Council England development scheme or sponsored by DCMS to be eligible.

DCMS and the Wolfson Fund have worked together for 20 years, delivering £48m across 400 projects at museums and galleries since the fund’s inception.

Full application details are available via the DCMS website. Applications will close 1 August, with the fund set to be shared out across two years.

Jerwood Arts will close its long-running exhibitions and events programme at the end of the year so it can redirect funding.

For the last 18 years, the organisation has funded three annual exhibitions of work by early-career artists at the Jerwood Space in London that then tour the UK. 

To date, the programme has shown works by more than 1,700 artists, curators and writers, commissioned more than 250 new works, and exhibited work in 75 galleries.

Artists supported by the programme have been included in major exhibition and art fairs and include the Array Collective, winners of last year’s Turner Prize.

The closure is part of a “refocused strategy” that Jerwood Arts says will support a greater number of artists and curators. 

£1m will be disbursed over three years from 2023 to support early-career artists, curators, galleries and visual arts organisations. It will include 18-month-long residencies for six early-career visual artists.

“The importance of independent funding to support artistic development and freedom of expression feels as urgent as ever,” said Director Lilli Geissendorfer, promising the refocused funding would increase opportunities for artists and curators “at a pivotal moment in their careers”.

A series of events celebrating the 18-year history of the exhibitions and events programme will be held at Jerwood Space towards the end of the year.

A friend of Francis Bacon is cancelling plans to donate an extensive collection of the late artist's work to the Tate.

Barry Joule said the decision follows the institution’s failure to exhibit works donated in 2004, when he gave the Tate around 1,200 sketches, photographs and documents estimated to be worth £20m.

Joule has now started negotiations with the archives of the Centre Pompidou, Paris.

The collection includes up to 150 drawings, 10 paintings, hundreds of photogaphs and more than 12 hours of taped material.

“The Tate and Britain will be missing out on part of the nation’s art history of one of their most important painters. I turn my back on the Tate for ever,” Joule said.

Prince Charles and Queen Letizia of Spain officially opened a new gallery of Spanish art in Bishop Auckland last week.

The first UK museum dedicated exclusively to Spanish art is part of the Auckland Project, which seeks to regenerate the township around Auckland Castle. It first opened to the public in October.

It features works by Francisco de Zurbarán, which were housed in the castle for more than 250 years before going up for sale in 2011.

They were purchased by philanthropist Jonathan Ruffer, who is the gallery's benefactor.

The Government's pandemic insurance scheme for film and television is closing.

First unveiled in July 2020, The £500m Film and TV Production Restart Scheme was extended for six months in October.

DCMS says the scheme supported 95,000 jobs and led to a record £5.6bn production spend.

Its closure follows lobbying from film and TV groups who called for another extension.

Instead, insurance trade bodies will work with commercial firms to provide cover for the screen industries, the DCMS says.

Producers body Pact called the move “disappointing”.

“Pact members and the wider industry now face a very messy period where some productions will be able to get cover and others will not due to the limited number of insurance providers in the market.”