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The findings of Gower's review are due to be published early next year

Changing Faces

Arts Council Wales appoints lead for English theatre review

Arts Professional
2 min read

JON GOWER will be the Director of a national review into English language theatre in Wales, Arts Council Wales has announced.

An arts journalist, critic, academic and author of more than 40 books, Gower is currently Books Editor for Nation.Cymru and a lecturer on English Literature at Swansea University.

He was previously a BBC Wales arts and media correspondent between 2000 and 2006 and inaugural Hay Festival International Fellow.

He will be supported by Council members RUTH FABBY, GWENNAN MAIR and DEVINDA DE SILVA on the steering group for the review, which will also include the Arts Council of Wales Chief Executive DAFYDD RHYS.

Arts Council Wales said that Gower is “committed to hearing the views of as broad a range of people as possible” and is operating “an open door policy”.

The review will include interviews, public meetings and a survey with findings and recommendations expected to be shared at the Council’s December meeting and made public in the New Year, coinciding with ACW setting out its new 10-year strategy. 

Last year, National Theatre Wales, which performs in English and was stripped of its investment from ACW, accused the funding body of "dismantling Wales’s English-language national theatre” before any official review had taken place.

Mid Wales Opera, which also lost its core funding, was criticised by ACW in its application assessment for what it called “quite a basic offer in relation to the Welsh language”.

The Welsh Government has committed to doubling the number of Welsh speakers by 2050, and the Welsh language is one of the six principles that arts organisations must respond to in their submissions for funding to ACW. Currently, around 17% of the general working population in Wales identifies as a fluent Welsh speaker.