Over the next month Trac, Music traditions Wales, are working on the Arts Council of Wales Investment Review. This is an opportunity to make the case for a proper investment in the traditional arts and Trac need your input. They want to use this review to put forward a vision for folk traditions for the next ten years, outlining what the sector want, how we get there and why it’s important.
This is the first step in a consultation that will last for a year. Initially Trac need you to tell us what you feel is important and what should be done. The next step is to call a convention for everyone who is passionate about our traditional arts this Autumn. This is when we will co-ordinate your vision into a joint plan of action.
You are. If you are reading this then you are likely to be a musician, dancer, singer, storyteller, a member of a choir, a village band, or a promoter, or a folk club, or a society or a person who cares about our music and wants to see it flourish. You could be a father wanting to learn songs to sing to his baby or a mother wanting to pass on her fiddle playing to her child. You could be a teacher wanting to bring traditional music into schools or someone who wants to listen to more folk music in our theatres.
Tell Trac your vision for traditional music. It can be anything that you feel passionate about: dance teams, Cerdd Dant, opportunities to learn or take part in Plygain or a session. It can be a long-term strategic vision for social inclusion, tourism or singing as a community activity.
Fill in this Survey Monkey, or send Trac an email, leave a message on their Facebook Page, tweet or write a letter to trac, PO Box 428 Cardiff CF11 1DP.
As they come in, they’ll put them all up on their website. If you’d like to remain anonymous just let them know. These will all inform the submission to Arts Council of Wales, which will also be posted online.
We need this information by midnight, Sunday 3rd of May 2015 to put it together for the review deadline of 21st May 2015.
This Autumn Trac intend to call the whole sector together for a weekend conference where it will examine the manifesto and build a strategy for Welsh traditional music to build these themes into an action plan that the whole sector can work towards together.