Arts Awards Ltd, the not for profit organisation that runs the Wales Theatre Awards and Wales Critics Fund, is consulting arts writers and reviewers in Wales about unpaid work for print, broadcast and digital platforms.
The move comes as fears are expressed about the deskilling of arts writing and the trend of turning the profession into a hobby for people with independent, second incomes while trained, professional journalists and reviewers are driven out of the industry and new entrants denied an opportunity to progress a career. This is not to denigrate their commitment or contribution to the arts in Wales especially as without it there would be virtually no reviewing at all in most online publications, but their work should sit alongside paid-for, journalism. For some it is the only weay they are able to gain experience but this should be part of a process to become paid writers and be commissioned and trained by the professional, independent, fee paying media.