Local Arts Charity Announces Closure on Ty Pawb Opening Day
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I see that this has now been documented on Wrexham.com as an article.
On the day that Ty Pawb opens its door, the Wrexham Independent Gallery (tWIG) charitable organisation who support the promotion and sales of local artists has announced it will be forced to shut down on 31 May due to funding issues.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/twigwrexham/permalink/1627614197355098/
The gallery was previously located in a unit in the People’s Market, but were then forced to relocate once the market was shut down to refurbish into Ty Pawb. It turns out they would not be able to afford to pay the rent to move back into a new unit within the main hub space or within the attached arcade area. They have also applied for several grants to help keep them going, but for whatever reason they have been declined.
Now this is where the utter fallacy and farce of Ty Pawb kicks in. Ty Pawb was supposed to be set-up to offer a supportive and fostering environment to promote local arts and culture and artists. If this is the case:
1) Why are they not offering a massively discounted unit to this charity? It’s an exact match and fit for what is needed within the space.
2) Also, why are the stakeholders (including the council) of Ty Pawb not helping with letters of support etc… in terms of grant applications that would possibly tip the scales of getting the funding?
3) Why is Ty Pawb not helping to promote this local charity directly related to its cause? I think a problem is many people were not even aware of its existence amongst the town and further afield. I can’t help but notice how vocal and loud and proud Ty Pawb is for promoting the associated new food and beverage businesses (paying commercial entities who can afford to pay for their own publicity) who are setting up there. Last time I checked it was an arts hub and not a food hub.
The local artists who face losing a vital outlet for this artwork when this charity shuts down won’t be able to afford to pay to showcase their art in Ty Pawb or even at this rate afford to buy a fancy filter coffee or Welsh Tapas from the concessions within the hub. ZERO Support on offer for actual local grass roots artists. What a complete farce.
The apparent lack of support by the council to actually protect the existing arts and cultural infrastructure of the Town means that the hub risks being nothing more than a meaningless empty shell. They can have their launch day and their fanfares on Easter Monday, but unless they start actually engaging and supporting local artists and their existing support structures then this whole thing will crumble.
Just think, if we actually had any prominent celebrated local artists (were they allowed to flourish and thrive) – the buzz and excitement of these actual artists would be the main draw and people would be queuing up to see their work in Ty Pawb and this would be the best type of promotion available.
The Mayor said at the opening today..
“The Mayor of Wrexham says he believes Tŷ Pawb will complement the two existing markets in the town centre”
He obviously hasn’t been to town for a year or two, THERE IS NO TOWN CENTRE. I think his emergence from the ‘back passage’ on his way to Ty Pawb, via the deserted and abandoned shops, must have seriously affected his perception of what a ‘Town Centre’ actually is, and should be!
The clock now starts ticking for the Closure of Ty Pawb, the omen is in the weather, cold with snow forecast for Monday, the opening day. Whatever the reality, it will be reported as an outstanding success with hundreds of thousands turning out in sunny and warm weather and the heavily subsidised stallholders declaring a profitable day. This will be the truth compared with the following Mondays !)
Interesting to see that the lead on the Ty Pawb project Cllr Hugh Jones was the person who unveiled the plack – clearly looking to have his name immortalised. The protocol for all civic projects has always been that the Mayor of a town takes on this role as they are ‘politically neutral’ when there is no celebrity.
As today was the first day it has already lost a £1000 by the time of the opening on Monday it will have lost £4000 a week today £7000 based on a £250k loss.
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