Celebration Of ‘Successful First Year’ Of Fusion Project Held At Vic Centre

An new programme using the arts, culture and heritage to support some of Wales’ most disadvantaged communities has seen over 1,500 people take part in activities during its pilot year.

From kids taking over museums to helping unemployed men develop skills through archaeology, the Welsh Government’s ‘Fusion: Tackling Poverty through Culture’ initiative is supporting local authorities and Communities First areas to find new and exciting opportunities to get people who would not normally engage with culture and heritage to give it a go.

At a celebratory event in Wrexham yesterday at the Victoria Centre to mark the successful first year, the Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism, Ken Skates, welcomed an evaluation of progress so far and announced an additional £165,000 funding to expand the programme.

The Deputy Minister said: “I am proud that Wales is taking the lead in the UK in breaking down the barriers to cultural participation so that everyone can enjoy the benefits. This has been one of my priorities as Deputy Minister and something I feel passionate about.

“The programme is providing valuable opportunities for people to gain new skills and build confidence, whether it is helping run a museum, taking part in arts and music activities or volunteering. As a result over 500 people have taken part in structured courses and schemes, many leading to accreditation and qualifications.

“This is clearly an approach worth investing in and I am delighted that we are providing funding support which will allow this important scheme to go from strength to strength.”

Wrexham is one of the Pioneer Areas for the programme, with over 30 local and national partners including Oriel Wrecsam and Literature Wales. It has been working with economically and socially inactive adults in two Communities First Clusters in the county borough, with the aim of increasing aspiration and opportunities and helping to move them through to training and potential employment.

A pop-up library has been piloted to service the Caia Park estate, allowing access to e-library services which can boost literacy and digital inclusion. Art courses have also been delivered, with cultural bodies offering trips and activities to inspire the group, with many participants having never visited these sites before.

Cllr Hugh Jones, Lead Member Communities & Partnerships at Wrexham County Borough Council, said: “Wrexham County Borough Council fully recognises the role that the arts, heritage and culture can play in enriching people’s lives. In Wrexham we have formed a network of key partners from the arts, heritage and cultural sectors around a shared ambition to engage our communities in new opportunities that raise aspirations, skills and ultimately better equip people for securing employment. I look forward to the contribution that the Wrexham Fusion Partnership can make as Wrexham embarks on the development of the Creative Arts Hub in the town centre as we continue to demonstrate our commitment to this important area of community life.”

Neal Thompson told Wrexham.com: “We’re really happy and proud to be involved with the FUSION initiative. Creating opportunities for people is a natural part of what we do with the festival each year, and to be able to tie in with a great project like this on a local level enables us to widen the scope of our volunteer programme and make our events even more accessible.”

The Fusion programme was established in response to the Baroness Kay Andrews report on Culture and Poverty, which made a compelling case for joint working to guarantee culture is accessible to all, regardless of their background and where they live.

Pioneer Areas were established in Wrexham, Gwynedd, Swansea, Cardiff/Merthyr, Newport and Torfaen to pilot the programme. Discussions are underway to increase the number of areas taking part in 2016-17. The full evaluation report is available here.

The top picture was tweeted by the Twitter channel of the Welsh Government Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism from the event – which was held at the Vic Centre.

The Vic itself only escaped closure itself a few months ago when a social enterprise took over the running after funding was cut by Wrexham Council – we are told this information appeared to be surprising news to some who attended the event, unaware of its recent brush with possible extinction and subsequent rescue by the community.

AMENDMENT / CLARIFICATION

An earlier version of this article was entitled “Celebration of “successful first year” of Fusion Project held at Phoenixed Vic Studios” , and has been amended to reflect the event was held downstairs in the Victoria Centre rather than the Studios upstairs.

Wrexham Council have since pointed out “While it is correct that the Vic Studios was once run by Wrexham Council and will soon be run by a social enterprise, the Victoria Centre still remains under the purview of Wrexham Council and will continue to be managed by the authority.”

Wrexham Council also stressed that a paragraph (striked through above) implied ‘that the whole centre faced closure, which is of course not the case.’

Wrexham.com is happy to include the above clarification and amendment on which section of the building was used for the event and which section was due to be cut by Wrexham Council.

Such confusion was shared at the event itself with virtually the first sentences of an address mentioning the upstairs studio space, which was described to us by one onlooker yesterday as worthy of her ‘suppressing a heckle’.

Further to the above from Wrexham Council we spoke today with Dave Gray, of THIS Project (and many other arts connections) fame, who attended the event and has kindly shared his views and further information on the status of the Vic Studios.

Dave told us: “It was a great event, and was a real celebration of the Fusion project. It was fantastic to see and speak to the volunteers who had been part of the activities and we are excited about it’s roll out in the coming year.

“I have to confess I was surprised that the Vic Studios were referred to in the opening remarks as an example of Wrexham Councils arts provision. They’ve obviously been closed since September last year, as a result of local authority cuts to provision for Youth Services. It seemed to cause a little confusion, which led to some conversations about the music project on the day, as members of the Arts Council and the Deputy Minister for Culture are fully aware of the closure and have been very supportive of the community’s bid to save the studios.

“We are hoping to announce the imminent reopening of the studios in the very near future, as negotiations with Wrexham Council have just reached their conclusion.”

“I can understand where the confusion has arisen, with the event being held in the same building, although in a different area, and with the celebration of new arts projects in a building where a successful, established arts initiative has been dropped”.