(Above) Michael Houlihan
The Director General of National Museum Wales, Michael Houlihan, has spoken about the chance to "completely rethink and streamline" the Welsh Assembly Government's cultural plans and expressed his frustration at the "branding" of Wales as he prepares to leave the post after seven years in charge.
The outgoing boss, who will become Chief Executive at the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa, told an audience at National Museum Cardiff that there was a "real danger" of "thinking that it’s not worth worrying about culture" during a recession, arguing that it remained "incredibly important" to the country and its economy.
"Clearly, over the next ten years, there will be a powerful driver to reduce operating costs," he predicted.
"It is my view that, for Wales, this will be an opportunity to completely rethink and to streamline the way in which the government’s cultural portfolio is run."
He called on leaders to consider the previously "unthinkable" prospect of amalgamating services and cultural bodies, and said the history of Wales should be presented more faithfully.
"The landscape that has shaped Wales's distinctive culture is more safely marketed as a beautiful attraction offering unsafe opportunities to break your neck at a variety of dangerous sports," he claimed.
"Cultural tourism, in its broadest sense, has singularly failed to turn up for Wales, in contrast to, say, Ireland or Catalonia."
He said that some parties involved in discussions about the organisation's appearance at the Folklife Festival at Washington's Smithsonian Museum last July "just didn't get" the "characteristic outputs that define a culture."
"I frequently felt that presenting an authentic picture of Welsh folk life was at odds with the ‘brand’ of a modern, technologically switched-on Wales that people would want to visit or companies invest in.
"The basic point was being missed – the singular, sometimes unsophisticated, sometimes contemporary but always authentic expression of a small nation's culture can be far more attractive and engaging to the outsider than the marketing messages that make it look indistinguishable from any other western, industrialised complex."
He also echoed the views of his UK contemporaries in arguing that culture should not be viewed as an easy target for cuts.
"The Assembly is now crucially placed to engage with culture to articulate a vision for culture and the part it is expecting culture to play in the bad times ahead," he added.
"Otherwise, culture will be seen simply and simplistically as yet another expenditure barrier to closing the fiscal gap.
"This should have been a project for the good times – in the bad, it becomes essential."
