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Autumn leaves by Peter Crosby

Behind Closed Doors - October

Another busy month, topped off with some wonderful emergency funding news that comes as a huge relief to us all and our friends across the arts sector in Wales.

To begin with, it was Black History Month and we pledged right from the beginning that for us it was much more than just a month. We're here to celebrate and reflect Black culture and diversity 365 days a year, and will continue to do so.

Our Community Engagement Producer, Gemma Hicks has continued to work on some inspirational community partnerships including Cardiff Youth Council who presented their powerful art installations around the building. The message on the front of the building 'Welcome To Tiger Bay' is a simple, yet powerful message that remembers and celebrates the diversity and culture of Tiger Bay.

Artworks in a pop art style showing iconic black people from both past and present
Artwork designed by Cardiff Youth Council

There's lots more artwork to come including a #BlackLivesMatter photography exhibition from local photographer, Zaid Djerdi and a beautiful mural from Kyle Legall (coming soon) all of which you can read about in our blog.

Back in July we promised to publish our Diversity Action Plan and this month we did exactly that. We spoke to a wide range of individuals and organisations and listened carefully to find the best ways of making our activities and staff more inclusive and we are fully committed to delivering this action plan.

Our Radio Platfform team received a fantastic grant from the John Thaw Foundation which will benefit the team considerably. This will enable us to continue and build on our accredited radio training courses which we deliver to young people.

Radio Plafform have been a shining light throughout the Coronavirus pandemic and have done some amazing shows which you can listen again to here. We've also received some new equipment from Sony so a huge thank you to them. We'll be putting it all to good use shortly.

three women dressed as waitresses
Waitress

The hit West End and Broadway show, Waitress went on sale on 5 October and it was lovely to see so many of you purchasing tickets for this incredible show. It gave everyone in our ticket office team a much needed boost and it's lovely to know that we have so many people patiently waiting for us to reopen and enjoy live theatre once again.

On 15 October we celebrated Shwmae Su’mae day - a day to celebrate, use and promote the Welsh language and we reminded everyone that we also have a Welsh language Twitter feed to follow @yGanolfan and you can still watch the video we made for our Welsh Language Report for 2019/2020.

We were very sad this month to learn that David Goldstone CBE, a founding WMC board member, has died. He will be missed for his sage advice and inimitable character. His contribution to Welsh culture is a remarkable legacy.

We were also sad to hear the news that Dilys Price OBE, founder of Touch Trust, passed away this month. She was an inspirational woman and will be very sadly missed.

Our Creative Voice online pilot courses finished in September, but we've spent this month gathering information from both the participants and the trainers. We’ve also collected some content created during the online workshops, which will help us to shape further workshops.

a pair of hands opens up a small zine made up of black and white prints on paper
Some artwork from our online zine making course

On 21 October we shared some exciting emergency funding news via a blog from our Managing Director Mat Milson in which he thanked Arts Council Of Wales, Welsh Government and the UK Government for their financial support. This will enable us to retain roles and skills, support the wider arts community across Wales and ensure our building is safe when we reopen.

That's it for this month but don't forget, you can find all our latest shows and events information here so do take a look and you'll also find useful links to our Coronavirus FAQS too.

Many of the activities we're still able to carry out are a direct result of your kind donations, membership renewals and grant funding. We'd also like to thank the Arts Council of WalesMoondance Foundation and Garfield Weston, Paul Hamlyn FoundationThe Clive and Sylvia Richards Charity and The Simon Gibson Charitable Trust for allowing us to continue supporting the creative talent, young people and communities that need creativity now, more than ever.

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