Welsh jazz - fears for funding

The Welsh Jazz Society has expressed its concern over cuts in public funding for jazz compared with other forms of music.

Writing in the monthly WJS newsletter for March, director Brian Hennessey notes a recent review of grant aid by the Arts Council of Wales resulted in a demise in funding for Cardiff Jazz Society, the Preservation Jazz Society, Torfaen Jazz Society and the North Wales Jazz Society.

He says that although the audience for jazz in Wales equates to that for opera, the relative funding allocated to the two art forms is "grossly disproportionate", and the suggestion that jazz societies should now rely on applications for lottery grants is "a decidely unsatisfactory alternative."

Mr Hennessey adds that the WJS has yet to be informed of its own Arts Council of Wales grant for the 2007/8 financial year which is only three weeks away. He says it makes budgeting and programme planning "very difficult if not impossible".

For more about the Welsh Jazz Society and its work, see its website at www.jazzwales.org.uk