‘It has been a disastrous year for art in Wales’
CUTS to arts funding could affect the Welsh government target of reaching one million Welsh speakers by 2050, according to a Cardiff bookshop owner.
A Bill aiming to ensure that all pupils leave compulsory education as independent Welsh language users passed its first stage in the Senedd last week.
But the Welsh publishing community has raised concerns that cuts affecting the publishing industry could reduce the ability of learners to find Welsh language materials.
“It has been a disastrous year for art in Wales,” said Elin Angharad Edwards, who owns Caban bookshop in Pontcanna.
“There have been cuts in the publishing world – none of this helps achieve the goal that they set for the one million Welsh speakers by 2050. It is not the time to make cuts, but to find solutions to help achieve this target,” she added.
Caban is one of three Welsh bookshops in Cardiff. It sells a range of books for children, Welsh-learners and novels for those fluent in Welsh.
Customers are mostly Welsh speakers.
“There are many parents buying books for their children of all ages. There are so many nice Welsh children’s books coming out every week,” said Ms Edwards.
In October, Publishing Wales wrote an open letter to the Senedd, saying that since 2009/10 the Book Council of Wales’s annual budget had almost halved.
This funding is vital for publishing Welsh books to encourage people to learn Welsh and help achieve the goal of one million Welsh speakers by 2050, it says.
“A shop like this is more than just a bookshop really, it’s a little hub for people to come in here. Everyone who comes here has a similar interest in the Welsh language and Welsh books and Wales,” said Ms Edwards.
“People quite often come in to see people that they know, and we also have lots of events. We hold book launches, and it is kind of a community thing. It is nice to get people together.”
The most recent Caban book launch was on January 23 for the novel Haydn A Rhys by Geraint Lewis.
If you want to learn Welsh, Elin recommended the course book Dysgu Cymraeg – Mynediad. However, to practise conversation at your own pace, she encouraged people to come into the shop.
“We get a lot of people come in who are just learning, who just want to practise their Welsh.”
