Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru and Arts Council of Wales promote the language skills of freelancers.

Arts Council of Wales and Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru have announced a pilot scheme to assist arts freelancers to improve their Welsh language skills through the National Welsh Language Learning Centre.

As part of this pilot scheme, Fel rhan o’r cynllun peilot, Arts Council of Wales are providing bursaries for 20 freelancers from the performing arts to attend Work Welsh on-line courses with the National Welsh Language Learning Centre, in order to promote confidence in the Welsh language.

Due to high demand, the places have since been filled but please get in touch with the team at Theatr Gen to add your name to the waiting list: nia.skyrme@theatr.com

Rhian A. Davies, Executive Producer of Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru, said:

“As a company we’re very keen to offer support to performing arts freelancers to boost their confidence when working through the medium of Welsh. When we invited freelancers to apply for a place on the Work Welsh course, we were delighted to get such an enthusiastic response! We thought that 12 places would be enough, but demand was much higher. We have therefore decided – with the support of Arts Council of Wales – to provide places for up to 20 freelancers to boost their Welsh language skills.”

Siân Tomos, Director (Arts Development) at Arts Council of Wales, said:

“The response to Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru’s call is extremely encouraging. It shows the scale of the demand among freelancers for the National Welsh Language Learning Centre’s courses. The Welsh language is central to our work and our priorities for the coming years, as we outlined in our recent discussion document, Re-setting the Dial.

“We hope that this will be a way to develop Welsh language skills within the arts sector and to support freelancers who have had such a difficult time recently”.

The pilot scheme’s goal is to support freelance theatre workers to boost their confidence to use Welsh at work through the National Welsh Language Learning Centre’s course, Work Welsh, provided virtually by the Nant Gwrtheyrn Language and Heritage Centre.

5 January 2021