Aberystwyth Arts Centre will receive £1.6m from the Arts Council of Wales.

The venue will receive £544,628 every year for three years, subject to appeals and confirmation of the Arts Council’s own Welsh Government funding, it has been announced today.

The money is part of an Arts Council of Wales investment review to decide how £29.6m of public money will be distributed to various arts organisations in Wales.

Responding to the announcement, Director of Aberystwyth Arts Centre, David Wilson said: “We're grateful to the Arts Council of Wales for once again showing its invaluable support for the arts, culture and community engagement undertaken at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, at Aberystwyth University.  While decisions on how to deal with a real terms reduction in funding will be extremely challenging, our determination will be to ensure our continued ambition to bring rich and varied cultural experiences to our audiences across mid-Wales, in line with this support from the Arts Council of Wales.

“We will now work through the detail, to establish the financial implications as we plan our activities within a context of steeply rising costs.”

A total of six Ceredigion based arts organisations will receive multi-year funding including, for the first time, Creu Cymru and Small World Theatre.

Aberystwyth’s Creu Cymru will receive £75,000 per year and Cardigan’s Small World Theatre will receive £60,000.

Creu Cymru champions the performing arts in Wales, supporting Wales’ professional theatres, arts centres and companies, while Small World Theatre promotes itself as Wales’ first and arguably best example of a near zero carbon arts space.

Arad Goch in Aberystwyth will receive £352,048 per year for three years, Theatr Mwldan, £271,865 and Theatr Felinfach, £61,084.

When excluding Wales’ national companies, the amount of local arts funding per head of population of Ceredigion was the highest in Wales.

Jeremy Turner from Arad Goch said: “We’re very pleased to still be funded by the Arts Council of Wales considering we’re one of the oldest theatre production companies in Wales and the only production company in mid Wales. It was a lot of work for a standstill budget; it took three months to put our application together.

“We would have liked more, obviously, but that’s true of everyone.”

Theatr Felinfach head Dwynwen Lloyd Llywelyn said: "We are extremely proud of the Arts Council of Wales' investment in the work of Theatr Felinfach. It is a unique theatre that serves a rural area providing creative, participative opportunities for children, young people and adults, and it is proud of its values: community, creativity, an open door and the Welsh language and its culture.”

In Gwynedd per year for the next three years, Canolfan Gerdd William Mathias will get £81,445, Cwmni'r Fran Wen receive £350,000, Dawns i Bawb, £100,000, Galeri Caernarfon, £320,942, Literature Wales will get £753,306, Oriel Plas Glyn Y Weddw, £75,000, Pontio, £284,285, Tabernacl (Neuadd Ogwen), £125,000, and Theatr Bara Caws, £310,503.

A Gwynedd Council spokesperson said: “We welcome the funding provided to organisations in Gwynedd, several of which we support via our funding streams. We wish them all the best with the work this vital financial support will allow them to carry out, and look forward to further partnership working in the future.”

Oriel Davies in Newtown, Powys will receive £227,128 per year while Carmarthen’s Oriel Myrddin will receive £47,849 per year.

The Arts Council of Wales received a record number of applications in what has been described as a “highly competitive process”.

Organisations were asked to respond to the Arts Council of Wales’s Six Principles – Creativity, Widening Engagement, Welsh Language, Climate Justice, Nurturing Talent, and Transformation.

The decision-making process also incorporated five balancing factors: including a wide range of art forms and creative opportunities; serving communities across Wales; supporting underfunded and unheard voices; public value; and the size and shape of applicant organisations.

Arts Council of Wales Chief Executive Dafydd Rhys said: “This Investment Review represents a very positive shift for the arts in Wales, one which will lead to new opportunities for people of all backgrounds to engage with, and enjoy the arts.

“We had a record number of applications this year for our funding, with 139 eligible organisations, and we were very pleased to be able to fund 81 organisations across Wales.

“The high quality of applications that we received from a number of organisations in Ceredigion meant that we were able to make new funding offers to Creu Cymru and to Small World Theatre.”

Mid Wales Opera meanwhile say they are “deeply disappointed and indeed shocked” that the Arts Council has decided not to offer them funding, calling it “a hammer blow” for the young artists who work with them, as well as audiences in towns and rural communities “who have few, if any opportunities to experience live opera”.