Public bodies have been warned that if they do not “decolonise” their public-facing artwork and statues they could be removed, according to new Welsh Government guidance.
The devolved Labour government’s new guidelines pertain to paintings, plaques and much more, and they instruct public bodies such as Wales’s National Museum in Cardiff to “right historic narrative”.
The guidance adds that public artwork should “celebrate the achievements of our diverse society”.
The word “decolonisation” refers to the process of moving away from a Western bias, while the Washington Post defines it as “a process that institutions undergo to expand the perspectives they portray beyond those of the dominant cultural group, particularly white colonisers”.
Local authorities must now make sure art in public view does not “insult or hurt”, but rather project “present values”. If art remains “highly contentious” it could be removed or “concealed” from public view, according to the guidelines.
The measures, given the go-ahead by Dawn Bowden, Wales’ Deputy Minister for Arts, were laid out in response to the Black Lives Matter protests as part of a plan to make sure Wales is “an anti-racist nation” by the year 2030.
The plan calls on councils to advocate “decolonised account of the past, one that recognises both historical injustices and the positive impact of ethnic minority communities”.
This is not the first move made in Wales to take down offending statues. In 2021 a statue of Thomas Picton, a Welsh military officer and colonial administrator who fought in the Napoleonic Wars, was removed from Cardiff City Hall.
