My thanks to Tartarus Press for alerting me to the danger posed to Newport Art Gallery and Library, which houses an archive of books and other documents from and about the great Welsh horror and dark fiction writer Arthur Machen, by cuts and reorganization plans at Newport City Council. As confirmed by Wales Today, the Council is planning to close the library and gallery and move their collections into a central location, but has left a consultation document online to invite public input on the plans.

A support organization, the Friends of Newport Museum and Art Gallery (FoNMAG), has organized a Change.org petition to protest against the plans, triggered, as it points out, by “crippling local government cuts set to hit Wales in the next three years.”

Tartarus Press describes the Library’s Arthur Machen collection as “the best public collection in the UK, and an argument can be made for its international significance.” Apparently, Newport City Council’s plans make no specific reference to the collection, and there is a danger that it could be simply broken up and sold.

Anyone interested in preserving this resource is advised to go to the above links and fill in the Change.org petition or the Newport consultation exercise – which is open to all, not just residents of Newport – and make their views known.

 

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