Geraint Talfan Davies' term as arts council chair ends in March

Former arts council chair Sybil Crouch said Mr Pugh should swallow his pride over Geraint Talfan Davies.

Some voiced concern at the failure to find a successor, as the council must defend its status in a review of arts.

The Welsh Assembly Government said there would be news on transitional arrangements soon.

Mr Talfan Davies, a former BBC Wales controller, has claimed he was effectively sacked because he was not automatically reappointed by Culture Minister Alun Pugh after his first three years in the post.

Geraint Talfan Davies has invested quite a lot of his own time, much of it unpaid, in re-establishing the credibility of the organisation Chris Ryde, Wales Association for the Performing Arts

That term ends this month and Mr Talfan Davies refused to go through what he called the "charade" of reapplying.

Some arts professionals have suggested to BBC Wales that Mr Talfan Davies might be asked by Mr Pugh to remain in the chair during the transitional period. Mr Talfan Davies declined to comment on that.

Ms Crouch said: "Now the assembly has failed to advertise in good time for a new chair there really is no alternative but for some pride to be swallowed and for the minister to ask Geraint Talfan Davies whether he would be prepared to stay on.

"I think Geraint believes enough in the arts council to perhaps put his pride to one side and to accept if it was offered".

Arts council members told BBC Wales' The Politics Show of their concern that the process to find a new chairman was not underway.

Key personnel

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One member, translator and author Meg Elis, of Waunfawr, Caernarfon, said: "Lacking a chair with experience at this time is very detrimental to the arts council as a body and more importantly to the arts community as a whole".

Plaid Cymru AM Owen John Thomas said: "There'll be nobody at the helm in the arts council when the review starts. On top of that the minister has just gone off to the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and there'll be nobody here."

Chris Ryde, chairman of the Wales Association for the Performing Arts, said: "The fact is it will be weakened because Geraint Talfan Davies is somebody who has invested quite a lot of his own time, much of it unpaid, in re-establishing the credibility of the organisation over the last three years.

"And I think that what could be happening is that the assembly government are using the fact that he and other key personnel won't be in place to help push through their own agenda, which is indeed to take more control of what the arts council does and take more of its functions into the assembly."

An assembly government spokesperson said an announcement on transitional arrangements on the chairmanship would be made "very soon".

Mr Pugh has dismissed claims that the arts in Wales were becoming more politicised.

The minister has argued for the need to widen access to the arts in more deprived areas, and said he wanted a chairman who would do that.