WELCOME BACK to the Artcymru website. You'll have noticed that we've been away for a little while. This has been an enforced absence and was as a result of problems with our former service provider. You'll have noticed also that we now access the site via the artcymru.com address as well as the artcymru.co.uk version.

Because Artcymru remains independent and totally self-sufficient we need to ensure we get the best value for money for our members. We found ourselves paying more for our service than we could cover, often due to members not paying for the space on the site, and so we therefore decided to use this opportunity to reformat the site and provide a whole new range of services for you. You'll find many of the things we used to offer on the old site and also some new things like the Blog and Forum and Guest book, with which we hope you'll actively engage. The Galleries are currently in the process of being recreated and will reappear as they are finished (please be patient as there are over a 100 members already and these all take time and we are still just part-time staff).

We hope you enjoy these new features. We'll be adding a shop soon to sell our T-shirts and prints, cards and other Art related goods. You can access the blog and a guest book from the navigation links on the left of the page and a link to something called "Twitter" (still trying to work out the point of that one, but I'm sure it'll be fun...) Whilst you await the update of the gallery pages we hope you will enjoy the new features and let us know what you think.

Finally, due to some members taking advantage of our kind nature (we try not to remove unpaid artists from the site) we need to increase our annual membership by a few pounds. From 2010 the membership fee will be £35 for a full page with up to six images (still by far the best value for money when you think of the hits we receive - at its peak we have received over 40,000 hits in a month).

Best wishes,

Nigel

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Mission Statement and recent Important Changes Artcymru is an independent initiative dedicated to promoting the art and artists of Wales to the rest of the world. Artcymru is a community based website which is based and edited in Ystradgynlais near Swansea. Artcymru is open to contributions of news and exhibition updates from all parts of Wales but cannot guarantee inclusion of all submissions. However, Artcymru undertakes to publish all information received via email at least 21 days prior to the date of the event. Artcymru exists through the the contributions of members and these contributions (membership fees) will remain at £25 per year (365 days online). However, Artcymru needs to make changes to the way in which art works and other items are sold through the site. These are as follows... Artcymru has sold over £35,000 of art works since the launch in 2000 and charged no commission on any of these sales in the past. We are not able to continue this practice as we have to cover the costs of running the website. We are therefore now charging 20% for all sales of work made directly through the site (over the value of £101 and just 10% for sales up to the value of £100). We regret having to make this change but we have to ensure we can meet the costs of maintaining the site to continue providing the service to the art community in Wales. Nigel Williams (Founding Editor and CEO Artcymru).

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