My friend Sybil Crouch, who has died aged 66, was an influential figure in the arts in Wales. The first female chair of Arts Council Wales, she established Creu Cymru, a development agency for theatres and art centres, and until last year was director of the Taliesin Arts Centre and head of cultural services at Swansea University.
Charismatic and inspirational, she led her teams with boldness, conviction and a big heart. At Taliesin her programme of film, performances and participation included an award-winning touring production of Under Milk Wood: An Opera, music by John Metcalf, and the critically acclaimed “immersive theatrical experience” of Now the Hero/Nawr yr Awr in 2018.
She also expanded the cultural reputation of Wales abroad through exchanges and partnerships, including via Swansea’s Dance Days, which were part of the Dancing Cities international network.
Sybil was born in Liverpool to David Crouch, a senior civil servant at the Department of Employment, and his wife, Lilian (nee Fletcher). After Birkenhead High School for Girls, in 1970 she went to Swansea School of Art, striding in on her first day wearing gold make up. She immediately became known as the “golden girl”, and so she remained.
After art school she taught and made a living for a while painting murals for premises in Swansea while also doing paid youth leader work until, in 1979, she applied for, and got, the post of deputy director of West Wales Arts. She stayed there until 1990, when she joined Taliesin Arts Centre.
In 1995 she was instrumental in setting up the Egypt Centre at Swansea University, which opened up the university’s neglected collection of Egyptian artefacts to a wider, younger audience, and later she championed Welsh artists in the university’s purpose-built Ceri Richards gallery. Alongside her work at Taliesin she had part-time roles as chair of Arts Council Wales from 1999 to 2003, deputy director of the Wales Film Council (2007-12) and as a director of the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea. For a time she was also an advisor to the Welsh government on arts and culture policy.
A lifelong socialist, Sybil was elected as a Labour councillor for Swansea in 2012, and as cabinet minister for sustainability was instrumental in the creation of Swansea’s “star path” – a solar-powered walkway that lights up at night – and the establishment of various wildflower meadows in the city. A school governor, she was also involved in community initiatives such as the Vetch Veg community garden.
Sybil met David Phillips, who was also a Labour councillor, in 1979, when she was in Lampeter studying on an intensive course in Welsh, in which she became fluent. They were together for the next four decades, and were married in 2009.
She is survived by David, and by David’s son, Andrew.
