Dear Richard and Judie
I hope this doesn’t come too late but I wanted to write as by way of giving support for your work.
I first came across CPR with the publication of the excellent and constant source of reference, the Anthropology of Performance Art. Subsequently I attended ISTA in Copenhagen and partook in some Giving Voice events. Although I haven’t been in contact for a while, I always consider finding out about your work, ISTA’s work, as a milestone in my career and work as an artist, a visual artist.
I do hope you will receive the support you need as I believe you are engaged in the valuable and necessary work of taking art across boundaries – and I hope it will be appreciated and valued as such.
All best wishes
Caroline Waterlow
Friday 9 May 2008
Thursday 8 May 2008
Christian Wolz, Vocal Artist, Germany
Giving Voice - an international Festival:
Artists, Scientists, Professionals, Students, Technical Engineers and Voice Enthusiasts from around the world and from different cultures meet each other in Aberystwyth to give each other new stimuli and to exchange new life experiences. New meetings take place and some meet once again. It is like a family meeting and the family is constantly growing. Never before have I experienced a Festival like Giving Voice. Everyone is a part of this vocal society, at least for the week. People are not nervous of each other and it is easy to mingle with others, whether this is after a performance, during a lunch break or in a workshop. Everyone takes the opportunity to be a part of this big event.
The Voice is the most direct tool that can be used to represent the mental and physical human state. Singing is the most natural art of expression of a human being. The work with and the development of the voice is the basic requirement for all forms of performing arts - singing, theatre, performance arts and even dance. Any new arts development is an interdisciplinary collaboration between these arts forms. The human voice has so many facets. Only through the exchange of the different methods of using the voice is it possible to develop it as a tool, to go much further and to develop new forms of its expression.
The influence of different cultures such as Inuit singing, classic singing, Belcanto singing, oriental singing, Gaelic singing and avant-garde singing flowed through the Festival and were offered to festival participants and local public in the form of presentations, talks and workshops. The artists and scientists also exchanged views and got together to make new plans for development and co-operation, which will in turn be distributed around the world. And in this way art is constantly expanding. The Festival offers a special opportunity to get together. It is important to save such an event because this Festival continues to grow and develop further from year to year. It grows, the voice community grows and through it a pool of so much information about the voice is collected. In addition, so many creative processes take place there which lead to an excellent understanding between cultures.
I was a part of this festival as an artist and as a teacher and enjoyed my time there immensely, although I wished I could have had more time for myself to be able to process all the new information that I was given during the day. I met people during the Giving Voice Festival who I would have otherwise never met in such intimate circumstances. Something has happened to me since then - I have had contact with new experiences and thoughts, which have caused very deep reflection. It was a special meeting and I wish to meet this vocal family in Wales again in the future.
I will live on the food of Giving Voice 2008 for a long time. In the future, I will be working together with other participants of the Festival and I hope to come once more to Wales, Aberystwyth to find some more impulses and friends of the arts.
Christian Wolz, vocal artist and composer, teacher, Berlin - Germany
Artists, Scientists, Professionals, Students, Technical Engineers and Voice Enthusiasts from around the world and from different cultures meet each other in Aberystwyth to give each other new stimuli and to exchange new life experiences. New meetings take place and some meet once again. It is like a family meeting and the family is constantly growing. Never before have I experienced a Festival like Giving Voice. Everyone is a part of this vocal society, at least for the week. People are not nervous of each other and it is easy to mingle with others, whether this is after a performance, during a lunch break or in a workshop. Everyone takes the opportunity to be a part of this big event.
The Voice is the most direct tool that can be used to represent the mental and physical human state. Singing is the most natural art of expression of a human being. The work with and the development of the voice is the basic requirement for all forms of performing arts - singing, theatre, performance arts and even dance. Any new arts development is an interdisciplinary collaboration between these arts forms. The human voice has so many facets. Only through the exchange of the different methods of using the voice is it possible to develop it as a tool, to go much further and to develop new forms of its expression.
The influence of different cultures such as Inuit singing, classic singing, Belcanto singing, oriental singing, Gaelic singing and avant-garde singing flowed through the Festival and were offered to festival participants and local public in the form of presentations, talks and workshops. The artists and scientists also exchanged views and got together to make new plans for development and co-operation, which will in turn be distributed around the world. And in this way art is constantly expanding. The Festival offers a special opportunity to get together. It is important to save such an event because this Festival continues to grow and develop further from year to year. It grows, the voice community grows and through it a pool of so much information about the voice is collected. In addition, so many creative processes take place there which lead to an excellent understanding between cultures.
I was a part of this festival as an artist and as a teacher and enjoyed my time there immensely, although I wished I could have had more time for myself to be able to process all the new information that I was given during the day. I met people during the Giving Voice Festival who I would have otherwise never met in such intimate circumstances. Something has happened to me since then - I have had contact with new experiences and thoughts, which have caused very deep reflection. It was a special meeting and I wish to meet this vocal family in Wales again in the future.
I will live on the food of Giving Voice 2008 for a long time. In the future, I will be working together with other participants of the Festival and I hope to come once more to Wales, Aberystwyth to find some more impulses and friends of the arts.
Christian Wolz, vocal artist and composer, teacher, Berlin - Germany
Martin Orbach, Founder and Director, Abergavenny Food Festival
Dear Richard
Alicia Rios has drawn my attention to the difficulties you are facing and I am writing to add my voice to the many others who are calling for the Arts Council of Wales to urgently rethink their decision to remove CPR's revenue funding.
As founder and Programme Director of the Abergavenny Food Festival, I am well aware of the precariousness of existence for independent not-for-profit organisations. I am also aware of the sustained commitment, dedication and clarity of purpose that is necessary to achieve the kind of reputation that you have achieved at CPR.
With small amounts of public funding you have been able to create something of truly international significance. Although the amounts are small they are nonetheless absolutely essential. They show that your work is appreciated and valued. But more than that, they offer the minimum amount of financial security that you need if you are to sustain work of this calibre over time.
Providing funding project by project is not the answer. It's a double whammy. While sapping your morale by removing the limited security you have, it also asks you to divert a greater amount of your limited resources to meeting funders' agendas. This is not the way to treat an organisation that has consistently delivered exceptional value for public money year-on-year for 20 years. Nor is it the way to nurture one of Wales’ all-too-few genuinely innovative and internationally-celebrated cultural institutions.
The ACW must find another way.
Yours sincerely
Martin Orbach
Director of Programming / Cyfarwyddwr Rhaglennu
Alicia Rios has drawn my attention to the difficulties you are facing and I am writing to add my voice to the many others who are calling for the Arts Council of Wales to urgently rethink their decision to remove CPR's revenue funding.
As founder and Programme Director of the Abergavenny Food Festival, I am well aware of the precariousness of existence for independent not-for-profit organisations. I am also aware of the sustained commitment, dedication and clarity of purpose that is necessary to achieve the kind of reputation that you have achieved at CPR.
With small amounts of public funding you have been able to create something of truly international significance. Although the amounts are small they are nonetheless absolutely essential. They show that your work is appreciated and valued. But more than that, they offer the minimum amount of financial security that you need if you are to sustain work of this calibre over time.
Providing funding project by project is not the answer. It's a double whammy. While sapping your morale by removing the limited security you have, it also asks you to divert a greater amount of your limited resources to meeting funders' agendas. This is not the way to treat an organisation that has consistently delivered exceptional value for public money year-on-year for 20 years. Nor is it the way to nurture one of Wales’ all-too-few genuinely innovative and internationally-celebrated cultural institutions.
The ACW must find another way.
Yours sincerely
Martin Orbach
Director of Programming / Cyfarwyddwr Rhaglennu
Ilan Abrahams, Artist, Australia
hello
my name is Ilan Abrahams. Sending you support and energy in what sounds like a difficult time with your funding cuts.Your centre sounds great, hope it can continue.
kind regards
Ilan Abrahams
Sense of Place Projects
my name is Ilan Abrahams. Sending you support and energy in what sounds like a difficult time with your funding cuts.Your centre sounds great, hope it can continue.
kind regards
Ilan Abrahams
Sense of Place Projects
Gerald Tyler, Artist, Wales
Dear Reader,
I understand and accept that things cannot stay the same forever. I also know that money doesn’t grow on trees and that the already limited resources that ACW manage on behalf of the Assembly, are dwindling as I write this letter. And of course I agree that there are a swathe of exciting, unique and new projects and companies, which warrant having these same shrinking funds invested in them. And to be fair, I don’t think there is a practising artist in this country’s creative community who doesn’t know all of these things.
So please accept that when a large number of us unite to ask you to think again before withdrawing core funding from what could easily be thought of as one of our competitors for scarce financial succour, we are doing it because we honestly think you are making a mistake.
I have no pretence of knowing how the Centre for Performance Research, rates as a financial success. I don’t know even if they manage the funding they have received up to this date efficiently. I can only imagine that their “value for money” must figure greatly in your decision to stem the fiscal flow to them, since even their most fierce critic can plainly see their continual and generous artistic value to ALL of those within the creative community of Wales.
There is no point in my extolling the virtues and achievements of CPR in this letter because they are obvious. What you might not be aware of though, is the huge number of people, organisations and companies throughout Europe and the world at large, who find the resources, networks and support systems established by CPR, invaluable. You might be surprised also to find out just how many of the active and respected artists working in Wales today, owe at least some part of their success or inspiration to being involved at some stage with CPR or one of their many projects.
I don’t claim to have a unique knowledge of how and why artists come together to make new works or find inspiration but I do have a reasonably broad one. In my experience, the “surgery or master-class” type gatherings, painstakingly engineered by CPR, yield a disproportionately high rate of successful new collaborations and exchanges of ideas. These events are ego-less and generous and regardless of scale; consistently attract artists, teachers and enthusiasts who DO NOT meet elsewhere.
But you know all of this. Anyone who has been paying attention over the last quarter century does.
So again I suggest that with their artistic value undeniable, it must be a financial “failure” which you feel demands this withdraw of support. If this is the case and you feel that CPR are just not doing enough with the money; help them out. Appoint them a consultant or a small team of experts to advise and help “tune” their practice. Present them with successful models to aspire to.
I know that there is more to ACW than “giving out money”. I know that within the organisation there are a wealth of experienced and capable individuals and whole teams, with skills and specialist knowledge which could help “rescue” CPR if that is what you feel they need.
Please, I urge you to at least try to help before you pull out.
Thank you for reading this.
Yours sincerely
Gerald M Tyler.
I understand and accept that things cannot stay the same forever. I also know that money doesn’t grow on trees and that the already limited resources that ACW manage on behalf of the Assembly, are dwindling as I write this letter. And of course I agree that there are a swathe of exciting, unique and new projects and companies, which warrant having these same shrinking funds invested in them. And to be fair, I don’t think there is a practising artist in this country’s creative community who doesn’t know all of these things.
So please accept that when a large number of us unite to ask you to think again before withdrawing core funding from what could easily be thought of as one of our competitors for scarce financial succour, we are doing it because we honestly think you are making a mistake.
I have no pretence of knowing how the Centre for Performance Research, rates as a financial success. I don’t know even if they manage the funding they have received up to this date efficiently. I can only imagine that their “value for money” must figure greatly in your decision to stem the fiscal flow to them, since even their most fierce critic can plainly see their continual and generous artistic value to ALL of those within the creative community of Wales.
There is no point in my extolling the virtues and achievements of CPR in this letter because they are obvious. What you might not be aware of though, is the huge number of people, organisations and companies throughout Europe and the world at large, who find the resources, networks and support systems established by CPR, invaluable. You might be surprised also to find out just how many of the active and respected artists working in Wales today, owe at least some part of their success or inspiration to being involved at some stage with CPR or one of their many projects.
I don’t claim to have a unique knowledge of how and why artists come together to make new works or find inspiration but I do have a reasonably broad one. In my experience, the “surgery or master-class” type gatherings, painstakingly engineered by CPR, yield a disproportionately high rate of successful new collaborations and exchanges of ideas. These events are ego-less and generous and regardless of scale; consistently attract artists, teachers and enthusiasts who DO NOT meet elsewhere.
But you know all of this. Anyone who has been paying attention over the last quarter century does.
So again I suggest that with their artistic value undeniable, it must be a financial “failure” which you feel demands this withdraw of support. If this is the case and you feel that CPR are just not doing enough with the money; help them out. Appoint them a consultant or a small team of experts to advise and help “tune” their practice. Present them with successful models to aspire to.
I know that there is more to ACW than “giving out money”. I know that within the organisation there are a wealth of experienced and capable individuals and whole teams, with skills and specialist knowledge which could help “rescue” CPR if that is what you feel they need.
Please, I urge you to at least try to help before you pull out.
Thank you for reading this.
Yours sincerely
Gerald M Tyler.
Zaka Aman,Choir Leader and Vocal Trainer
Hi Judy, to the Welsh Arts Council:
How often can you say about an event or a time in your life that it has truly changed the path that you were goin?Giving Voice organised by CPR has done that for me. Through attending courses at CPR I became a choir leader. I have been leading a choir in Leeds, and rehearsals, workshops and seminars for choirs around the world since being inspired at CPR. CPR has given me a second career through its courses. One that enabled me to affect lots of people's lives positively, creatively and lovingly. I find it incomprehensible that an extremely creative, profoundly educational, positively life-changing, and nationally and internationally highly acclaimed Welsh organisation could have its funding withdrawn by its own council. Courses at CPR are attended by people from all over Europe, in fact the whole world. For the international art world CPR is one of the institutions that puts Wales on the map! Why would Wales NOT support that? I think it should. It would be worth it. For Wales and its reputation as the home of ground-breaking artistic activity.
Zaka Aman,Choir Leader and Vocal Trainer
How often can you say about an event or a time in your life that it has truly changed the path that you were goin?Giving Voice organised by CPR has done that for me. Through attending courses at CPR I became a choir leader. I have been leading a choir in Leeds, and rehearsals, workshops and seminars for choirs around the world since being inspired at CPR. CPR has given me a second career through its courses. One that enabled me to affect lots of people's lives positively, creatively and lovingly. I find it incomprehensible that an extremely creative, profoundly educational, positively life-changing, and nationally and internationally highly acclaimed Welsh organisation could have its funding withdrawn by its own council. Courses at CPR are attended by people from all over Europe, in fact the whole world. For the international art world CPR is one of the institutions that puts Wales on the map! Why would Wales NOT support that? I think it should. It would be worth it. For Wales and its reputation as the home of ground-breaking artistic activity.
Zaka Aman,Choir Leader and Vocal Trainer
Thursday 17 April 2008
Mark Williams MP
House of Commons
Early Day Motion
WITHDRAWAL OF ARTS COUNCIL WALES FUNDING
03.04.2008
Williams, Mark
That this House notes with concern the decision of Arts Council Wales to withdraw funding to six clients across Wales; further notes that two of these clients, the Centre for Performance Research and Dawns Dyfed are based in Ceredigion; regrets that the decision to reprioritise Lottery funding to the London Olympics has left Arts Council Wales with significant budgetary pressures; pays tribute to the achievement of Dawns Dyfed with children, young people and the disadvantaged across three counties for over 18 years; pays tribute also to the excellent regard in which the Centre for Performance Research is held on a national and international level for being a trailblazer in intercultural and interdisciplinary exchange in theatre and performance; further notes that the achievement of both organisations have been fully recognised by Arts Council Wales; reminds the Welsh Assembly Government of its commitment made in November that there would be no cutbacks to funding to arts bodies outside Cardiff; and urges the Arts Council Wales to work with the Assembly Government Culture Minister and the UK Government to reconsider their decision to withdraw funding, which stands to jeopardise the future of these two very successful organisations.
Early Day Motion
WITHDRAWAL OF ARTS COUNCIL WALES FUNDING
03.04.2008
Williams, Mark
That this House notes with concern the decision of Arts Council Wales to withdraw funding to six clients across Wales; further notes that two of these clients, the Centre for Performance Research and Dawns Dyfed are based in Ceredigion; regrets that the decision to reprioritise Lottery funding to the London Olympics has left Arts Council Wales with significant budgetary pressures; pays tribute to the achievement of Dawns Dyfed with children, young people and the disadvantaged across three counties for over 18 years; pays tribute also to the excellent regard in which the Centre for Performance Research is held on a national and international level for being a trailblazer in intercultural and interdisciplinary exchange in theatre and performance; further notes that the achievement of both organisations have been fully recognised by Arts Council Wales; reminds the Welsh Assembly Government of its commitment made in November that there would be no cutbacks to funding to arts bodies outside Cardiff; and urges the Arts Council Wales to work with the Assembly Government Culture Minister and the UK Government to reconsider their decision to withdraw funding, which stands to jeopardise the future of these two very successful organisations.
Moira Vincentelli - Senior lecturer in Art History, School of Art, Aberystwyth and Board member of CPR
Letter of Support for the Centre for performance Research
I am very concerned about the decision to cut the revenue funding to the Centre for Performance Research. This company may be based in Aberystwyth but it plays a unique role in the international world of avant-garde performance. Wales has enough such companies and CPR has a very special place among them. It has proved over decades its ability to attract considerable additional funding but all such funds are predicated on having the infrastructure in place from which grant applications and new initiatives can be launched. In removing the base funding which attracts partnership funding from the university and many others the Art Council embarks on a very dangerous game of brinkmanship. It may claim that it wants to maintain this organisation and recognises its excellent work but cuts at this level will quickly lead to withering away of the fine initiatives that have been established and were so clearly reaching to new audiences with the opening of the Foundry.
Moira Vincentelli
Senior lecturer in Art History
School of Art
Buarth Mawr, Aberystwyth
Board member of CPR
I am very concerned about the decision to cut the revenue funding to the Centre for Performance Research. This company may be based in Aberystwyth but it plays a unique role in the international world of avant-garde performance. Wales has enough such companies and CPR has a very special place among them. It has proved over decades its ability to attract considerable additional funding but all such funds are predicated on having the infrastructure in place from which grant applications and new initiatives can be launched. In removing the base funding which attracts partnership funding from the university and many others the Art Council embarks on a very dangerous game of brinkmanship. It may claim that it wants to maintain this organisation and recognises its excellent work but cuts at this level will quickly lead to withering away of the fine initiatives that have been established and were so clearly reaching to new audiences with the opening of the Foundry.
Moira Vincentelli
Senior lecturer in Art History
School of Art
Buarth Mawr, Aberystwyth
Board member of CPR
Tuesday 15 April 2008
Gordon Kennedy - Performance Artist, Glasgow
Dear Sir / Madam –
I am a writer and performance artist from Glasgow, and recently visited Wales to attend a workshop at Giving Voice Festival, run by the Centre for Performance Research at Aberystwyth.
I am aware that the Centre is currently funded by yourselves, and would like to congratulate you on your support for this excellent resource.
I was delighted in particular, by the intensely practical and applicable basis of the workshop training, and by the way in which the practical, theoretical and performance aspects of the festival as a whole informed and cross- pollinated each other. The environment provided by the CPR was intensely stimulating, and I have to say I have not encountered anything quite like it elsewhere.
I understand that you are presently considering withdrawing funding from this institution, and feel bound to say that this would represent a major blow to the performing arts, both in Wales and further afield. A few countries can boast a broad-based voice festival of this stature, attracting such a calibre if international coaches and performers – and that fact stands as testament to the international status of the Centre.
Events such as this, and institutions such as the CPR, are the seedbed of artistic practice.
It would seem strange, entrusted with the stewardship of a house, to invest in the windows, doors and furniture, and remove the foundations.
Best Wishes
Gordon Kennedy
I am a writer and performance artist from Glasgow, and recently visited Wales to attend a workshop at Giving Voice Festival, run by the Centre for Performance Research at Aberystwyth.
I am aware that the Centre is currently funded by yourselves, and would like to congratulate you on your support for this excellent resource.
I was delighted in particular, by the intensely practical and applicable basis of the workshop training, and by the way in which the practical, theoretical and performance aspects of the festival as a whole informed and cross- pollinated each other. The environment provided by the CPR was intensely stimulating, and I have to say I have not encountered anything quite like it elsewhere.
I understand that you are presently considering withdrawing funding from this institution, and feel bound to say that this would represent a major blow to the performing arts, both in Wales and further afield. A few countries can boast a broad-based voice festival of this stature, attracting such a calibre if international coaches and performers – and that fact stands as testament to the international status of the Centre.
Events such as this, and institutions such as the CPR, are the seedbed of artistic practice.
It would seem strange, entrusted with the stewardship of a house, to invest in the windows, doors and furniture, and remove the foundations.
Best Wishes
Gordon Kennedy
Thursday 10 April 2008
Frankie Armstrong - Singer and Voice Teacher, Wales
Dear Joan, Richard and all at C P R,
I must thank you for another wonderfully stimulating and enlivening Giving Voice event. As you know I have been to nine of the ten previous Giving Voice Workshop/Conferences and this one was full of the same rich mix of highly educative hands-on workshops, stimulating
papers and discussions and extraordinary world class
performances.
For me, as a Professional voice teacher and singer, Giving Voice has consistently given me the range of development opportunities
I need, all in an intense period of time. This was no exception. As well as the two day Workshop I ran, the three days with Lin Snelling from Canada was a profound learning experience and I know I will continue to work with her whether here or when visiting Canada.
I have participated in a variety of Voice Conferences in the U S and Australia as well as on the continent of Europe, but none offer me the stimulus and learning across such a wide spectrum of skills and understanding.
I can think of no other way in which, as a busy practitioner, I could keep developing my skills and hence for me, as for many others, it would be a terrible blow and impoverishment to our art should Giving Voice events have to end. There are teachers and practitioners from Wales and around the world who, like me, would feel bereft. It seems inconceivable that funding should be withdrawn from this rich unique event. Everyone I spoke to over the five days, be they like me, regular attenders or first time students or teachers, were astonished that this is now a real possibility. I thank you again most warmly and sincerely hope that the funders will recognise, however belatedly, the extraordinary work you do
here in Wales.
With very best wishes,
Frankie Armstrong
Singer and Voice Teacher, Wales
http://www.frankiearmstrong.com/
I must thank you for another wonderfully stimulating and enlivening Giving Voice event. As you know I have been to nine of the ten previous Giving Voice Workshop/Conferences and this one was full of the same rich mix of highly educative hands-on workshops, stimulating
papers and discussions and extraordinary world class
performances.
For me, as a Professional voice teacher and singer, Giving Voice has consistently given me the range of development opportunities
I need, all in an intense period of time. This was no exception. As well as the two day Workshop I ran, the three days with Lin Snelling from Canada was a profound learning experience and I know I will continue to work with her whether here or when visiting Canada.
I have participated in a variety of Voice Conferences in the U S and Australia as well as on the continent of Europe, but none offer me the stimulus and learning across such a wide spectrum of skills and understanding.
I can think of no other way in which, as a busy practitioner, I could keep developing my skills and hence for me, as for many others, it would be a terrible blow and impoverishment to our art should Giving Voice events have to end. There are teachers and practitioners from Wales and around the world who, like me, would feel bereft. It seems inconceivable that funding should be withdrawn from this rich unique event. Everyone I spoke to over the five days, be they like me, regular attenders or first time students or teachers, were astonished that this is now a real possibility. I thank you again most warmly and sincerely hope that the funders will recognise, however belatedly, the extraordinary work you do
here in Wales.
With very best wishes,
Frankie Armstrong
Singer and Voice Teacher, Wales
http://www.frankiearmstrong.com/
Pauline Down - Voice Practitioner, Wales
Dear Joan Mills,
I attended two days of CPRs Giving Voice Festival last week and I want to thank you for yet again providing an incredibly exciting professional development opportunity for me as a voice practitioner.
My work is in North Wales where I offer voice training to young people wishing to develop their theatre skills, lead the Bangor Community Choir, run various other singing and voice projects in the community and also perform and compose for voice myself.
Like any other artist, in order for my practice to develop and thrive I need to seek training, mentoring, exposure to new work etc. The Giving Voice Festival is the only opportunity I have found in Wales to develop my practical skills, through exciting workshops with international voice practitioners who are leaders in this field.
The 2 day workshop that I attended this year with Frankie Armstrong (Wales ) and Janet B. Rodgers (USA) was excellent and extremely valuable . The lecture/demonstrations that I attended in the late afternoon/early evening were all inspirational in different ways and the innovative evening performances gave me the exposure to new work in this field which I crave.
Simply being amongst other voice practitioners for two days with the networking and discussion opportunities that that brings felt as beneficial as an intensive mentoring session.
I’m not aware of other events that offer such a comprehensive mix of practical workshops, lecture/demonstrations and performances in the voice field.
I know that this mix is a familiar format to the CPR and used for other projects in the year not just the Giving Voice project.
I think we are very lucky here in Wales to have an organisation so committed to professional and artistic development that they put enormous energy into maintaining and developing a thriving international network which feeds practice back here in Wales and also enables positive and fruitful exchange between the different countries.
This is the 7th Giving Voice Festival that I have attended and every single time I have come away thrilled, inspired and with a fresh commitment to my work.
I am aware that the future of the CPR is uncertain at the moment and so I would be grateful if you could forward my letter to the Arts Council of Wales as a way of offering my support because it would be an enormous loss to me, and to those in North Wales with whom I collaborate or to whom I offer my skills, if the CPR were unable to continue offering such important events.
With thanks and appreciation,
Pauline Down, Wales
I attended two days of CPRs Giving Voice Festival last week and I want to thank you for yet again providing an incredibly exciting professional development opportunity for me as a voice practitioner.
My work is in North Wales where I offer voice training to young people wishing to develop their theatre skills, lead the Bangor Community Choir, run various other singing and voice projects in the community and also perform and compose for voice myself.
Like any other artist, in order for my practice to develop and thrive I need to seek training, mentoring, exposure to new work etc. The Giving Voice Festival is the only opportunity I have found in Wales to develop my practical skills, through exciting workshops with international voice practitioners who are leaders in this field.
The 2 day workshop that I attended this year with Frankie Armstrong (Wales ) and Janet B. Rodgers (USA) was excellent and extremely valuable . The lecture/demonstrations that I attended in the late afternoon/early evening were all inspirational in different ways and the innovative evening performances gave me the exposure to new work in this field which I crave.
Simply being amongst other voice practitioners for two days with the networking and discussion opportunities that that brings felt as beneficial as an intensive mentoring session.
I’m not aware of other events that offer such a comprehensive mix of practical workshops, lecture/demonstrations and performances in the voice field.
I know that this mix is a familiar format to the CPR and used for other projects in the year not just the Giving Voice project.
I think we are very lucky here in Wales to have an organisation so committed to professional and artistic development that they put enormous energy into maintaining and developing a thriving international network which feeds practice back here in Wales and also enables positive and fruitful exchange between the different countries.
This is the 7th Giving Voice Festival that I have attended and every single time I have come away thrilled, inspired and with a fresh commitment to my work.
I am aware that the future of the CPR is uncertain at the moment and so I would be grateful if you could forward my letter to the Arts Council of Wales as a way of offering my support because it would be an enormous loss to me, and to those in North Wales with whom I collaborate or to whom I offer my skills, if the CPR were unable to continue offering such important events.
With thanks and appreciation,
Pauline Down, Wales
Tuesday 8 April 2008
Peter Brook - Director of Film, Theatre and Opera
I am very sad to hear of the difficulties that CPR are having.
It has achieved much and carries out immensely valuable and varied work.
It would be a great loss not only to Wales but also to the world of culture should they not be able to carry on.
Mr Peter Brook
Paris
France
It has achieved much and carries out immensely valuable and varied work.
It would be a great loss not only to Wales but also to the world of culture should they not be able to carry on.
Mr Peter Brook
Paris
France
Mark Williams MP
Ref: AR/CPR/ACW/290208
Dear Mr Tyndall,
I was baffled and extremely disappointed to hear of Arts Council of Wales’ decision to withdraw revenue funding for the Centre for Performance Research, based at Aberystwyth University in my constituency.
I should not need to remind you of the excellent regard in which the CPR is held on a national and international level. Indeed I have seen the glowing tribute the Arts Council to the work carried out by the Centre last year.
The CPR, whilst being an organisation deeply rooted in Wales, has been a trailblazer for intercultural and interdisciplinary exchange for many years, often ploughing a lonely furrow. The work it has done in these areas, and the expertise it has, makes the CPR an invaluable resource as this sort of collaborative work becomes ever more popular.
I have seen an astounding collection of letters of support from those who have worked with the CPR, which pays testament to the very high regard in which it is held across the country.
I appreciate that the ACW has serve pressure on its budgets due to the Government’s decision to shift lottery funding to the London Olympics. Nevertheless this decision runs counter to the assurance given by Rhodri Glyn Thomas AM, Assembly Culture Minister in October, that there would be no cutbacks to funding to arts outside Cardiff, when a further £13.5 million was found to save the Wales Millenium Centre. The current £118,300 revenue grant is a tiny proportion of this sum.
As you will know, the Centre is a very efficient, lean organisation that already operates on skeletal staffing levels.
I join with many others as Aberystwyth’s Member of Parliament to urge you to reconsider this decision, and continue to provide the CPR with revenue funding. Without it, there is a strong likelihood that at best, the CPR will be reduced to a shadow of its former self.
Yours sincerely,
Mark Williams MP
Dear Mr Tyndall,
I was baffled and extremely disappointed to hear of Arts Council of Wales’ decision to withdraw revenue funding for the Centre for Performance Research, based at Aberystwyth University in my constituency.
I should not need to remind you of the excellent regard in which the CPR is held on a national and international level. Indeed I have seen the glowing tribute the Arts Council to the work carried out by the Centre last year.
The CPR, whilst being an organisation deeply rooted in Wales, has been a trailblazer for intercultural and interdisciplinary exchange for many years, often ploughing a lonely furrow. The work it has done in these areas, and the expertise it has, makes the CPR an invaluable resource as this sort of collaborative work becomes ever more popular.
I have seen an astounding collection of letters of support from those who have worked with the CPR, which pays testament to the very high regard in which it is held across the country.
I appreciate that the ACW has serve pressure on its budgets due to the Government’s decision to shift lottery funding to the London Olympics. Nevertheless this decision runs counter to the assurance given by Rhodri Glyn Thomas AM, Assembly Culture Minister in October, that there would be no cutbacks to funding to arts outside Cardiff, when a further £13.5 million was found to save the Wales Millenium Centre. The current £118,300 revenue grant is a tiny proportion of this sum.
As you will know, the Centre is a very efficient, lean organisation that already operates on skeletal staffing levels.
I join with many others as Aberystwyth’s Member of Parliament to urge you to reconsider this decision, and continue to provide the CPR with revenue funding. Without it, there is a strong likelihood that at best, the CPR will be reduced to a shadow of its former self.
Yours sincerely,
Mark Williams MP
Yvon Bonenfant - Senior Lecturer in Performing Arts, University of Winchester
Dear Arts Council of Wales:
RE: Centre for Performance Research
Having just returned from Giving Voice 10, the international voice festival run by CPR, I feel compelled to express my opinion about the threatened defunding of the Centre for Performance Research by the Arts Council of Wales.
This festival is unique not only in the UK but in the world. It brings together workshops, presentations, and a wide variety of performances from across the worlds of music and theatre in a way that is representative of the practical nature of the CPR’s commitment to developing new art and allying this with relating that art to the work of the ‘past masters’ of the field.
Nowhere else on Earth could one hear Fatima Miranda, doing her avant-garde, theatrical, highly musically refined and visually vibrant pieces; Christian Wolz, a pioneering German artist working with extended voice and technology, and a wide variety of intercultural voice practices and experimental music theatre, and then be able to take workshops in these and many other techniques, all within one week.
This is special. It is original. It is practical. It allies thinking with doing, and embodied reflection with creative practice. It is what a centre for performance research funded by an arts council should be about – bringing otherwise rare and difficult to access performance practices to a constituency hungry to enrich their own artistic practices with this wide variety of cutting-edge and underexposed work.
The workshops, dissemination practices, and dialogue the CPR provides for artists and audience are important. They occupy a special place on the international performance scene. I hope you see fit to continue supporting this idiosyncratic and necessary star in the constellation of performance today.
Yours sincerely,
Yvon Bonenfant
Senior Lecturer in Performing Arts
University of Winchester
RE: Centre for Performance Research
Having just returned from Giving Voice 10, the international voice festival run by CPR, I feel compelled to express my opinion about the threatened defunding of the Centre for Performance Research by the Arts Council of Wales.
This festival is unique not only in the UK but in the world. It brings together workshops, presentations, and a wide variety of performances from across the worlds of music and theatre in a way that is representative of the practical nature of the CPR’s commitment to developing new art and allying this with relating that art to the work of the ‘past masters’ of the field.
Nowhere else on Earth could one hear Fatima Miranda, doing her avant-garde, theatrical, highly musically refined and visually vibrant pieces; Christian Wolz, a pioneering German artist working with extended voice and technology, and a wide variety of intercultural voice practices and experimental music theatre, and then be able to take workshops in these and many other techniques, all within one week.
This is special. It is original. It is practical. It allies thinking with doing, and embodied reflection with creative practice. It is what a centre for performance research funded by an arts council should be about – bringing otherwise rare and difficult to access performance practices to a constituency hungry to enrich their own artistic practices with this wide variety of cutting-edge and underexposed work.
The workshops, dissemination practices, and dialogue the CPR provides for artists and audience are important. They occupy a special place on the international performance scene. I hope you see fit to continue supporting this idiosyncratic and necessary star in the constellation of performance today.
Yours sincerely,
Yvon Bonenfant
Senior Lecturer in Performing Arts
University of Winchester
Wednesday 2 April 2008
Dr Jonathan Bollen - President, Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies
Dear Judie and Richard,
The Executive and Membership of the Australasian Association for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies is dismayed and appalled at the proposal by the Arts Council of Wales to withdraw funding for the Centre for Performance Research.
For many years, the work of you and your colleagues has provided stimulation, provocation and inspiration far beyond the boundaries of Wales, contributing to an apprehension of Wales as a progressive, sophisticated and innovative site of performance culture and research. The CPR is itself a model to which many of us aspire, and it is deeply shocking that such a vibrant, dynamic site of international excellence could be so unceremoniously chopped off at the knees.
We urge the Arts Council to reverse any decision it has made about defunding the CPR, and offer you our deepest and sincerest support in what must be testing times. We are confident that sanity will prevail, and look forward to many, many years of your contribution to our discipline and artforms, and to the maintenance of Wales’ reputation and profile as a proponent for and advocate of all that is exciting and worthy in culture and the arts.
Please let us know what we can do to support you further, and keep us posted on events as they unfold.
Yours sincerely
Dr Jonathan Bollen,
ADSA President On behalf of the Executive and Membership of ADSA
Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies
www.adsa.edu.au
ADSA is the Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies. It is the peak academic body in the western Pacific region promoting the study of drama in any performing medium.
The Executive and Membership of the Australasian Association for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies is dismayed and appalled at the proposal by the Arts Council of Wales to withdraw funding for the Centre for Performance Research.
For many years, the work of you and your colleagues has provided stimulation, provocation and inspiration far beyond the boundaries of Wales, contributing to an apprehension of Wales as a progressive, sophisticated and innovative site of performance culture and research. The CPR is itself a model to which many of us aspire, and it is deeply shocking that such a vibrant, dynamic site of international excellence could be so unceremoniously chopped off at the knees.
We urge the Arts Council to reverse any decision it has made about defunding the CPR, and offer you our deepest and sincerest support in what must be testing times. We are confident that sanity will prevail, and look forward to many, many years of your contribution to our discipline and artforms, and to the maintenance of Wales’ reputation and profile as a proponent for and advocate of all that is exciting and worthy in culture and the arts.
Please let us know what we can do to support you further, and keep us posted on events as they unfold.
Yours sincerely
Dr Jonathan Bollen,
ADSA President On behalf of the Executive and Membership of ADSA
Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies
www.adsa.edu.au
ADSA is the Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies. It is the peak academic body in the western Pacific region promoting the study of drama in any performing medium.
Monday 31 March 2008
Tim Etchells - Artistic Director, Forced Entertainment, Sheffield
Dear Sir or Madam
Re: CPR – The Centre for Performance Research, Wales
I’m writing in support of the Centre for Performance Research with the request that you reconsider, as a matter of urgency, the funding of this important national organization.
As artistic director of Forced Entertainment – creating work at the cutting edge of performance and presenting theatre projects over the world – I am aware how rare it is to find an organization with such a vision, professionalism and commitment to a serious investigation of theatre and performance forms. CPR is a shinning example in its field, consistently delivering workshop, research and symposia projects of the highest caliber. It has been a national and international resource for practitioners at many different levels and many different ages, aesthetic and intellectual persuasions. What has brought them together – to talk, to train, to debate with artists of international significance and to experience contemporary performance work of the highest caliber has been CPR. There are – really – not so many organizations in Europe with this kind of track record. The fact that we have one in the UK is something you should be proud of, something you should champion and continue to support.
I know that many many other artists across the UK and much further afield are dismayed and perplexed by the recent news on CPR. I’d like to add my strongest support to the reversal of your decision.
All the best,
Tim Etchells
Artistic Director
FORCED ENTERTAINMENT
Sheffield
Re: CPR – The Centre for Performance Research, Wales
I’m writing in support of the Centre for Performance Research with the request that you reconsider, as a matter of urgency, the funding of this important national organization.
As artistic director of Forced Entertainment – creating work at the cutting edge of performance and presenting theatre projects over the world – I am aware how rare it is to find an organization with such a vision, professionalism and commitment to a serious investigation of theatre and performance forms. CPR is a shinning example in its field, consistently delivering workshop, research and symposia projects of the highest caliber. It has been a national and international resource for practitioners at many different levels and many different ages, aesthetic and intellectual persuasions. What has brought them together – to talk, to train, to debate with artists of international significance and to experience contemporary performance work of the highest caliber has been CPR. There are – really – not so many organizations in Europe with this kind of track record. The fact that we have one in the UK is something you should be proud of, something you should champion and continue to support.
I know that many many other artists across the UK and much further afield are dismayed and perplexed by the recent news on CPR. I’d like to add my strongest support to the reversal of your decision.
All the best,
Tim Etchells
Artistic Director
FORCED ENTERTAINMENT
Sheffield
Dr Sharon Mazer, Head, Department of Theatre & Film Studies, University of Canterbury & Peter Falkenberg, Director, Te Puna Toi, New Zealand
Dear Richard and Judie
We are writing to express our astonishment and dismay at the decision by the Arts Council of Wales to eliminate CPR’s revenue grant. This will cripple the ability of CPR to sustain its diverse programmes on an ongoing basis. Given the extraordinary contribution that the Centre for Performance Research has made to the understanding and practice of theatre, performance, art and culture – in Wales and internationally – such a decision seems to run counter to the fundamental principles of the Arts Council.
It is impossible to overstate our reliance on CPR, as partners to our own Te Puna Toi (Performance Research Project NZ) and as leaders in the field. For so many years, we have looked to CPR – from our small island outpost to yours – to provide resources, expertise and inspiration and also as a mirror to our own efforts to develop performance research in a way that is at once locally specific and internationally significant. Where would we be without your annual and special events, your performances, publications and provocations, and your archives? How can it be that the Arts Council of Wales no longer recognises the value of CPR, CPR’s committed contributions to Welsh culture and arts and the ways in which CPR has made Wales a destination for all of us, performers, artists and scholars throughout the world?
Through you, we wish to add our voices here to those urging the Arts Council to reconsider its decision. The money involved cannot be so great, not when the value of what is produced as a result of CPR’s day-to-day operations is considered fully.
Best, and kia kaha
Dr Sharon Mazer Peter Falkenberg
Head, Department of Theatre & Film Studies Director, Te Puna Toi
University of Canterbury Artistic Director, Free Theatre
Christchurch Christchurch
New Zealand New Zealand
We are writing to express our astonishment and dismay at the decision by the Arts Council of Wales to eliminate CPR’s revenue grant. This will cripple the ability of CPR to sustain its diverse programmes on an ongoing basis. Given the extraordinary contribution that the Centre for Performance Research has made to the understanding and practice of theatre, performance, art and culture – in Wales and internationally – such a decision seems to run counter to the fundamental principles of the Arts Council.
It is impossible to overstate our reliance on CPR, as partners to our own Te Puna Toi (Performance Research Project NZ) and as leaders in the field. For so many years, we have looked to CPR – from our small island outpost to yours – to provide resources, expertise and inspiration and also as a mirror to our own efforts to develop performance research in a way that is at once locally specific and internationally significant. Where would we be without your annual and special events, your performances, publications and provocations, and your archives? How can it be that the Arts Council of Wales no longer recognises the value of CPR, CPR’s committed contributions to Welsh culture and arts and the ways in which CPR has made Wales a destination for all of us, performers, artists and scholars throughout the world?
Through you, we wish to add our voices here to those urging the Arts Council to reconsider its decision. The money involved cannot be so great, not when the value of what is produced as a result of CPR’s day-to-day operations is considered fully.
Best, and kia kaha
Dr Sharon Mazer Peter Falkenberg
Head, Department of Theatre & Film Studies Director, Te Puna Toi
University of Canterbury Artistic Director, Free Theatre
Christchurch Christchurch
New Zealand New Zealand
Yvette Vaughan Jones - Executive Director, Visiting Arts, London
Dear Richard and Judie
We are extremely concerned to hear of the threat to Centre for Performance Research funding as Visiting Arts has worked with the company consistently over the thirty years of our existence.
We have always found CPR to have the highest professional standards when working internationally. You have selected the most interesting work and then produced and promoted events with great sensitivity to the cultural context as well as creating accessible and informative platforms for the public to engage. As examples, Judie was on the very first Producer visit to the Fadjr Festival in Tehran in 2001. This resulted in the first presentation of Iranian theatre in the UK for 20 years. In April 2002 Theatre Bazi’s The Mute Who Was Dreamed and That’s Enough Shut Up were presented at Castle Theatre Aberystwyth and then (through a tour organised by CPR) at CCA Glasgow; Riverside Studios London and Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff. Both Productions were poetical and political works from one of the leading figures in contemporary Iranian theatre: writer, director and actor Attila Pessyani and his Bazi Theatre group.
CPR also hosted two young Iranian directors at their summer school in 2002.
Out of all the promoters in Wales, CPR represents the longest standing partner and certainly one of the most valued relationships. We all hope very much that CPR will be able to continue to work internationally bringing the best of world cultures to the people and professionals in Wales.
Yours sincerely
Yvette Vaughan Jones
Executive Director
Visiting Arts
London
We are extremely concerned to hear of the threat to Centre for Performance Research funding as Visiting Arts has worked with the company consistently over the thirty years of our existence.
We have always found CPR to have the highest professional standards when working internationally. You have selected the most interesting work and then produced and promoted events with great sensitivity to the cultural context as well as creating accessible and informative platforms for the public to engage. As examples, Judie was on the very first Producer visit to the Fadjr Festival in Tehran in 2001. This resulted in the first presentation of Iranian theatre in the UK for 20 years. In April 2002 Theatre Bazi’s The Mute Who Was Dreamed and That’s Enough Shut Up were presented at Castle Theatre Aberystwyth and then (through a tour organised by CPR) at CCA Glasgow; Riverside Studios London and Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff. Both Productions were poetical and political works from one of the leading figures in contemporary Iranian theatre: writer, director and actor Attila Pessyani and his Bazi Theatre group.
CPR also hosted two young Iranian directors at their summer school in 2002.
Out of all the promoters in Wales, CPR represents the longest standing partner and certainly one of the most valued relationships. We all hope very much that CPR will be able to continue to work internationally bringing the best of world cultures to the people and professionals in Wales.
Yours sincerely
Yvette Vaughan Jones
Executive Director
Visiting Arts
London
Antonia Cowan
Dear CPR,
I am horrified to learn that the Arts Council of Wales is proposing to cut your funding. That would seem to me to be an act of gross philistinism and short-sightedness. What else could possibly give Wales such world-wide importance.
I have only been on one of your wonderful ‘Giving Voice’ events, but I’ve met people who have been on others and have been equally enthusiastic. I have been on many other music courses of various sorts over the years, but the Aberystwyth one on chant and other religious music from all over the world was by far the most exciting, educative and enriching week of my life!
You always seem able to attract the cream of the cream of educators and performers in their various fields, and it is a privilege and an inspiration not only to attend their performances but to sit and learn alongside them when they come to learn from each others’ workshops.
Obviously it must cost a huge amount to bring together the most expert teachers and top performers from all over the world, and I don’t see how they could possibly continue without the subsidy that has enabled you to set up this world centre of excellence.
It would be a devastating loss to thousands of your students, and to Wales itself, if the proposed cut were really to go ahead. But it seems so unthinkable, I hope it won’t happen.
With Best Wishes,
Antonia Cowan
Ludlow
I am horrified to learn that the Arts Council of Wales is proposing to cut your funding. That would seem to me to be an act of gross philistinism and short-sightedness. What else could possibly give Wales such world-wide importance.
I have only been on one of your wonderful ‘Giving Voice’ events, but I’ve met people who have been on others and have been equally enthusiastic. I have been on many other music courses of various sorts over the years, but the Aberystwyth one on chant and other religious music from all over the world was by far the most exciting, educative and enriching week of my life!
You always seem able to attract the cream of the cream of educators and performers in their various fields, and it is a privilege and an inspiration not only to attend their performances but to sit and learn alongside them when they come to learn from each others’ workshops.
Obviously it must cost a huge amount to bring together the most expert teachers and top performers from all over the world, and I don’t see how they could possibly continue without the subsidy that has enabled you to set up this world centre of excellence.
It would be a devastating loss to thousands of your students, and to Wales itself, if the proposed cut were really to go ahead. But it seems so unthinkable, I hope it won’t happen.
With Best Wishes,
Antonia Cowan
Ludlow
Saturday 29 March 2008
Anoushyie Yarnell - CPR Associate Artist, Cardiff
TO whom it may concern
I am writing in concern about the planned withdrawal of Arts Council Wales funding from the CPR, not only as present associate artist of CPR but also as an artist making work in Wales with a view to placing this work in an international context. In fact it is hard for me to fully believe that the Arts Council is considering this action, when it seems to be a move in the very opposite direction from what arts practice in Wales needs.
It seems to be a backward vision of what is a “national” vision for arts practice in Wales, which fails to represent the diversity and unique range of artists and performers working in Wales today. The question is what kind of territory does ACW wish to create: an insular brand- enclosed fortress for Welsh performance, or a global site of creative exchange between Wales based and international artists/performers.
CPR is an important international cornerstone of performance practice exchange that brings together many diverse arts practices- dance, theatre, devised performance, voice and sound- from the traditional to the cutting edge- from long established practitioners to newly emerging artists seeking to discover their particular voice of exploration. An organisation with a working vision of this kind cannot simply be supported by a university, with an academic agenda with institutional hierarchies without compromising the far reaching experimental nature of its work- the emphasis of a university being one of learning, study and knowledge- the emphasis of the CPR being one of practice, discovery, curiosity and crossing into the unknown.
I have had the benefit of several workshops with the CPR, which have taken me beyond the boundaries of my own familiar practice-, and had the opportunity to meet with and work with artists whom I have encountered through the CPR. Though I am an artist who has lived and worked in Wales my whole life I have only ever performed in Cardiff and abroad until coming to work with CPR. The CPR is central to evolving both the audience for ,and practice of, cutting edge contemporary diverse performance practices in Wales, and creating a dialogue between them- here and internationally.
I also feel that artists in Wales often do not have the opportunity to benefit fully from the existence of CPR, but I do not believe that CPR can be held accountable for this. I feel the CPR should be assisted more fully to become a site of exchange between Wales based and international performance practitioners. The CPR attracts hundreds of performance practitioners every year to Aberystwyth from Wales and all over the world who would have no real motive to come there otherwise- if this is what the Arts Council of Wales wants, it is digging a backwater ditch for Welsh performance and denying the possibilities and the enormity and reality of the ocean.
Anoushyie Yarnell
Wednesday 26 March 2008
Bianca Mastrominico and John Dean - Organic Theatre
Dear Judy, Richard and CPR staff,
It is with great sadness that we witness and follow your struggle against the Arts Council, and apologies for a not-so-prompt response, due simply to overwork, necessary to keep our own little boat straight!
It would have been hoped that a certain kind of knowledge, a certain kind of working ethic and a certain kind of shared and collectively creative space could have resisted and not got crushed in the general global insensitivity of economically driven forces, but regrettably it is happening, and for us - a younger generation, committed to the same stubborn research and practice, with the same spirit of valuing culture in all its complexity - it is a dark sign.
How can bureaucrats not understand that eroding and sweeping away your invaluable work can only create misery and loss in the UK artistic field? And how long can an arts organisation have to constantly adapt to social changes or die just because, paradoxically, it needs to remain consistent with its identity in order to fulfil its function within the contemporary scene?
Our image of CPR is that of a river into which many sources converge; there is knowledge and experience at work which will be irreplaceable in future years, and connections made up of truly human encounters and other "immaterial" stances, which belong to the very nature of performance practice and which happen in the long term. Delivering immediate results is not the logic behind this kind of engagement towards theatre and performance culture, an engagement which we admire and practice ourselves, not without great sacrifices.
Now, what the Arts Council should really understand is that the attitude of wanting to drain this river, thinking that a motorway in its place would better serve the inhabitants of the land, will in fact only leave a permanent and disgraceful scar on the land itself. And if they just hope that, in time, it may be forgotten that once there was a river there, well, this is a misjudged belief. The wise inhabitants will always keep seeing the dry bed as the trace of the river's water and will lament its unnatural loss.
It is also so unfortunate to see how, in the Arts Council's choice, there is no sense of history and no ability to value the heritage of your work and the concrete possibilities that the holistic and multicultural environment you have created - and create with each project - opens to performers and practitioners of all backgrounds, offering them the chance to retrace their creative roots, and to dialogue with other cultures in the perspective (which we find indispensable for the contemporary arts in this country) of allowing local and foreign artists to meet, share and network. All this unique endeavour should NOT fade and discussions, as well as protests, MUST carry on.
Please let us know if we can do more - you have all our support!
With our best wishes, for a serene Easter as well,
Bianca Mastrominico and John Dean
Organic Theatre
www.organictheatre.co.uk
It is with great sadness that we witness and follow your struggle against the Arts Council, and apologies for a not-so-prompt response, due simply to overwork, necessary to keep our own little boat straight!
It would have been hoped that a certain kind of knowledge, a certain kind of working ethic and a certain kind of shared and collectively creative space could have resisted and not got crushed in the general global insensitivity of economically driven forces, but regrettably it is happening, and for us - a younger generation, committed to the same stubborn research and practice, with the same spirit of valuing culture in all its complexity - it is a dark sign.
How can bureaucrats not understand that eroding and sweeping away your invaluable work can only create misery and loss in the UK artistic field? And how long can an arts organisation have to constantly adapt to social changes or die just because, paradoxically, it needs to remain consistent with its identity in order to fulfil its function within the contemporary scene?
Our image of CPR is that of a river into which many sources converge; there is knowledge and experience at work which will be irreplaceable in future years, and connections made up of truly human encounters and other "immaterial" stances, which belong to the very nature of performance practice and which happen in the long term. Delivering immediate results is not the logic behind this kind of engagement towards theatre and performance culture, an engagement which we admire and practice ourselves, not without great sacrifices.
Now, what the Arts Council should really understand is that the attitude of wanting to drain this river, thinking that a motorway in its place would better serve the inhabitants of the land, will in fact only leave a permanent and disgraceful scar on the land itself. And if they just hope that, in time, it may be forgotten that once there was a river there, well, this is a misjudged belief. The wise inhabitants will always keep seeing the dry bed as the trace of the river's water and will lament its unnatural loss.
It is also so unfortunate to see how, in the Arts Council's choice, there is no sense of history and no ability to value the heritage of your work and the concrete possibilities that the holistic and multicultural environment you have created - and create with each project - opens to performers and practitioners of all backgrounds, offering them the chance to retrace their creative roots, and to dialogue with other cultures in the perspective (which we find indispensable for the contemporary arts in this country) of allowing local and foreign artists to meet, share and network. All this unique endeavour should NOT fade and discussions, as well as protests, MUST carry on.
Please let us know if we can do more - you have all our support!
With our best wishes, for a serene Easter as well,
Bianca Mastrominico and John Dean
Organic Theatre
www.organictheatre.co.uk
Liz Hodgson - Natural Voice Practitioner, Oxford
Dear Judie Christie and Richard Gough,
I'm crestfallen to hear of your funding crisis, as I have promised myself a visit to the Giving Voice Festival one day! Its inception coincided with my developing rheumatoid arthritis so I've had less stamina, money and career ever since. So I've never actually been.
But I'm convinced that the world in which I do manage to operate, albeit at a reduced level, is so much the stronger for your work. The many singers and teachers who have inspired me have all been through the Festival and have clearly been enriched by it and each other. Without that forum, I know that many other practitioners like me would have had less to work with. I only appear on your mailing list, so you wouldn't know, so that's why I'm writing now.
This year's cloud world design is breathtakingly simple and just lovely. Good visuals into the bargain!
I can't make it this year, either! Rats. But I can write to people, if it helps. On behalf of all of us who still want to make it, all power and much passion to you.
Liz Hodgson
Natural Voice Practitioner
Oxford
I'm crestfallen to hear of your funding crisis, as I have promised myself a visit to the Giving Voice Festival one day! Its inception coincided with my developing rheumatoid arthritis so I've had less stamina, money and career ever since. So I've never actually been.
But I'm convinced that the world in which I do manage to operate, albeit at a reduced level, is so much the stronger for your work. The many singers and teachers who have inspired me have all been through the Festival and have clearly been enriched by it and each other. Without that forum, I know that many other practitioners like me would have had less to work with. I only appear on your mailing list, so you wouldn't know, so that's why I'm writing now.
This year's cloud world design is breathtakingly simple and just lovely. Good visuals into the bargain!
I can't make it this year, either! Rats. But I can write to people, if it helps. On behalf of all of us who still want to make it, all power and much passion to you.
Liz Hodgson
Natural Voice Practitioner
Oxford
Friday 21 March 2008
Jodie Bray - Performer, London
Dear Richard and Judie
Firstly, apologies for not writing sooner. I'm currently working on a new show and in the true nature of fast theatre time is of the essence! I was heart-broken to learn of the Arts Councils decision to cut funding to CPR, but it seems such a ridiculous thing that I have every hope that it's just a mistake that will be rectified.
CPR's work has been a direct inspiration to me for the past 10 years, not only fuelling my desire to make professional theare, but also to open my eyes to the everyday, to travel and to embrace every culture. At the CPR I was continually amazed by the motivation and drive you have as a company to ensure each programme is full, varied and essentially succeeds in opening Wales up to the rest of the world. Living at the end of the road (as many visitors would say of Aberystwyth) should perhaps have been limiting, however the CPR made my world that much bigger through your continued curiosity and passion for making and programming work that is both unique, varied and essential.
I am of course behind you 100% in your fight to achieve a level of funding which no longer serves as an unsult to everything that the CPR stands for.
I urge the Arts council of Wales to reconsider and make steps towards rectifying it's mistake.
Wishing you a wonderful Giving Voice festival, and I shall look forward to seeing you for Summer School 2008
Kind Regards
Jodie Bray
Performer,
London UK
Firstly, apologies for not writing sooner. I'm currently working on a new show and in the true nature of fast theatre time is of the essence! I was heart-broken to learn of the Arts Councils decision to cut funding to CPR, but it seems such a ridiculous thing that I have every hope that it's just a mistake that will be rectified.
CPR's work has been a direct inspiration to me for the past 10 years, not only fuelling my desire to make professional theare, but also to open my eyes to the everyday, to travel and to embrace every culture. At the CPR I was continually amazed by the motivation and drive you have as a company to ensure each programme is full, varied and essentially succeeds in opening Wales up to the rest of the world. Living at the end of the road (as many visitors would say of Aberystwyth) should perhaps have been limiting, however the CPR made my world that much bigger through your continued curiosity and passion for making and programming work that is both unique, varied and essential.
I am of course behind you 100% in your fight to achieve a level of funding which no longer serves as an unsult to everything that the CPR stands for.
I urge the Arts council of Wales to reconsider and make steps towards rectifying it's mistake.
Wishing you a wonderful Giving Voice festival, and I shall look forward to seeing you for Summer School 2008
Kind Regards
Jodie Bray
Performer,
London UK
Jenna Kumiega
Dear Richard and Judie
This being (hopefully) a good friday, in that I have had a bit of space to breathe, I have taken some time to read through both your blog, and additional comments on the petition list (which I signed some weeks ago when I first heard the news of your threatened cut).
So many names - some familiar, some old friends - and so many impassioned testimonies to the achievements and benefits of your life work! Whatever the outcome of this latest potential bureaucratic blunder, I am sure you must find comfort and strength in knowing that such an illustrious international community is standing shoulder to shoulder with you.
As I read through the many succinct and powerful arguments for ACW to continue support which (up until now) has gained Wales a reputation for vision and courage in the international cultural community, I found myself thinking: they can't possibly ignore these persuasive and powerful voices........can they?
My fear - knowing and understanding how bureaucracy works - is that they can. The very fact that they were able to throw you the sop of 'project funding' (possibly without even blushing at the crassness of that suggestion) betrays a level of disingenuousness of which any senior ACW official should be deeply ashamed. The fact that they can bandy about excuses such as prioritising 'front-line' work (without acknowledging that such work will inevitably stultify without the level of cross-fertilisation that CPR has brought about over the years) is also not hopeful.
However, they can also change their minds. They could listen to those many voices on your website and in the petition (from very local community groups and individuals as well as from across the world) and re-think their position and decision. They could ponder the fact that, at times with very little support and subsidy, you have built up over the years an irreplaceable and towering resource of interlinked activity, experiment, teaching, and fellowship, which has fostered a truly electric and fertile environment for local, national and global performance creativity in Wales. With one short-sighted and misguided act they could indeed pull the plug on that. Or they could stop and think - hang on a minute, what on earth are we doing withdrawing our wholehearted support from a creative centre which more than any other in Wales has carved out for our nation a global reputation for the most exciting, daring and consistently rigorous exploration in performance work? Hell - let's double their grant!
with love, and support, and gratitude that you were there, doing what you do best, so many decades ago, and hope that you will still be there in decades to come.
Jenna Kumiega
This being (hopefully) a good friday, in that I have had a bit of space to breathe, I have taken some time to read through both your blog, and additional comments on the petition list (which I signed some weeks ago when I first heard the news of your threatened cut).
So many names - some familiar, some old friends - and so many impassioned testimonies to the achievements and benefits of your life work! Whatever the outcome of this latest potential bureaucratic blunder, I am sure you must find comfort and strength in knowing that such an illustrious international community is standing shoulder to shoulder with you.
As I read through the many succinct and powerful arguments for ACW to continue support which (up until now) has gained Wales a reputation for vision and courage in the international cultural community, I found myself thinking: they can't possibly ignore these persuasive and powerful voices........can they?
My fear - knowing and understanding how bureaucracy works - is that they can. The very fact that they were able to throw you the sop of 'project funding' (possibly without even blushing at the crassness of that suggestion) betrays a level of disingenuousness of which any senior ACW official should be deeply ashamed. The fact that they can bandy about excuses such as prioritising 'front-line' work (without acknowledging that such work will inevitably stultify without the level of cross-fertilisation that CPR has brought about over the years) is also not hopeful.
However, they can also change their minds. They could listen to those many voices on your website and in the petition (from very local community groups and individuals as well as from across the world) and re-think their position and decision. They could ponder the fact that, at times with very little support and subsidy, you have built up over the years an irreplaceable and towering resource of interlinked activity, experiment, teaching, and fellowship, which has fostered a truly electric and fertile environment for local, national and global performance creativity in Wales. With one short-sighted and misguided act they could indeed pull the plug on that. Or they could stop and think - hang on a minute, what on earth are we doing withdrawing our wholehearted support from a creative centre which more than any other in Wales has carved out for our nation a global reputation for the most exciting, daring and consistently rigorous exploration in performance work? Hell - let's double their grant!
with love, and support, and gratitude that you were there, doing what you do best, so many decades ago, and hope that you will still be there in decades to come.
Jenna Kumiega
William Huizhu Sun - Vice president, Professor, Shanghai Theatre Academy
To Whom It May Concern,
I am writing this letter of support for the Centre for Performance Research, Aberystwyth. I strongly believe CPR should to he supported continuously so that this increasingly important research area will remain active in Wales.
I have known Richard Gough the director of Centre for Performance Research, for twenty years, since I became a contributing editor of TDR, The Drama Review a Journal of Performance Studies, in New York.
In the new but rapidly growing field of Performance Studies, CPR is one of the most important research/teaching/ practice institutions in the world, and probably the most important one in the UK. TDR has published many high quality papers based on research projects done at CPR. I personally visited CPR in ‘02 and was very impressed by its devoted staff, inspired students and stimulating programming.
I have also invited Mr. Gough and his colleagues to visit my school. Shanghai Theatre Academy, China’s only comprehensive university training performing artists at national level. They gave lectures and workshops to enthusiastic students. We planned quite a few future exchange programs and collaborative projects. I am just. about to send them invitations to next year’s event. I sincerely hope that you will continue to support CPR so that our joint projects can be carried out and more cultural exchanges between the UK and China will prosper.
Yours sincerely.
William Huizhu Sun. PhD
Vice president, Professor
Shanghai Theatre Academy
I am writing this letter of support for the Centre for Performance Research, Aberystwyth. I strongly believe CPR should to he supported continuously so that this increasingly important research area will remain active in Wales.
I have known Richard Gough the director of Centre for Performance Research, for twenty years, since I became a contributing editor of TDR, The Drama Review a Journal of Performance Studies, in New York.
In the new but rapidly growing field of Performance Studies, CPR is one of the most important research/teaching/ practice institutions in the world, and probably the most important one in the UK. TDR has published many high quality papers based on research projects done at CPR. I personally visited CPR in ‘02 and was very impressed by its devoted staff, inspired students and stimulating programming.
I have also invited Mr. Gough and his colleagues to visit my school. Shanghai Theatre Academy, China’s only comprehensive university training performing artists at national level. They gave lectures and workshops to enthusiastic students. We planned quite a few future exchange programs and collaborative projects. I am just. about to send them invitations to next year’s event. I sincerely hope that you will continue to support CPR so that our joint projects can be carried out and more cultural exchanges between the UK and China will prosper.
Yours sincerely.
William Huizhu Sun. PhD
Vice president, Professor
Shanghai Theatre Academy
Bob Godfrey - Head of Theatre Studies, University of Northampton, 1975-2000.
Reference: Proposed cut in ACW Grant to CPR, 2008
To whom it may concern:
As a former Associate Member of CPR I am writing in support of the work of the Centre.
It is unique in the United Kingdom for having provided sustained access to and a study centre for understanding the most vital creative work in theatre and performance over many years. This has placed it in the international field. It has been able to bring together both theatre professionals and academics in the UK giving them unprecedented access to the widest experience of practice and innovation available from across the world.
While Head of a Theatre Studies Department in the 1980s and 90s I know that colleagues and myself gained immeasurable benefit from the opportunities set up by CPR though workshops and conferences with leading practitioners. It is without doubt that performance curricula in Universities and Colleges across the UK have been enhanced by these experiences.
Similarly CPR’s work will have contributed greatly to professional practice in the UK. Not only did I have the privilege of hosting performances by their own theatre company but also of European theatre companies introduced through them. All in all, therefore, CPR have to date made an inimitable contribution to theatre understanding in the UK. I see no dimming of their enthusiasm or reach in this respect.
Now retired I have developed interests that take me on other journeys in the arts but I remain an interested and enthusiastic supporter of the work of CPR and cannot imagine the world of Theatre and Performance Studies without them as an essential ingredient. As ACW has said ‘a vital and prestigious player in the arts.’ A phrase that suggests it would be self-defeating to withdraw their grant and, some might say, persevere, even perfidious.
I fully support opposition to the curtailment of the ACW grant to CPR. I would like my name to be added to any petition or representation as required.
Bob Godfrey,
Head of Theatre Studies, University of Northampton, 1975-2000.
To whom it may concern:
As a former Associate Member of CPR I am writing in support of the work of the Centre.
It is unique in the United Kingdom for having provided sustained access to and a study centre for understanding the most vital creative work in theatre and performance over many years. This has placed it in the international field. It has been able to bring together both theatre professionals and academics in the UK giving them unprecedented access to the widest experience of practice and innovation available from across the world.
While Head of a Theatre Studies Department in the 1980s and 90s I know that colleagues and myself gained immeasurable benefit from the opportunities set up by CPR though workshops and conferences with leading practitioners. It is without doubt that performance curricula in Universities and Colleges across the UK have been enhanced by these experiences.
Similarly CPR’s work will have contributed greatly to professional practice in the UK. Not only did I have the privilege of hosting performances by their own theatre company but also of European theatre companies introduced through them. All in all, therefore, CPR have to date made an inimitable contribution to theatre understanding in the UK. I see no dimming of their enthusiasm or reach in this respect.
Now retired I have developed interests that take me on other journeys in the arts but I remain an interested and enthusiastic supporter of the work of CPR and cannot imagine the world of Theatre and Performance Studies without them as an essential ingredient. As ACW has said ‘a vital and prestigious player in the arts.’ A phrase that suggests it would be self-defeating to withdraw their grant and, some might say, persevere, even perfidious.
I fully support opposition to the curtailment of the ACW grant to CPR. I would like my name to be added to any petition or representation as required.
Bob Godfrey,
Head of Theatre Studies, University of Northampton, 1975-2000.
'In Praise of CPR' - Cards received from local community choir members
Roxanne Smith, Christine S, Olivia Chandler, Gill Everard, Tony Hodgeson, Han, M.L Glover, Carolyn, P.Ryell, Liz Lee, D.Marsden, Jane Burnham, Christine Conway, Susie Emals, Aleda J Clark, Mrs Meads, Penny Morton, J.Warne, Jackie Farley-Harper, Ulrike Muuz-Willis, Tyr Klemols, Sharon Clark, James Davis, Peter Jackson
Support Letters
To whom it may concern: As a voice practitioner working in Powys and the whole of Wales, I have worked for the CPR as well as being involved in many of their excellent projects and workshops. To cut the funding, in this way, at this time is short sighted and very disappointing. It reflects more the poor management on the part of the Arts Council than anything, as I am sure you will see when you reconsider this decision.
With Regards
Roxanne Smith
To the Arts Council:
I am horrified to learn that you are planning to cut the funds to the Centre for Performance Research in Aberystwyth. I am a regular singer in 2 local community choirs weekly and look forward to the singing put on by this body, one of the few cultural organisations in West Wales.
Christine S
The CPR has proved over the years to be a valuable art resource in mid-Wales.
I have attended some wonderful singing events which have served to increase my own confidence. Many people need this chance to try out performing arts in an experimental way.
Anon
I have attended several workshops and performances at Giving Voice, and performed in the Karl Jenkins, all organised by CPR. I would like to see their funding continued so they can continue their excellent work.
Olivia Chandler
CPR, I am devastated to hear that funding for the CPR may be cut. I have been to workshops over a period of at least 5 years. In addition – this remote part of Wales has nothing else to match the professionalism and innovative work – does the Arts Council want to help creating a barren desert?
Gill Everard
Dear Sir,
As a regular singer who has sung with several of the CPR workshops, I am sad to hear that funding ahs been withdrawn from the organisation. Please reconsider as food for the soul is an essential to human well being. Yours,
Tony Hodgeson
They say “all the worlds a stage” but the problem you’re facing are a drama that we could all do without,
Han
Aberystwyth CPR has brought culture within the reach of the ordinary person and must continue. It is used by a diverse array of people.
M.L Glover
Giving Voice was really fun. I learnt a lot.
Thanks, Carolyn
It would be a tragedy to lose such a vibrant and successful organisation, criminal actually.
P.Ryell
Dear Arts Council,
CPR in Aberystwyth is central to so much of our cultural life. You should not cut the funding, it would be uncivilised to do so, Yours
Liz Lee
The performing arts are crucial for a civilised society. CPR has made a significant contribution in this regard and must get appropriate funding.
I am aghast at the stopping of revenue funding for CPR. Their courses and their archive material are second to none.
D.Marsden
CPR has done grand work, especially Giving Voice
Jane Burnham
I am writing to appeal against the decision to withdraw funding from CPR Aberystwyth. I have attended excellent workshops that have brought much social benefit.
Christine Conway
Dear Arts Council,
Please do not take CPR’s funding away.
Susie Emals
CPR has introduced me to companies, performers and styles of singing I would never otherwise have encountered and been much the poorer for having missed.
Aleda J Clark
I have always enjoyed the workshops organised by the CPR and am very concerned and distressed that funding for this excellent organisation is being cut.
Mrs Meads
I am writing to convey my dismay that the very enjoyable workshops organised by the CPR are in danger of ceasing due to ending of funding.
Penny Morton
I have enjoyed many times with Blazing Hearts and various others, as organised by CPR and am appalled to hear about the funding being withdrawn. Please don’t allow this to happen.
J.Warne
‘Blazing Hearts’ was a life changer for me. CPR has joined voices and choirs together all over Wales and enriched all who have joined because of them.
Jackie Farley-Harper
I attended CPR’s ‘Local Voices, World of Song’ years ago which was marvellous. Also, I was part of Karl Jenkins ‘Travels with my Uncle’ which was a great experience. It would be a great shame if CPR could not operate anymore.
Ulrike Muuz-Willis
I am writing to express my concern and dismay at the news of funding being cut for The Centre for Performance Research. I have attended their events for a number of years and have found them most edifying. To have such facilities in West Wales is extremely important for our cultural future.
Tyr Klemols
As a keen amateur singer I found it a very sad day that singing workshops that all enjoy will be ending because of lack of funds.
Sharon Clark
May I express my displeasure at the planned cut in funding to the CPR. I have thoroughly enjoyed workshops provided in the past and am saddened to hear of its potential closure.
James Davis
I Gyfarwyddwyr Cyngor y Celfyddydau
Gair byr i ddweud pa mor siomedig yr ydw i glywed bod CPR wedi colli eich nawdd. Mae CPR yn chwarae rol pwysig ym myd cerddorol Cymru. A wnewch chi ddim ail ystyried eich penderfyniad.
Peter Jackson
To the Directors of the Arts Council.
A short word to say how disappointed I am to hear that the CPR have lost their funding. The CPR plays an important role in the world of music in Wales. Will you not reconsider your decision. Peter Jackson
Support Letters
To whom it may concern: As a voice practitioner working in Powys and the whole of Wales, I have worked for the CPR as well as being involved in many of their excellent projects and workshops. To cut the funding, in this way, at this time is short sighted and very disappointing. It reflects more the poor management on the part of the Arts Council than anything, as I am sure you will see when you reconsider this decision.
With Regards
Roxanne Smith
To the Arts Council:
I am horrified to learn that you are planning to cut the funds to the Centre for Performance Research in Aberystwyth. I am a regular singer in 2 local community choirs weekly and look forward to the singing put on by this body, one of the few cultural organisations in West Wales.
Christine S
The CPR has proved over the years to be a valuable art resource in mid-Wales.
I have attended some wonderful singing events which have served to increase my own confidence. Many people need this chance to try out performing arts in an experimental way.
Anon
I have attended several workshops and performances at Giving Voice, and performed in the Karl Jenkins, all organised by CPR. I would like to see their funding continued so they can continue their excellent work.
Olivia Chandler
CPR, I am devastated to hear that funding for the CPR may be cut. I have been to workshops over a period of at least 5 years. In addition – this remote part of Wales has nothing else to match the professionalism and innovative work – does the Arts Council want to help creating a barren desert?
Gill Everard
Dear Sir,
As a regular singer who has sung with several of the CPR workshops, I am sad to hear that funding ahs been withdrawn from the organisation. Please reconsider as food for the soul is an essential to human well being. Yours,
Tony Hodgeson
They say “all the worlds a stage” but the problem you’re facing are a drama that we could all do without,
Han
Aberystwyth CPR has brought culture within the reach of the ordinary person and must continue. It is used by a diverse array of people.
M.L Glover
Giving Voice was really fun. I learnt a lot.
Thanks, Carolyn
It would be a tragedy to lose such a vibrant and successful organisation, criminal actually.
P.Ryell
Dear Arts Council,
CPR in Aberystwyth is central to so much of our cultural life. You should not cut the funding, it would be uncivilised to do so, Yours
Liz Lee
The performing arts are crucial for a civilised society. CPR has made a significant contribution in this regard and must get appropriate funding.
I am aghast at the stopping of revenue funding for CPR. Their courses and their archive material are second to none.
D.Marsden
CPR has done grand work, especially Giving Voice
Jane Burnham
I am writing to appeal against the decision to withdraw funding from CPR Aberystwyth. I have attended excellent workshops that have brought much social benefit.
Christine Conway
Dear Arts Council,
Please do not take CPR’s funding away.
Susie Emals
CPR has introduced me to companies, performers and styles of singing I would never otherwise have encountered and been much the poorer for having missed.
Aleda J Clark
I have always enjoyed the workshops organised by the CPR and am very concerned and distressed that funding for this excellent organisation is being cut.
Mrs Meads
I am writing to convey my dismay that the very enjoyable workshops organised by the CPR are in danger of ceasing due to ending of funding.
Penny Morton
I have enjoyed many times with Blazing Hearts and various others, as organised by CPR and am appalled to hear about the funding being withdrawn. Please don’t allow this to happen.
J.Warne
‘Blazing Hearts’ was a life changer for me. CPR has joined voices and choirs together all over Wales and enriched all who have joined because of them.
Jackie Farley-Harper
I attended CPR’s ‘Local Voices, World of Song’ years ago which was marvellous. Also, I was part of Karl Jenkins ‘Travels with my Uncle’ which was a great experience. It would be a great shame if CPR could not operate anymore.
Ulrike Muuz-Willis
I am writing to express my concern and dismay at the news of funding being cut for The Centre for Performance Research. I have attended their events for a number of years and have found them most edifying. To have such facilities in West Wales is extremely important for our cultural future.
Tyr Klemols
As a keen amateur singer I found it a very sad day that singing workshops that all enjoy will be ending because of lack of funds.
Sharon Clark
May I express my displeasure at the planned cut in funding to the CPR. I have thoroughly enjoyed workshops provided in the past and am saddened to hear of its potential closure.
James Davis
I Gyfarwyddwyr Cyngor y Celfyddydau
Gair byr i ddweud pa mor siomedig yr ydw i glywed bod CPR wedi colli eich nawdd. Mae CPR yn chwarae rol pwysig ym myd cerddorol Cymru. A wnewch chi ddim ail ystyried eich penderfyniad.
Peter Jackson
To the Directors of the Arts Council.
A short word to say how disappointed I am to hear that the CPR have lost their funding. The CPR plays an important role in the world of music in Wales. Will you not reconsider your decision. Peter Jackson
Oliver Hale, UK
I grow increasingly upset that there is still no resolution to CPR's funding situation.
The CPR is such a useful tool to performance studies students such as myself for valuable research within my chosen field. Never before have I come across a research centre so well organised and filled with people who are not only enthusiastic but also extremely passionate about the knowledge they safe guard. To close the CPR would be an absolute mistake in my opinion! Its efforts are clear in furthering the recognition of not just performance art but creativity. I sincerely hope that this remarkable resource is allowed to continue with its endeavors as it is so strongly needed!
I kindly wish you all the best of luck in sustaining funding for the CPR as it deserves. I have already signed the petition but if there is anything else I can do to offer my assistance please do not hesitate to let me know.
Kindest regards,
Oliver Hale
The CPR is such a useful tool to performance studies students such as myself for valuable research within my chosen field. Never before have I come across a research centre so well organised and filled with people who are not only enthusiastic but also extremely passionate about the knowledge they safe guard. To close the CPR would be an absolute mistake in my opinion! Its efforts are clear in furthering the recognition of not just performance art but creativity. I sincerely hope that this remarkable resource is allowed to continue with its endeavors as it is so strongly needed!
I kindly wish you all the best of luck in sustaining funding for the CPR as it deserves. I have already signed the petition but if there is anything else I can do to offer my assistance please do not hesitate to let me know.
Kindest regards,
Oliver Hale
Wednesday 19 March 2008
Helen Chadwick - Singer, Composer and Voice Teacher, UK
Dear Judie and Richard
I am so sorry to hear about the threat of cut which the CPR is facing. I am deeply indebted to the CPR for the richness of its projects and the breadth of its thinking. Giving Voice does something no other organization is doing in the UK. As a singer, composer and voice teacher, this festival brings together international artists in order to open the ears and develop the working practices of artists such as myself as well as to a wider interested public. The international and experimental vision of the CPR's vision makes it a unique organization in the UK, and a ground breaking arts organization. Arts practice and thinking in the UK would be diminished if it was cut.
Perhaps I should add a personal note. The work which I experienced through the CPR in its long history has deeply affected my own work. For example you introduced me to the work of voice practitioners who have deeply affected the way I compose and prepare performances, including performances for the ROH, ETO and WNO, and previously at the RSC and NT. . It will be a tragedy if younger practitioners will be denied this opportunity in the future.
All good wishes
Helen Chadwick
Singer, Composer and Voice Teacher, UK
http://www.helenchadwick.com/
I am so sorry to hear about the threat of cut which the CPR is facing. I am deeply indebted to the CPR for the richness of its projects and the breadth of its thinking. Giving Voice does something no other organization is doing in the UK. As a singer, composer and voice teacher, this festival brings together international artists in order to open the ears and develop the working practices of artists such as myself as well as to a wider interested public. The international and experimental vision of the CPR's vision makes it a unique organization in the UK, and a ground breaking arts organization. Arts practice and thinking in the UK would be diminished if it was cut.
Perhaps I should add a personal note. The work which I experienced through the CPR in its long history has deeply affected my own work. For example you introduced me to the work of voice practitioners who have deeply affected the way I compose and prepare performances, including performances for the ROH, ETO and WNO, and previously at the RSC and NT. . It will be a tragedy if younger practitioners will be denied this opportunity in the future.
All good wishes
Helen Chadwick
Singer, Composer and Voice Teacher, UK
http://www.helenchadwick.com/
Caroline Hasler, UK
Dear CPR,
You provide and have provided the most interesting and meaningful opportunities for continuing exploration, study and training I know of in Britain. You are a strong link with the kind of work and practitioners which have interested me and you were my first introduction to more physical European style theatre, especially the Grotowski legacy.
You offer an opportunity for international exchange and support artists from abroad by inviting them and believing in their work; you are interested in unusual work; you manage to gather together a wonderful mix of extraordinary people from many backgrounds to contribute to conferences and events.
It would be a tragedy if you were no more!
My heartily supportive wishes,
Caroline Hasler.
You provide and have provided the most interesting and meaningful opportunities for continuing exploration, study and training I know of in Britain. You are a strong link with the kind of work and practitioners which have interested me and you were my first introduction to more physical European style theatre, especially the Grotowski legacy.
You offer an opportunity for international exchange and support artists from abroad by inviting them and believing in their work; you are interested in unusual work; you manage to gather together a wonderful mix of extraordinary people from many backgrounds to contribute to conferences and events.
It would be a tragedy if you were no more!
My heartily supportive wishes,
Caroline Hasler.
Deborah Hunt - maskmaker and puppeteer, Puerto Rico
You will not know us and you will not, perhaps know our work, ; but we know you and your immense effort. We have followed your work and we say in our world that work has been immense...even life saving...
That you have had you funding cut....is intolerable.....
Deborah Hunt
maskmaker and puppeteer, Puerto Rico
That you have had you funding cut....is intolerable.....
Deborah Hunt
maskmaker and puppeteer, Puerto Rico
Tuesday 18 March 2008
Adam Somerset - Theatre-Wales Writer
It was only a few weeks ago that I was reading the then Secretary of State’s warm recommendation of the McMaster Review. Sir Brian called for a bonfire of the target culture, that excellence, innovation and peer review should be the hallmarks of an artistic Renaissance.
The Centre for Performance Research straddles borders. That in itself makes it a troublesome creature to the audit culture.
Production, presentation, teaching, publishing, a touch of cultural criticism, merge and meet- there is nothing quite like CPR in Britain. It may be an organisational hybrid but the proven truth is that where borders merge innovation flourishes.
Without the blurring of borders, with the assent of their funding bodies, the Enigma Code would be unbroken, Sir John Sulston would not have unravelled the Genome Sequence and Theatre de la Complicite would not have not have won Best Play Award of the year last Sunday. That life-enhancing production “A Disappearing Number” did not even have a playwright to its name.
I have not understood everything CPR has done. I have not always agreed but that is not the point. I have never doubted the passion. If a playwright- director of Greg Cullen’s stature states he is for them then I am with him and for them.
Creative endeavour, in whatever field, will always outpace the resources available. That is how it is in a vibrant civil society. Wales aspires to a different kind of governance; in the week that “The Wedding Singer” opens at the Millennium Centre a statement from Cardiff is due for what greater artistic good, for audiences and practitioners alike, this particular light in Aberystwyth is to be extinguished.
Adam Somerset
Theatre-Wales Writer
The Centre for Performance Research straddles borders. That in itself makes it a troublesome creature to the audit culture.
Production, presentation, teaching, publishing, a touch of cultural criticism, merge and meet- there is nothing quite like CPR in Britain. It may be an organisational hybrid but the proven truth is that where borders merge innovation flourishes.
Without the blurring of borders, with the assent of their funding bodies, the Enigma Code would be unbroken, Sir John Sulston would not have unravelled the Genome Sequence and Theatre de la Complicite would not have not have won Best Play Award of the year last Sunday. That life-enhancing production “A Disappearing Number” did not even have a playwright to its name.
I have not understood everything CPR has done. I have not always agreed but that is not the point. I have never doubted the passion. If a playwright- director of Greg Cullen’s stature states he is for them then I am with him and for them.
Creative endeavour, in whatever field, will always outpace the resources available. That is how it is in a vibrant civil society. Wales aspires to a different kind of governance; in the week that “The Wedding Singer” opens at the Millennium Centre a statement from Cardiff is due for what greater artistic good, for audiences and practitioners alike, this particular light in Aberystwyth is to be extinguished.
Adam Somerset
Theatre-Wales Writer
Rachel Rogers - Merseyside Dance Initiative, Liverpool
16th March 2008.
To the Arts Council of Wales – Professor Dai Smith,
It has been brought to my attention that the Arts Council of Wales have decided to cut all revenue funding for the Centre for Performance Research (CPR). I am writing to protest about this decision and ask that it be seriously re-considered - ideally reversed.
More than any other arts organisation in Wales the CPR have brought International Culture to the heart of the country by prioritising bringing the highest quality training, lecture talks and performances to the Welsh artistic community and general public through their long-standing workshop, conference and festival programme.
Since 1974 The CPR have striven to bring internationally renowned theatre and performance makers to Wales. Allowing students, Welsh and international artists, and the general public to get involved in quality performance training and experimentation. The CPR have built a unique legacy in Wales and the UK for working with artists, developing participatory programmes and essentially getting people involved with international performance practice. As an organisation they have provided the time and space that has allowed many practitioners to expand and develop their practice whilst at the same time, retaining the connection with the local community.
I first became aware of the CPR in 1994 as a student at the University College Wales, Aberystwyth as a student where I attended the lecture talk and performances of the ‘Compagnia Laboratorio di Pontedera’. I immediately became involved in projects, workshops and events as a participant and volunteer. I went on to become a member of staff in 1996 on a part-time, then full-time basis. During my time at CPR I saw the expansion and development of the archive, the establishment of a regular public workshop programme, the publication of Performance Research, the continuation of the Conference programme, the launch of Black Mountain Press, the link to University College Wales, Aberystwyth, the beginning of the MA Theatre and the World and the growth of international membership of the organisation.
Having since taken a position at Merseyside Dance Initiative in 2005 I have continued to attend many dance and performance events in the UK and internationally. Whenever I meet people talk about the CPR people always comment on how this organisation has impacted on their own work and / or their involvement in the arts. Similarly, my own career has been shaped by the experiences I was given through participating in CPR projects and working as part of the team. I know that I speak for others in the UK and further a field that shared similar experiences as colleagues and participants.
What unfortunate short-sightedness to threaten the continued longevity of such a unique organisation who have, and continue to have a highly respected international reputation and bring worldwide recognition to the arts in Wales.
I hope that this letter and the many others will encourage you to re-consider this decision.
With best wishes,
Rachel Rogers
Project Development Manager
Merseyside Dance Initiative - Liverpool
http://www.merseysidedance.co.uk/
To the Arts Council of Wales – Professor Dai Smith,
It has been brought to my attention that the Arts Council of Wales have decided to cut all revenue funding for the Centre for Performance Research (CPR). I am writing to protest about this decision and ask that it be seriously re-considered - ideally reversed.
More than any other arts organisation in Wales the CPR have brought International Culture to the heart of the country by prioritising bringing the highest quality training, lecture talks and performances to the Welsh artistic community and general public through their long-standing workshop, conference and festival programme.
Since 1974 The CPR have striven to bring internationally renowned theatre and performance makers to Wales. Allowing students, Welsh and international artists, and the general public to get involved in quality performance training and experimentation. The CPR have built a unique legacy in Wales and the UK for working with artists, developing participatory programmes and essentially getting people involved with international performance practice. As an organisation they have provided the time and space that has allowed many practitioners to expand and develop their practice whilst at the same time, retaining the connection with the local community.
I first became aware of the CPR in 1994 as a student at the University College Wales, Aberystwyth as a student where I attended the lecture talk and performances of the ‘Compagnia Laboratorio di Pontedera’. I immediately became involved in projects, workshops and events as a participant and volunteer. I went on to become a member of staff in 1996 on a part-time, then full-time basis. During my time at CPR I saw the expansion and development of the archive, the establishment of a regular public workshop programme, the publication of Performance Research, the continuation of the Conference programme, the launch of Black Mountain Press, the link to University College Wales, Aberystwyth, the beginning of the MA Theatre and the World and the growth of international membership of the organisation.
Having since taken a position at Merseyside Dance Initiative in 2005 I have continued to attend many dance and performance events in the UK and internationally. Whenever I meet people talk about the CPR people always comment on how this organisation has impacted on their own work and / or their involvement in the arts. Similarly, my own career has been shaped by the experiences I was given through participating in CPR projects and working as part of the team. I know that I speak for others in the UK and further a field that shared similar experiences as colleagues and participants.
What unfortunate short-sightedness to threaten the continued longevity of such a unique organisation who have, and continue to have a highly respected international reputation and bring worldwide recognition to the arts in Wales.
I hope that this letter and the many others will encourage you to re-consider this decision.
With best wishes,
Rachel Rogers
Project Development Manager
Merseyside Dance Initiative - Liverpool
http://www.merseysidedance.co.uk/
Karine Décorne - Migrations, Caernarfon, Wales
Monday 17th March 2008
Dear Judie,
It is with extreme shock that I received the news about ACW cutting the revenue funding of CPRW.
I strongly believe the activities of CPR are vital to the arts sector.
It is essential to have a balance of activities across the sector to ensure the best standards of practice, delivery and presentation.
It is crucial to understand that delivery, training and professional development for students and professional, access to presentations by international professionals all feed from one another.
Removing one of these elements will have an impact on the rest.
We have been experiencing this in North Wales for many years; we have had an on going shortage of qualified dance practitioners in the area due to the lack of training, professional development and performance opportunities, but also due to the lack of dance presentations by international artists.
Bringing intensive training with high profile international artists for professional dance practitioners, offering support, nurturing them, helping to create a network for them, giving access to presentations has had a very positive impact over the last 4 years.
It has generated inspiration, critical debate, optimism, enhanced creativity, improved the artistic quality of the delivery. As the Director of Dawns i Bawb (community dance organisation for North West Wales) I can see the direct positive benefits on our activities, on the skills and commitment of the dancers to the area.
As a dance programmer I do feel it is my role and responsibility to bring work and training which will challenge the perceptions of dance and question this art form.
The emphasis is too often put on what is easy to quantify: the community activities delivery, the number of sessions and participation figures, are all there to testify of the amount of delivery and value for money.
However this same community delivery cannot maintain its standards of quality if the people delivering it do not have access to training, experimentation, presentation or possibility to improve and question their own practice. The same applies to choreographers, performers, theatre directors, programmers, lecturers…
CPR has enabled this vital element to happen at a high standard and their activities have had multiple positive ripple effects on the rest of the practice.
Without such a vital institution, the risk is that theatre and performance practice in Wales will loose in quality as there will be far too little opportunities for professionals and audience members to have access to such type of international work.
CPR has played an essential role in raising the visibility of Wales internationally.
Before coming to Wales I had heard of the work of CPR as it is internationally renowned. To my astonishment when I arrived in Wales, people from CPR were among the only professionals in Wales knowing about major international performance and contemporary dance artists. When I would have thought that these influential artists would be known by anyone claiming to be an expert in dance, it wasn’t the case.
This is why closing CPR will deprive audiences and Welsh professionals to access high quality challenging work and continuing professional development.
Wales will certainly loose in international visibility.
The decision to cut revenue funding seems to go against the strategic and capacity-building aims of ACW and an outward-facing Wales; innovation, an international perspective and rigorous training policy are matching their aims.
It is absolutely impossible to think that CPR can realistically be sustainable and continue its activities on a project basis. This will only lead to the number of activities decreasing dramatically and far worse loosing crucial knowledge, experience and skills.
I sincerely hope that your appeal will be successful.
Best wishes,
Karine Décorne
Migrations
Caernarfon, Wales
http://www.migrations.ws/
Dear Judie,
It is with extreme shock that I received the news about ACW cutting the revenue funding of CPRW.
I strongly believe the activities of CPR are vital to the arts sector.
It is essential to have a balance of activities across the sector to ensure the best standards of practice, delivery and presentation.
It is crucial to understand that delivery, training and professional development for students and professional, access to presentations by international professionals all feed from one another.
Removing one of these elements will have an impact on the rest.
We have been experiencing this in North Wales for many years; we have had an on going shortage of qualified dance practitioners in the area due to the lack of training, professional development and performance opportunities, but also due to the lack of dance presentations by international artists.
Bringing intensive training with high profile international artists for professional dance practitioners, offering support, nurturing them, helping to create a network for them, giving access to presentations has had a very positive impact over the last 4 years.
It has generated inspiration, critical debate, optimism, enhanced creativity, improved the artistic quality of the delivery. As the Director of Dawns i Bawb (community dance organisation for North West Wales) I can see the direct positive benefits on our activities, on the skills and commitment of the dancers to the area.
As a dance programmer I do feel it is my role and responsibility to bring work and training which will challenge the perceptions of dance and question this art form.
The emphasis is too often put on what is easy to quantify: the community activities delivery, the number of sessions and participation figures, are all there to testify of the amount of delivery and value for money.
However this same community delivery cannot maintain its standards of quality if the people delivering it do not have access to training, experimentation, presentation or possibility to improve and question their own practice. The same applies to choreographers, performers, theatre directors, programmers, lecturers…
CPR has enabled this vital element to happen at a high standard and their activities have had multiple positive ripple effects on the rest of the practice.
Without such a vital institution, the risk is that theatre and performance practice in Wales will loose in quality as there will be far too little opportunities for professionals and audience members to have access to such type of international work.
CPR has played an essential role in raising the visibility of Wales internationally.
Before coming to Wales I had heard of the work of CPR as it is internationally renowned. To my astonishment when I arrived in Wales, people from CPR were among the only professionals in Wales knowing about major international performance and contemporary dance artists. When I would have thought that these influential artists would be known by anyone claiming to be an expert in dance, it wasn’t the case.
This is why closing CPR will deprive audiences and Welsh professionals to access high quality challenging work and continuing professional development.
Wales will certainly loose in international visibility.
The decision to cut revenue funding seems to go against the strategic and capacity-building aims of ACW and an outward-facing Wales; innovation, an international perspective and rigorous training policy are matching their aims.
It is absolutely impossible to think that CPR can realistically be sustainable and continue its activities on a project basis. This will only lead to the number of activities decreasing dramatically and far worse loosing crucial knowledge, experience and skills.
I sincerely hope that your appeal will be successful.
Best wishes,
Karine Décorne
Migrations
Caernarfon, Wales
http://www.migrations.ws/
Simon Whitehead - Artist, Ceredigion, Wales
Judie and Richard,
It has taken me a while to respond to your situation in written form, a while to assimilate what is happening in relation to the wider culture of 'rationalisation' and risk reduction.
My relationship with CPR goes back.
In the early nineties I was sent to a CPR workshop whilst a young, 'green' dancer with Ludus Dance Co., to widen my experience..later that year, and partly influenced by my 'experience', I left the company to make my own work in London.
I came to 'Performance and Shamanism', the images are fleeting now, but the work I was exposed to was to become formative and soon after I left London to work in Wales with Scott de La hunta.
Later, and in 'Mapping Wales' the journey I made with Rachel Rosenthal remains with me and although I was the physical guide, Rachel continues to be a voice of guidance in my practice.
So, CPR has, as i am sure is the case with many other artists/ practitioners, been invaluable in 'opening up Worlds' at different points in a working career.
I am grateful for the experiences CPR has offered, I hope that this time offers reflection for the Organisation and the wider community, both here in Wales and Internationally.
A reflection that considers the need for risk taking, the evolution of new and relevant forums and how artists and organisations can continue to muster each others voices in difficult times.
I wish you well,
Simon Whitehead
Artist
Ceredigion, Wales
It has taken me a while to respond to your situation in written form, a while to assimilate what is happening in relation to the wider culture of 'rationalisation' and risk reduction.
My relationship with CPR goes back.
In the early nineties I was sent to a CPR workshop whilst a young, 'green' dancer with Ludus Dance Co., to widen my experience..later that year, and partly influenced by my 'experience', I left the company to make my own work in London.
I came to 'Performance and Shamanism', the images are fleeting now, but the work I was exposed to was to become formative and soon after I left London to work in Wales with Scott de La hunta.
Later, and in 'Mapping Wales' the journey I made with Rachel Rosenthal remains with me and although I was the physical guide, Rachel continues to be a voice of guidance in my practice.
So, CPR has, as i am sure is the case with many other artists/ practitioners, been invaluable in 'opening up Worlds' at different points in a working career.
I am grateful for the experiences CPR has offered, I hope that this time offers reflection for the Organisation and the wider community, both here in Wales and Internationally.
A reflection that considers the need for risk taking, the evolution of new and relevant forums and how artists and organisations can continue to muster each others voices in difficult times.
I wish you well,
Simon Whitehead
Artist
Ceredigion, Wales
Martin Boroson - Author, organizational consultant and speaker, UK
CPR organised one of the best conferences I've ever been to.
Their approach covers so much more than 'the arts' as typically understood. It addresses the arts as the meeting place of many disciplines, and a means for genuine celebration, ritual, community and intercultural understanding. They are in a different league to other arts organisations, combining serious scholarship with serious practice.
Please preserve, honor and fund them
Martin Boroson
Author, organizational consultant and speaker
UK
Their approach covers so much more than 'the arts' as typically understood. It addresses the arts as the meeting place of many disciplines, and a means for genuine celebration, ritual, community and intercultural understanding. They are in a different league to other arts organisations, combining serious scholarship with serious practice.
Please preserve, honor and fund them
Martin Boroson
Author, organizational consultant and speaker
UK
Bill Hamblett - Director, Small World Theatre, Wales
23rd Feb 2008
Dear Judie Christie and Richard Gough,
It is shocking to hear of the Centre for Performance Research’s (CPR) recent ACW funding cut. CPR plays an important role in Wales’ theatre ecology. To take this vital element out of the picture or to lessen it’s effect and influence would have an immediate and detrimental effect on the quality and direction of theatre in Wales and on how theatre from Wales is viewed internationally.
CPR’s inspired decision to move out of Cardiff to West Wales presaged the current thinking on viewing the culture of Wales as a national entity with a wide geographical spread. Indeed the newly emerging National Theatre of Wales would benefit a great deal by having strong links with this inspiring, knowledgeable and influential organisation.
The view from the capital may not be as informed as the theatre community is, of CPR’s work. CPR’s presence has enlivened and nurtured a huge spectrum of performers, directors, writers, scenograpers, actors, critics and singers. Both through their inclusive support and respect for all forms of performance, however experimental, and by providing access to iconic practitioners from all over the world by bringing them to Wales.
The picture of theatre in and from Wales would be diminished without CPR. You may not notice it at first but without CPR as a reference point new companies would be doomed to re invent the theatre wheel, have only limited knowledge of, or access to, great moments of international theatre history, contemporary theatre or an open focussed approach to the theatre of the future.
The Centre for Performance Research is important to the theatre community of Wales. It is as if a person walking across a vast, burning desert with a huge pack on their back is reaching for the water flask (with CPR embossed on it) saying “I must lighten my load or I’ll never get there fast enough, I’ll throw this away, water is heavy isn’t it ?”
There are some organisations that ACW should be proud to support, The Centre for Performance Research is one of them.
Bill Hamblett
Small World Theatre
Cardigan, Wales
http://www.smallworld.org.uk/
Dear Judie Christie and Richard Gough,
It is shocking to hear of the Centre for Performance Research’s (CPR) recent ACW funding cut. CPR plays an important role in Wales’ theatre ecology. To take this vital element out of the picture or to lessen it’s effect and influence would have an immediate and detrimental effect on the quality and direction of theatre in Wales and on how theatre from Wales is viewed internationally.
CPR’s inspired decision to move out of Cardiff to West Wales presaged the current thinking on viewing the culture of Wales as a national entity with a wide geographical spread. Indeed the newly emerging National Theatre of Wales would benefit a great deal by having strong links with this inspiring, knowledgeable and influential organisation.
The view from the capital may not be as informed as the theatre community is, of CPR’s work. CPR’s presence has enlivened and nurtured a huge spectrum of performers, directors, writers, scenograpers, actors, critics and singers. Both through their inclusive support and respect for all forms of performance, however experimental, and by providing access to iconic practitioners from all over the world by bringing them to Wales.
The picture of theatre in and from Wales would be diminished without CPR. You may not notice it at first but without CPR as a reference point new companies would be doomed to re invent the theatre wheel, have only limited knowledge of, or access to, great moments of international theatre history, contemporary theatre or an open focussed approach to the theatre of the future.
The Centre for Performance Research is important to the theatre community of Wales. It is as if a person walking across a vast, burning desert with a huge pack on their back is reaching for the water flask (with CPR embossed on it) saying “I must lighten my load or I’ll never get there fast enough, I’ll throw this away, water is heavy isn’t it ?”
There are some organisations that ACW should be proud to support, The Centre for Performance Research is one of them.
Bill Hamblett
Small World Theatre
Cardigan, Wales
http://www.smallworld.org.uk/
Sally Marie - Dance Artist, Bridgend, Wales
Since I have been living in Wales, my main source of inspiration as a dance artist has been the workshops provided by CPR.
The artists they attract are simply staggering. For instance I was thrilled to be able to do a workshop with my favourite company Ridiculusmus. It turned out to be the only one in the UK this year.
Next weekend I shall be visiting the Centre for three days and I hope connecting with lots of other Welsh dance artists when I do a workshop with the incredible Lin Snelling.
Sally Marie
Bridgend, Wales
Prof. Ken Friedman - Dean, Swinburne Design, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia
It is disappointing to learn that the Centre for Performance Research is under threat due to potential budget cuts. I have signed the petition urging continued funding to the center, and I write you to confirm my support for your programs and publications.
You have provided a lively forum for research, reflection, and practice in performance since the centre began in 1988. With roots going back to 1974 at the Cardiff Laboratory Theatre, this adds up to three and a half decades of work.
As Dean of Swinburne Design, I am responsible for our School of Film and Television. In this role, I am aware of the vital contribution that the Centre for Performance Research makes to the arts and to the creative industries in Wales, the UK, and around the world.
The cost of funding CPR is far less than the value this outstanding centre creates. I urge the continued funding of this important institution.
Sincerely,
--
Ken Friedman
Professor, Ph.D., D.Sc. (hc), FDRS
Dean, Swinburne Design
Swinburne University of Technology
Melbourne, Australia
You have provided a lively forum for research, reflection, and practice in performance since the centre began in 1988. With roots going back to 1974 at the Cardiff Laboratory Theatre, this adds up to three and a half decades of work.
As Dean of Swinburne Design, I am responsible for our School of Film and Television. In this role, I am aware of the vital contribution that the Centre for Performance Research makes to the arts and to the creative industries in Wales, the UK, and around the world.
The cost of funding CPR is far less than the value this outstanding centre creates. I urge the continued funding of this important institution.
Sincerely,
--
Ken Friedman
Professor, Ph.D., D.Sc. (hc), FDRS
Dean, Swinburne Design
Swinburne University of Technology
Melbourne, Australia
Pedro F Marcelino - Mindel'jazz: International Jazz Festival of Mindelo, Cape Verde
Dear Judie Christie,
Dear Richard Gough,
I am distraught, saddened and upset by the news that the Art Council of Wales intends to cut down costs by drastically reducing funding to the CPR. I would like to urge the ACW to seriously reconsider this plan, in light of the importance of the CPR for Wales, and for the performance world in general, as testified here by so many dedicated professionals around the globe.
When I came to Aberystwyth for further studies, the city was all but unknown to me. In Aberystwyth I found not only a brilliant academic institution, the Aberystwyth Arts Centre, providing a surprising program in an isolated area of the country, but also - to my astonishment - the CPR. Over the last two years, I had the chance of witnessing the world class quality of performance periodically presented at the Centre; I observed with awe the amazing line-ups presented in several workshops on cutting-edge areas of performance; and, most importantly, I have been shocked to learn that many colleagues in Portugal, in West Africa, in England, in Canada, and elsewhere, knew a lot more about the CPR than I did, and tremendously respect its work. Although it was a surprise to me, it shouldn't have been: the CPR has a proven track record of an avant-garde approach to performance; an astounding program that represents a clear asset to the community in Aberystwyth and in Wales; and one of the best specialized libraries in the world. This is what professionals around the world (and now me) know, and this is also why they resent the ACW's shameful decision. For some strange reason, we, as a society, continue to place a reduced amount of importance in the arts.
The ACW has the prerogative of identifying one case in which things could be different, and act accordingly by keeping the CPR fully funded.
Since 2006, I have acted as PR rep. for a new jazz and performance arts street festival in Mindelo. Mindelo is an amazing cultural vortex in the Republic of Cape Verde, West Africa. I have discussed this event with members of the CPR and identified a number of contact points that would enable a collaboration between the two institutions. This education-through-the-arts development project, and its social, economic and cultural consequences would be greatly enhanced by enabling synergies with institutions like the CPR. Without this funding, it is certain that the Centre's ability to partake in cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary projects such as this will me severely reduced.
I am therefore requesting in the strongest possible terms that the ACW reconsider this decision.
Your have all our support in this quest.
Yours sincerely,
Pedro F Marcelino
Director of Communications,
Marketing and Sponsoring
Mindel'jazz: International Jazz
Festival of Mindelo, Cape Verde
ACCVE's Cultural Development project:
Association for Cooperation w/ Cape Verde
Republic of Cape Verde
Joc Mack - Norwich
Last year I recommended the CPR to drama teachers / practioners in a review section of the Times Educational Supplement.
The CPR is a unique gem of an organisation, bringing languages, cultures, forms and new forms of performance together like no other. I continue to be amazed by the depth and finesse of its work and gladly travel across two countries to take part in events, It is able to inspire true cultural fusion and offer world class events with and for academics and practitioners.
Joc Mack
Norwich
The CPR is a unique gem of an organisation, bringing languages, cultures, forms and new forms of performance together like no other. I continue to be amazed by the depth and finesse of its work and gladly travel across two countries to take part in events, It is able to inspire true cultural fusion and offer world class events with and for academics and practitioners.
Joc Mack
Norwich
Friday 14 March 2008
Bill Hopkinson - Senior Lecturer in Drama, Edge Hill University
Dear Judie and Richard,
May I add one more voice to the chorus of condemnation that is greeting ACW’s short-sighted and poorly thought through proposal to cut CPR’s funding. I have been coming to Giving Voice since the early nineties, and cannot think of a more vibrant, multicultural or inspiring meeting place for artists.
Traveling the country as Literary Manager for Sgript Cymru between 2000 and 2004 I was continually meeting young artists, writers and performers who had been inspired by time spent with CPR. I am speaking of the emerging generation of Welsh performing artists who in so many respects are so poorly served by ACW elsewhere. To suggest that CPR is not a “frontline” organization betrays a lack of understanding of how emerging performers, and indeed those more advanced in their careers, are sustained and nurtured.
I can also think of no organization in Wales which has so consistently and visibly placed the nation on the international stage; as the growing list of dissenting voices from around the world testifies. I will be in Aberystwyth once again in a few weeks time, I anticipate that my own work will be once again renewed and inspired by the extraordinary meeting which is Giving Voice: I sincerely hope to be able to say the same again in the future.
Yours in sorrow
Bill Hopkinson
Senior Lecturer in Drama, Edgehill University, Lancashire.
Literary Manager, Sgript Cymru 2000-2004
Pierluigi Castelli - Artistic Director, Arhat Teatro, Italy
Preg.mi Judie Christie e Richard Gough
non ci conosciamo direttamente, ma so molto bene, attraverso Eugenio Barba e l'Odin Teatret, della preziosa opera che da lungo tempo tempo conducete nel campo della ricerca, dello studio e della diffusione delle pratiche e dei processi teatrali più innovativi e peculiari della scena internazionale.
E' con vivo sconcerto che apprendo ora della incomprensibile decisione dell'Art Council del Galles di ritirare i finanziamenti annuali che potevano dare stabilità e concretezza al vostro lavoro tanto complesso e necessitante di tempi lunghi e azioni articolate atte a condurre in porto, con rigore e alta professionalità, quei progetti di vasto respiro internazionale che sempre avete saputo proporre.
Non posso non esprimere tutto il mio rammarico per una presenza tanto importante che rischia di essere ridotta al silenzio, in mezzo al chiasso sempre più vuoto e sempre più assordante delle logiche imperanti del mercato di massa....magari ammantate qua e là di tratti definiti di innovazione (?)
Nell'esprimervi la mia solidarietà, e quella del gruppo che dirigo, unisco l'auspicio che una fitta rete di "voci altre", provenienti da ogni parte del mondo, possa indurre chi di dovere a riconsiderare le posizioni prese.
Sarebbe davvero un atteggiamento etico serio, capace di ridare speranza e prospettiva a scelte culturali di spessore di cui non ci si può privare.
Sempre di più è necessario resistere.
Sono con voi.
Pierluigi Castelli
direttore artistico
Arhat Teatro
Bergamo
(Italia)
My Dearest Judie Christie and Richard Gough,
We do not know you personally, but through Eugenio Barba and the Odin Theatre I know very well of the valuable work you have done for so many years in the research field, the study and the dissemination of the most innovative and unique theatre practices and processes of the international scene.
It is with great shock that I learnt about the ACW incomprehensible decision to withdraw revenue funding that could give stability and concreteness to your work. A work which is so complex and in need of a great deal of time and articulated actions which enable with rigor and high professionalism to bring to a successful conclusion all those international project you have always created.
It is impossible for me not to express all my regret for such an important presence as CPR which is risking to be reduced to silence, in the midst of an increasingly empty and increasingly deafening racket of the prevailing logics of the mass market (mainstream) … that are perhaps cloaked here and there of lines of innovation (?)
In expressing to you my solidarity, and my group’s solidarity, I also want to hope that a strong network of “Other Voices” from all over the world could induce those responsible to reconsider the decision taken.
It would be a very serious ethical attitude, capable of restoring hope and perspective to highly important cultural choices of which one cannot be deprived of.
Increasingly, it is necessary to resist. We are with you.
Pierluigi Castelli
Artistic Director
Arhat Teatro
Bergamo
non ci conosciamo direttamente, ma so molto bene, attraverso Eugenio Barba e l'Odin Teatret, della preziosa opera che da lungo tempo tempo conducete nel campo della ricerca, dello studio e della diffusione delle pratiche e dei processi teatrali più innovativi e peculiari della scena internazionale.
E' con vivo sconcerto che apprendo ora della incomprensibile decisione dell'Art Council del Galles di ritirare i finanziamenti annuali che potevano dare stabilità e concretezza al vostro lavoro tanto complesso e necessitante di tempi lunghi e azioni articolate atte a condurre in porto, con rigore e alta professionalità, quei progetti di vasto respiro internazionale che sempre avete saputo proporre.
Non posso non esprimere tutto il mio rammarico per una presenza tanto importante che rischia di essere ridotta al silenzio, in mezzo al chiasso sempre più vuoto e sempre più assordante delle logiche imperanti del mercato di massa....magari ammantate qua e là di tratti definiti di innovazione (?)
Nell'esprimervi la mia solidarietà, e quella del gruppo che dirigo, unisco l'auspicio che una fitta rete di "voci altre", provenienti da ogni parte del mondo, possa indurre chi di dovere a riconsiderare le posizioni prese.
Sarebbe davvero un atteggiamento etico serio, capace di ridare speranza e prospettiva a scelte culturali di spessore di cui non ci si può privare.
Sempre di più è necessario resistere.
Sono con voi.
Pierluigi Castelli
direttore artistico
Arhat Teatro
Bergamo
(Italia)
My Dearest Judie Christie and Richard Gough,
We do not know you personally, but through Eugenio Barba and the Odin Theatre I know very well of the valuable work you have done for so many years in the research field, the study and the dissemination of the most innovative and unique theatre practices and processes of the international scene.
It is with great shock that I learnt about the ACW incomprehensible decision to withdraw revenue funding that could give stability and concreteness to your work. A work which is so complex and in need of a great deal of time and articulated actions which enable with rigor and high professionalism to bring to a successful conclusion all those international project you have always created.
It is impossible for me not to express all my regret for such an important presence as CPR which is risking to be reduced to silence, in the midst of an increasingly empty and increasingly deafening racket of the prevailing logics of the mass market (mainstream) … that are perhaps cloaked here and there of lines of innovation (?)
In expressing to you my solidarity, and my group’s solidarity, I also want to hope that a strong network of “Other Voices” from all over the world could induce those responsible to reconsider the decision taken.
It would be a very serious ethical attitude, capable of restoring hope and perspective to highly important cultural choices of which one cannot be deprived of.
Increasingly, it is necessary to resist. We are with you.
Pierluigi Castelli
Artistic Director
Arhat Teatro
Bergamo
Dr Daniel Watt - Lecturer in English and Drama, Loughborough University
F.A.O. :
Arts Council Wales
Dear Sir or Madam,
It is with regret that I hear of your decision to withdraw funding from the Centre for Performance Research with effect from July 2008. I shall declare my interest firstly so as to keep you fully in the picture of my statement below. I worked for the Centre for Performance Research from January 2004 – January 2006, as a research and publications assistant. I am therefore familiar with their working methods and am writing to you in the hope that you will reverse your decision. Indeed more than that: that you will see sense and increase your funding of CPR rather than the proposed move to ‘possible one-off project funding’ for which I read ‘Death Sentence’.
As you must be aware, CPR has been at the forefront of innovative theatre and performance practice in Wales for many years. During those 30 years CPR has brought many leading companies to Wales that would otherwise never have visited. They have staged performance works of the highest calibre and been proactive in bringing theatre to many communities across the country.
CPR has consistently nurtured performers who have gone on to become leading international practitioners. As much of ACW’s current thrust of thought centres around the international context of the arts in Wales it seems quite illogical to cut the funding from an organisation that has continually worked to bring about such possibilities.
Put simply the proposed cuts you suggest will destroy CPR as an independent organisation, and in so doing will also make a number of highly skilled and dedicated staff unemployed. The ‘project funding’ plan is not viable. Who will run the projects? Who will plan them? Staff brought in piecemeal on a project by project basis, with no knowledge of the way the organisation functions, the venues available, the best means by which to provide context, and practical considerations of travel, accommodation and food? And beyond this there is the consideration of the amount of visitors who come to Wales and Aberystwyth specifically for CPR’s work using local hotels and restaurants and the economic impact of this decision. All of this from a core grant that enables a small team to function and projects to flow. The programme alone, additionally enabled by facilities and support from Aberystywth University, is ‘worth’ the small grant of £118,000, leaving aside other economic benefits for the region. This sort of programme is not possible without the knowledge and dedication of a core team of very experienced people.
CPR has stayed true to its commitment to Wales; please recognise and reward this commitment; reverse your decision, and put in its place an increase of funding and guarantee of support, rather than the precarious and unfathomable existence on ‘Death Row’ that ‘possible’ project funding would create.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Daniel Watt
Lecturer in English and Drama
Loughborough University
Arts Council Wales
Dear Sir or Madam,
It is with regret that I hear of your decision to withdraw funding from the Centre for Performance Research with effect from July 2008. I shall declare my interest firstly so as to keep you fully in the picture of my statement below. I worked for the Centre for Performance Research from January 2004 – January 2006, as a research and publications assistant. I am therefore familiar with their working methods and am writing to you in the hope that you will reverse your decision. Indeed more than that: that you will see sense and increase your funding of CPR rather than the proposed move to ‘possible one-off project funding’ for which I read ‘Death Sentence’.
As you must be aware, CPR has been at the forefront of innovative theatre and performance practice in Wales for many years. During those 30 years CPR has brought many leading companies to Wales that would otherwise never have visited. They have staged performance works of the highest calibre and been proactive in bringing theatre to many communities across the country.
CPR has consistently nurtured performers who have gone on to become leading international practitioners. As much of ACW’s current thrust of thought centres around the international context of the arts in Wales it seems quite illogical to cut the funding from an organisation that has continually worked to bring about such possibilities.
Put simply the proposed cuts you suggest will destroy CPR as an independent organisation, and in so doing will also make a number of highly skilled and dedicated staff unemployed. The ‘project funding’ plan is not viable. Who will run the projects? Who will plan them? Staff brought in piecemeal on a project by project basis, with no knowledge of the way the organisation functions, the venues available, the best means by which to provide context, and practical considerations of travel, accommodation and food? And beyond this there is the consideration of the amount of visitors who come to Wales and Aberystwyth specifically for CPR’s work using local hotels and restaurants and the economic impact of this decision. All of this from a core grant that enables a small team to function and projects to flow. The programme alone, additionally enabled by facilities and support from Aberystywth University, is ‘worth’ the small grant of £118,000, leaving aside other economic benefits for the region. This sort of programme is not possible without the knowledge and dedication of a core team of very experienced people.
CPR has stayed true to its commitment to Wales; please recognise and reward this commitment; reverse your decision, and put in its place an increase of funding and guarantee of support, rather than the precarious and unfathomable existence on ‘Death Row’ that ‘possible’ project funding would create.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Daniel Watt
Lecturer in English and Drama
Loughborough University
Tim Pearce - Footsbarn Theatre, France
All of us at Footsbarn Theatre give our total support to CPR and their appeal to have the Arts Council's decision reversed.
There are simply not enough structures like CPR in the world let alone the UK.
We have spent 37 years working with multicultural performance, and CPR is more vital than ever today.
Good luck to CPR from the centre of France.
Tim Pearce
Maillet
France
http://footsbarn.com/
There are simply not enough structures like CPR in the world let alone the UK.
We have spent 37 years working with multicultural performance, and CPR is more vital than ever today.
Good luck to CPR from the centre of France.
Tim Pearce
Maillet
France
http://footsbarn.com/
Helen Kozich - Artist, Machynlleth, Wales
CPR’s work across a huge breadth of performance arts is invaluable – both for professionals and for nthusiastic amateurs seeking high quality new learning experiences.
Their work is especially relevant in a time when the boundaries between visual arts, performance, dance and voicework are increasingly challenged.
Helen Kozich
Artist
Machynlleth
Wales
Their work is especially relevant in a time when the boundaries between visual arts, performance, dance and voicework are increasingly challenged.
Helen Kozich
Artist
Machynlleth
Wales
Dr Deborah Middleton - University of Huddersfield
CPR is a unique and precious resource, which has supported generations of artists, practitioners, students and academics.
Many careers have been founded on experiences gained because of the work of CPR. Debate and practice has flourished through training and conference activities which CPR has convened.
Loss of this organisation would be a severe loss of life-blood for the arts in this country and beyond.
Dr Deborah Middleton
School of Music, Humanities and Media
University of Huddersfield
Many careers have been founded on experiences gained because of the work of CPR. Debate and practice has flourished through training and conference activities which CPR has convened.
Loss of this organisation would be a severe loss of life-blood for the arts in this country and beyond.
Dr Deborah Middleton
School of Music, Humanities and Media
University of Huddersfield
Dr Karen Juers-Munby - Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts
The CPR in Aberystwyth has been a vital meeting place for a vast number of theatre and performance practioners, academics and and students for years. It has always managed to be locally rooted while being internationally famous.
By any European arts funding standards the current funding must be considered a small investment for immeasurable returns. I last visited the CPR for the international ‘Towards Tomorrow’ Conference.
Please revert your decision and make sure CPR Wales has a tomorrow!
Dr Karen Juers-Munby
Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts
By any European arts funding standards the current funding must be considered a small investment for immeasurable returns. I last visited the CPR for the international ‘Towards Tomorrow’ Conference.
Please revert your decision and make sure CPR Wales has a tomorrow!
Dr Karen Juers-Munby
Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts
Dr. Claire MacDonald - Director, International Centre for Fine Art Research, London
Dear CPR,
I am writing to add my voice of support to CPR and to ask that the Arts Council of Wales reconsiders pulling out its support. CPR is not only a valuable, long active, resource that deserves to be funded - many arts projects do. It is more that, in terms of its contribution to the arts internationally, the question should really be how to engage the arts community in further valuing what it does by using it as a model, an exemplar and a generative source of expertise, knowledge and skills. In a time when the word of the day is 'knowledge transfer' cutting CPR does not allow knowledge to be transferred, exchanged or valued.
Many of us can say that our own careers and success has been informed by the ideas, support and/or curatorial and directorial work of CPR and we would all mourn a serious threat to its future and I hope that this does not happen.
Strangely enough, it is always in some sense a pleasure to be able to respond to a valued organization by saying how valuable it is and continues to be - but in this instance it is bleak indeed to consider its possible demise.
in support
Claire MacDonald
Dr. Claire MacDonald
Director ICFAR
International Centre for Fine Art Research
University of the Arts London
I am writing to add my voice of support to CPR and to ask that the Arts Council of Wales reconsiders pulling out its support. CPR is not only a valuable, long active, resource that deserves to be funded - many arts projects do. It is more that, in terms of its contribution to the arts internationally, the question should really be how to engage the arts community in further valuing what it does by using it as a model, an exemplar and a generative source of expertise, knowledge and skills. In a time when the word of the day is 'knowledge transfer' cutting CPR does not allow knowledge to be transferred, exchanged or valued.
Many of us can say that our own careers and success has been informed by the ideas, support and/or curatorial and directorial work of CPR and we would all mourn a serious threat to its future and I hope that this does not happen.
Strangely enough, it is always in some sense a pleasure to be able to respond to a valued organization by saying how valuable it is and continues to be - but in this instance it is bleak indeed to consider its possible demise.
in support
Claire MacDonald
Dr. Claire MacDonald
Director ICFAR
International Centre for Fine Art Research
University of the Arts London
Jack James - Actor, London
Dear Richard and Judie
CPR has been consistent in its commitment to promoting cultural innovation, excellence in performance and rigour in research. It has provided a model of theatrical best practice and continues to inspire and encourage artists across the spectrum of the performing arts.
Whilst firmly rooted in Wales, CPR has provided a meeting place and point of contact for practitioners and academics internationally and has been a significant cultural ambassador for Wales throughout the world.
I was personally involved in the company's work for only a very short space of time (as a member of the CPR performance ensemble The Practice) but the deep and lasting contribution of that brief contact informs all my work; I am constantly struck by the realisation that ideas and practices which I first encountered in the context of CPR's theatre research are now accepted common practice in the arenas of subsidised main-stage theatre - fifteen years later. Many companies boast of being innovators, CPR really are. Long may they continue.
I join with the many voices here urging the Arts Council of Wales to reverse this retrogressive and ill considered funding decision.
Jack James
Actor, London
CPR has been consistent in its commitment to promoting cultural innovation, excellence in performance and rigour in research. It has provided a model of theatrical best practice and continues to inspire and encourage artists across the spectrum of the performing arts.
Whilst firmly rooted in Wales, CPR has provided a meeting place and point of contact for practitioners and academics internationally and has been a significant cultural ambassador for Wales throughout the world.
I was personally involved in the company's work for only a very short space of time (as a member of the CPR performance ensemble The Practice) but the deep and lasting contribution of that brief contact informs all my work; I am constantly struck by the realisation that ideas and practices which I first encountered in the context of CPR's theatre research are now accepted common practice in the arenas of subsidised main-stage theatre - fifteen years later. Many companies boast of being innovators, CPR really are. Long may they continue.
I join with the many voices here urging the Arts Council of Wales to reverse this retrogressive and ill considered funding decision.
Jack James
Actor, London
Jessica Yeung - Associate Director, Centre for Translation, Hong Kong Baptist University
It is very saddening news to hear that the CPR is facing difficulties.
CPR is an extremely important body not only for arts in the UK, but also for the rest of the world. When I did my postgraduate studies on performing arts in HK (China) and in the UK, I constantly referred to publications of CPR for high quality and inspiring material. Now I am teaching in university and I always tell my students to go to CPR references when they need inspirations.
In my capacity of policy making for the arts in my part of the world, I also urge my colleagues to regularly check up on CPR, because CPR presents and represents some of the most cutting edge work done in the performing arts in the world.
I also tell my theatre friends in HK and China that Wales has one of the most interesting and progressive centre for performing arts in the world. It has a most amazing vision and truly reflects the spirit of internationalism. It will be a great pity if CPR has to reduce the scope or scale of its work and would not be able to make such wonderful contributions to performing arts in the world; I worry that it would also weaken the influence of Wales in the world scene of performing arts.
Jessica Yeung
Associate Director
Centre for Translation
Hong Kong Baptist University;
Advisor
Programme and Development Committee,
Leisure and Cultural Services Department, HK(SAR), China
CPR is an extremely important body not only for arts in the UK, but also for the rest of the world. When I did my postgraduate studies on performing arts in HK (China) and in the UK, I constantly referred to publications of CPR for high quality and inspiring material. Now I am teaching in university and I always tell my students to go to CPR references when they need inspirations.
In my capacity of policy making for the arts in my part of the world, I also urge my colleagues to regularly check up on CPR, because CPR presents and represents some of the most cutting edge work done in the performing arts in the world.
I also tell my theatre friends in HK and China that Wales has one of the most interesting and progressive centre for performing arts in the world. It has a most amazing vision and truly reflects the spirit of internationalism. It will be a great pity if CPR has to reduce the scope or scale of its work and would not be able to make such wonderful contributions to performing arts in the world; I worry that it would also weaken the influence of Wales in the world scene of performing arts.
Jessica Yeung
Associate Director
Centre for Translation
Hong Kong Baptist University;
Advisor
Programme and Development Committee,
Leisure and Cultural Services Department, HK(SAR), China
Wednesday 12 March 2008
Gabriel Paul Gawin - Theatre Director, Wroclaw, Poland
The CPR has been one of the most infuential organisations that I have had the pleasure of engaging with. Early in my career as a theatre practitioner they brought me in to contact with an extraordinary array of World and Welsh theatre and performance practice allowing me to break through the limitations of Anglo- Saxon perspectives I had thought were universal. The quality, breadth and range of work they promoted over the years places them as one of the most important global cultural innovators.
Gabriel Paul Gawin
Director
Wroclaw
Poland
Gabriel Paul Gawin
Director
Wroclaw
Poland
Stephanie Tillotson - Aberystwyth, Wales
Dear Richard
I am writing to express my deep concern and shock at the recent news concerning the proposed change in funding status regarding The Centre for Performance Research. I believe that the Arts Council of Wales has decided to withdrawn revenue funding from CPR and has suggested that the organization move onto a project funded footing.
It is my opinion that CPR is an invaluable source and resource for artists, audiences, teachers and young people living and working in Wales. CPR provides access to instruction that would otherwise be impossible to undertake; invaluable to those wishing to train or to extend their areas of expertise and providing a space to be, to think and to dream. Furthermore, CPR is a priceless catalogue to those who wish for access to the innovative and internationally important artists, companies and thought concerning performance of the recent past. It is no wonder that CPR has an internationally respected place in the theatre and performance community, a place that I would think a huge deficit to Wales should the facility be lost due to lack of funding that makes core staff funding, and therefore the long term future of CPR, possible.
At his exciting and challenging period when the drama, theatre and performance community is looking forward to the proposed creation of a non-building based national theatre it is all the more important that the basic core work of the Centre for Performance Research be supported and utilized, without diminution, in the pursuit of excellence for, and by, the people of Wales. I wish, therefore, to lend my voice to the appeal against the Arts Council of Wales decision and to thank all concerned at CPR for the service they have rendered to the international community of artists over the years.
Yours sincerely
S. A. Tillotson
Aberystwyth, Wales
I am writing to express my deep concern and shock at the recent news concerning the proposed change in funding status regarding The Centre for Performance Research. I believe that the Arts Council of Wales has decided to withdrawn revenue funding from CPR and has suggested that the organization move onto a project funded footing.
It is my opinion that CPR is an invaluable source and resource for artists, audiences, teachers and young people living and working in Wales. CPR provides access to instruction that would otherwise be impossible to undertake; invaluable to those wishing to train or to extend their areas of expertise and providing a space to be, to think and to dream. Furthermore, CPR is a priceless catalogue to those who wish for access to the innovative and internationally important artists, companies and thought concerning performance of the recent past. It is no wonder that CPR has an internationally respected place in the theatre and performance community, a place that I would think a huge deficit to Wales should the facility be lost due to lack of funding that makes core staff funding, and therefore the long term future of CPR, possible.
At his exciting and challenging period when the drama, theatre and performance community is looking forward to the proposed creation of a non-building based national theatre it is all the more important that the basic core work of the Centre for Performance Research be supported and utilized, without diminution, in the pursuit of excellence for, and by, the people of Wales. I wish, therefore, to lend my voice to the appeal against the Arts Council of Wales decision and to thank all concerned at CPR for the service they have rendered to the international community of artists over the years.
Yours sincerely
S. A. Tillotson
Aberystwyth, Wales
Tuesday 11 March 2008
Electa Behrens - D-MOOR, Oslo
Dear Judie and Richard,
I will have to begin this letter repeating the same words with which many of our common colleagues have opened their letters to you - but I must do this because there are no words more to the point: I am deeply saddened to hear of the Arts Council's ill-advised decision in your case. None of us in independent arts organizations are in it for the fat pension checks or fancy vacations, but we all do hope that continuity of good work will be noticed and rewarded. The quality of an individual piece of art is always debatable, that is the nature of our field. However, qualities such as: continuity of programming, positive effects on the community, fostering of individual artists, founding of world renowned festivals and responsible business practices ARE quantifiable. CPR's excellence on all of these fronts makes the Arts Council's decision seem unfounded and confused.
I first met CPR in 2002, as an intern. At this time, you introduced me to many major artists who have shaped my career, and taught me important lessons about the human and business elements of organizing artistic events. After this initial meeting, I went on to work in many countries around Europe and found consistently that CPR was named as one of the main organizations in the UK and definitely the only one in Wales, which was actively connected to the strong currents present on the continent. In 2006, I came back to CPR to work. I found that you had grown as a company: further developing your program of workshops, attracting qualified and dedicated collaborators - in the office and on the stage, furthering international partnerships through networks and co-projects and being honored with the gift of a new working space in the heart of the university campus. It seemed clear that your continued dedication and foresight were bringing good things to Wales and bringing CPR, Wales and the UK out to good things.
Although I am proud of your accomplishments, as a fellow artist can be proud of a colleague, I have to admit that I write this letter out of purely selfish reasons. Currently, I am starting a freelance group in Norway. Norway looks very much towards the UK for models regarding how to organize its funding system for the arts. The UK's Arts Council decision in your case is a very dangerous message to Norway, and the world. It seems to say: do not use continuity of quality work as a deciding factor when funding artists. For my part, I certainly hope that Norway doesn't listen to such advice.
But what to advise?
Put your face into the stiff welsh wind with joy and the sun will break over the sea.
All the best,
Electa Behrens
--
D-MOOR
Oslo
Webside: http://www.dmoor.com/
I will have to begin this letter repeating the same words with which many of our common colleagues have opened their letters to you - but I must do this because there are no words more to the point: I am deeply saddened to hear of the Arts Council's ill-advised decision in your case. None of us in independent arts organizations are in it for the fat pension checks or fancy vacations, but we all do hope that continuity of good work will be noticed and rewarded. The quality of an individual piece of art is always debatable, that is the nature of our field. However, qualities such as: continuity of programming, positive effects on the community, fostering of individual artists, founding of world renowned festivals and responsible business practices ARE quantifiable. CPR's excellence on all of these fronts makes the Arts Council's decision seem unfounded and confused.
I first met CPR in 2002, as an intern. At this time, you introduced me to many major artists who have shaped my career, and taught me important lessons about the human and business elements of organizing artistic events. After this initial meeting, I went on to work in many countries around Europe and found consistently that CPR was named as one of the main organizations in the UK and definitely the only one in Wales, which was actively connected to the strong currents present on the continent. In 2006, I came back to CPR to work. I found that you had grown as a company: further developing your program of workshops, attracting qualified and dedicated collaborators - in the office and on the stage, furthering international partnerships through networks and co-projects and being honored with the gift of a new working space in the heart of the university campus. It seemed clear that your continued dedication and foresight were bringing good things to Wales and bringing CPR, Wales and the UK out to good things.
Although I am proud of your accomplishments, as a fellow artist can be proud of a colleague, I have to admit that I write this letter out of purely selfish reasons. Currently, I am starting a freelance group in Norway. Norway looks very much towards the UK for models regarding how to organize its funding system for the arts. The UK's Arts Council decision in your case is a very dangerous message to Norway, and the world. It seems to say: do not use continuity of quality work as a deciding factor when funding artists. For my part, I certainly hope that Norway doesn't listen to such advice.
But what to advise?
Put your face into the stiff welsh wind with joy and the sun will break over the sea.
All the best,
Electa Behrens
--
D-MOOR
Oslo
Webside: http://www.dmoor.com/
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