To whom it may concern:
La Pocha Nostra is an organization comprising over 30 performance artists from different communities and countries, all interested in live art and transnational collaboration.
For over 10 years we have been associated with the Centre for Performance Research (CPR) in different capacities, as collaborators with CPR in creating the Museum of Fetishised Identities performance with local artists and MA students, as well as presenting our performance work in Aberystwyth, lecturing and presenting, and writing for the well established CPR led Performance Research journal.
It was during these residencies and collaborations that we were first given the opportunity to develop our pedagogical process, engage in innumerable ongoing collaborations with UK-based artists, and expand our international community.
After our exposure to these programs, La Pocha began a series of nomadic performance workshops first in Wales (CPR), and then travelling to across the globe to Mexico City, London (Live Arts Development Agency), Tucuman (Argentina), Barcelona, and the Canary Islands.
In 2005 we decided to consolidate all these experiences and opened a “performance summer school” in the Mexican city of Oaxaca. Artists from as far away as the US, Canada, the UK, Spain, Holland, Germany, Australia, and Peru came to collaborate with indigenous Oaxacans working in experimental art forms. The “Pocha summer school” has become an amazing artistic and anthropological experiment--how do artists from different countries and races spanning three generations, from every imaginable artistic background, begin to negotiate a common ground? Again, performance art provided the answer by becoming the connective tissue and lingua franca for our temporary community.
CPR performs multiple roles for the international live arts community. It is a think tank, a laboratory, an archive and a gathering place. Most importantly a place where artists are given the freedom to experiment outside the normal context of their work, to make links with other artists, students, academics and the public and to review and develop their own practice whilst sharing their methodology with an eclectic group of workshop participants.
The idea that CPR might be forced to close its doors to the public arts community due to funding cuts is extremely alarming to many networks of live artists in both continents. We energetically raise our voices in hopes that the Welsh Arts Council (ACW) understands that to jeopardize CPR's existence directly affects Wales’ artistic relations with many countries and will have a severe impact on Wales’ cultural standing throughout the world.
Sincerely yours,
La Pocha Nostra
San Francisco California, USA
Guillermo Gómez-Peña Mexico/USA
Roberto Sifuentes Mexico/USA
Michele Ceballos Columbia/USA
Violeta Luna Mexico/USA
Rachel Rogers UK
Friday 29 February 2008
Phillip Mackenzie - Director Sherman Youth Theatre, Wales
Dear Richard and Judie,
I am still in a state of shock and utter disbelief to hear of ACW planned withdrawal of CPR funding.
The CPR contribution to the cultural and artistic life of Wales and its artists is immeasurable. Its invisible tentacles have reached, inspired and touched so many, for so long and with so much.
Personally it created and provided me with opportunities and encounters with an array of extraordinary artists and thinkers from across the globe, that inform all that I do in the theatre today. It introduced myself and many of my contemporaries to a rich and varied arena of practice and disciplines. Without the CPR these connections and contacts, each with their own unique modes of thinking and doing would never have taken place.
These provocations and stimulations have continually inspired throughout a 30 year career that has allowed me to perform and direct in 17 countries with a myriad of people and communities.
In my present position as Director of Youth Theatre/Young Artist Development at Sherman Cymru I am now able to pass on similar inspirations to our young people here in Wales, our future.
I sincerely hope that I continue to be renewed and receive new inspirations from you, the CPR.
I thank you
Phillip Mackenzie
Performer Cardiff Laboratory Theatre 1980 – 1986
Co Founder/Performer/Director: Man Act 1986 – 1996
Freelance Director: 1997 – 2000
Director Sherman Youth Theatre; 2001 – present.
I am still in a state of shock and utter disbelief to hear of ACW planned withdrawal of CPR funding.
The CPR contribution to the cultural and artistic life of Wales and its artists is immeasurable. Its invisible tentacles have reached, inspired and touched so many, for so long and with so much.
Personally it created and provided me with opportunities and encounters with an array of extraordinary artists and thinkers from across the globe, that inform all that I do in the theatre today. It introduced myself and many of my contemporaries to a rich and varied arena of practice and disciplines. Without the CPR these connections and contacts, each with their own unique modes of thinking and doing would never have taken place.
These provocations and stimulations have continually inspired throughout a 30 year career that has allowed me to perform and direct in 17 countries with a myriad of people and communities.
In my present position as Director of Youth Theatre/Young Artist Development at Sherman Cymru I am now able to pass on similar inspirations to our young people here in Wales, our future.
I sincerely hope that I continue to be renewed and receive new inspirations from you, the CPR.
I thank you
Phillip Mackenzie
Performer Cardiff Laboratory Theatre 1980 – 1986
Co Founder/Performer/Director: Man Act 1986 – 1996
Freelance Director: 1997 – 2000
Director Sherman Youth Theatre; 2001 – present.
Stefhan Caddick - Visual Artist, Crickhowell, Wales
CPR have been a mainstay in building and maintaining the profile of live arts from Wales in the UK and internationally. In my experience of live arts in Europe, CPR were repeatedly cited as groundbreakers and exemplars of good practice, roles which would not be filled were the centre to disappear.
Losing the CPR would be a real loss to the cultural life of Wales.
Stefhan Caddick
Visual Artist
Crickhowell
Wales
Losing the CPR would be a real loss to the cultural life of Wales.
Stefhan Caddick
Visual Artist
Crickhowell
Wales
Lieve Baert - DasArts, Amsterdam
Dear Richard Gough and Judie Christie,
By this letter we would like to express our sincere support to the Centre for Performance Research in Wales and our deepest concern about the Arts Council of Wales intended funding cut to the CPR.
DasArts, the postgraduate education for the performing arts in Amsterdam, has been in a close relationship with the CPR and its artistic team ever since the founding of DasArts in 1993. Together with a group of international artists DasArts has participated in the conference ‘Performance, Tourism and Identity’ from 4th to the 8th September 1996, organised by the Centre for Performance Research. During Block 7 ‘A Hunger Artist’ in 1997, Richard Gough was invited as a guest teacher at the DasArts premises, creating a famous ‘Black Dinner’. From 20th September to the 26th November 1999 Mr Gough curated the 10 week study programme in Amsterdam of Block 11 ‘What’s Cooking? Still Life, Turbulent recipes’. Also in 2004 there was a connection between our institutions, when a student exchange took place and one of our graduating participants studied at CPR.
Needless to say, that we are convinced of the unique position the CPR holds in the international fields of research, performance and training. Their skills and experience is an asset for theatre-institutions, such as DasArts, across the world and cannot be missed.
Yours sincerely,
Lieve Baert
Business Director
DasArts, Amsterdam
www.dasarts.nl
By this letter we would like to express our sincere support to the Centre for Performance Research in Wales and our deepest concern about the Arts Council of Wales intended funding cut to the CPR.
DasArts, the postgraduate education for the performing arts in Amsterdam, has been in a close relationship with the CPR and its artistic team ever since the founding of DasArts in 1993. Together with a group of international artists DasArts has participated in the conference ‘Performance, Tourism and Identity’ from 4th to the 8th September 1996, organised by the Centre for Performance Research. During Block 7 ‘A Hunger Artist’ in 1997, Richard Gough was invited as a guest teacher at the DasArts premises, creating a famous ‘Black Dinner’. From 20th September to the 26th November 1999 Mr Gough curated the 10 week study programme in Amsterdam of Block 11 ‘What’s Cooking? Still Life, Turbulent recipes’. Also in 2004 there was a connection between our institutions, when a student exchange took place and one of our graduating participants studied at CPR.
Needless to say, that we are convinced of the unique position the CPR holds in the international fields of research, performance and training. Their skills and experience is an asset for theatre-institutions, such as DasArts, across the world and cannot be missed.
Yours sincerely,
Lieve Baert
Business Director
DasArts, Amsterdam
www.dasarts.nl
Ashley Wallington - Tutor in Performance, Coleg Ceredigion
Dear Judie,
Short-sighted, ludicrous and downright contemptible. These are just a few of the words that come to mind in response to ACW's decision.
Having personally worked for many years supporting young people in investigating performance and finding their own voice, CPR has always provided us with invaluable support.
How many 16 -18 year olds can boast of having worked with countless key international practitioners (particularly 16-18 year olds who have grown up in a rural setting)? CPR has always provided many of our students (and ourselves) with incredible inspiration.
Just today, one of our theatre students expressed ' if CPR are not here, I'm going to undertake the next stage of my training outside of Wales'. Surely this speaks for itself.
Best wishes with the appeal.
Ashley Wallington
Tutor in Performance
Coleg Ceredigion
Short-sighted, ludicrous and downright contemptible. These are just a few of the words that come to mind in response to ACW's decision.
Having personally worked for many years supporting young people in investigating performance and finding their own voice, CPR has always provided us with invaluable support.
How many 16 -18 year olds can boast of having worked with countless key international practitioners (particularly 16-18 year olds who have grown up in a rural setting)? CPR has always provided many of our students (and ourselves) with incredible inspiration.
Just today, one of our theatre students expressed ' if CPR are not here, I'm going to undertake the next stage of my training outside of Wales'. Surely this speaks for itself.
Best wishes with the appeal.
Ashley Wallington
Tutor in Performance
Coleg Ceredigion
Tomasz Rodowicz - Artistic Director, Chorea, Poland
Droga Judie i Drogi Ryszardzie
Jestesmy zaskoczeni i zdumieni decyzja Arts Council of Wales, która uderza w tak wazny osrodek kultury, animacji i edukacji jakim jest jest CPR. Od ponad 20 lat obserwuje i mam zaszczyt uczestniczyc w projektach realizowanych przez Was i nie ulega watpliwosci ze Wasze Centrum jest jednym z najwazniejszych w Europie miejsc dla ludzi teatru i muzyki. Goscicie najwybitniejszych przedstawicieli teatru i kultur tradycyjnych z calego swiata i potraficie animowac warsztaty, spotaknia i inne wydarzenia na najwyzszym poziomie. Sam mialem zaszczyt uczestniczyc i prowadzic kilkakrotnie zajecia w Waszym osrodku. Spotkalem wspanialych artystów i twórców bez reszty oddanych krzewieniu kultury i sztuki na calym globie. Nie wyobrazam sobie zeby takie miejsce jak Wasze moglo przestac istniec albo ograniczyc dzialalnosc. W komercjalizujacym sie swiecie sztuki CPR jest jednym z wazniejszych punktów chroniacych najwyzsze wartosci ludzkie i artystyczne. Wieze ze decyzja ta jest pomylka wynikajaca z biurokratycznego niedopatrzenia decydentów. Goraco popieram Wasze starania i wierze ze decyzja ta zostanie cofnieta.
Goraco pozdrawiam w imieniu calego zespolu Chorea który mial przyjemnosc goscic i zaprezentowac swoja dzialalnosc u Was.
Jestesmy z Wami
Tomasz Rodowicz
Dear Judie, Dear Richard
We are shocked and very badly surprised with the decision of the Arts Council of Wales which influences the further activity of such an important Centre of culture, animation and education as the CPR. For over 30 years I have observed and I have had the pleasure to participate in many different projects realized by the CPR.
In my opinion, there is no doubt that the Centre is one of most important places in Europe for people involved with theatre and music. The CPR has hosted some of the most prominent representatives of theatre and traditional cultures from around the world and was able to animate workshops, meetings and other events on the highest level. I - myself - have repeatedly had the pleasure of taking part and leading workshops in the Centre where I have met wonderful artists and creators of the arts.
I cannot imagine that a place like the CPR could not exist any more or could be restricted in its activity work. In the commercial art world the CPR is one of the most important places which has protected the most valuable worth of the human and the artist. I believe that the decision made by the ACW is a mistake followed from a bureaucratic oversight by one decision-maker.
Warm greetings in the name of the whole theatre group Chorea. We are with you in our hearts and our minds.
Tomasz Rodowicz
Artistic Director
Chorea
Poland
Jestesmy zaskoczeni i zdumieni decyzja Arts Council of Wales, która uderza w tak wazny osrodek kultury, animacji i edukacji jakim jest jest CPR. Od ponad 20 lat obserwuje i mam zaszczyt uczestniczyc w projektach realizowanych przez Was i nie ulega watpliwosci ze Wasze Centrum jest jednym z najwazniejszych w Europie miejsc dla ludzi teatru i muzyki. Goscicie najwybitniejszych przedstawicieli teatru i kultur tradycyjnych z calego swiata i potraficie animowac warsztaty, spotaknia i inne wydarzenia na najwyzszym poziomie. Sam mialem zaszczyt uczestniczyc i prowadzic kilkakrotnie zajecia w Waszym osrodku. Spotkalem wspanialych artystów i twórców bez reszty oddanych krzewieniu kultury i sztuki na calym globie. Nie wyobrazam sobie zeby takie miejsce jak Wasze moglo przestac istniec albo ograniczyc dzialalnosc. W komercjalizujacym sie swiecie sztuki CPR jest jednym z wazniejszych punktów chroniacych najwyzsze wartosci ludzkie i artystyczne. Wieze ze decyzja ta jest pomylka wynikajaca z biurokratycznego niedopatrzenia decydentów. Goraco popieram Wasze starania i wierze ze decyzja ta zostanie cofnieta.
Goraco pozdrawiam w imieniu calego zespolu Chorea który mial przyjemnosc goscic i zaprezentowac swoja dzialalnosc u Was.
Jestesmy z Wami
Tomasz Rodowicz
Dear Judie, Dear Richard
We are shocked and very badly surprised with the decision of the Arts Council of Wales which influences the further activity of such an important Centre of culture, animation and education as the CPR. For over 30 years I have observed and I have had the pleasure to participate in many different projects realized by the CPR.
In my opinion, there is no doubt that the Centre is one of most important places in Europe for people involved with theatre and music. The CPR has hosted some of the most prominent representatives of theatre and traditional cultures from around the world and was able to animate workshops, meetings and other events on the highest level. I - myself - have repeatedly had the pleasure of taking part and leading workshops in the Centre where I have met wonderful artists and creators of the arts.
I cannot imagine that a place like the CPR could not exist any more or could be restricted in its activity work. In the commercial art world the CPR is one of the most important places which has protected the most valuable worth of the human and the artist. I believe that the decision made by the ACW is a mistake followed from a bureaucratic oversight by one decision-maker.
Warm greetings in the name of the whole theatre group Chorea. We are with you in our hearts and our minds.
Tomasz Rodowicz
Artistic Director
Chorea
Poland
Catherine Harmsworth - Denbigh, Wales
I have participated in a number of inspiring workshops at CPR over the years and I have taken many ideas to use as a secondary school teacher in Wales. CPR is an outstanding resource and a fantastic use of arts funding and should continue to recieve support.
Catherine Harmsworth
Denbigh, Wales
Catherine Harmsworth
Denbigh, Wales
Edward Scheer - President, Performance Studies international (PSi)
Date: 24 February, 2008
To: Judie Christie, Richard Gough and CPR
From: Associate Professor Edward Scheer
President, Performance Studies international (PSi)
Re: Arts Council of Wales’ Proposal to strip CPR of funding
Dear Judie and Richard,
On behalf of the board and membership of PSi I am writing to express my dismay and surprise at the proposed withdrawal of revenue funding from CPR.
The work of the centre over its recent life continues to place contemporary arts practice in Wales at the forefront of world attention. CPR has always managed the difficult task of being a very local organisation speaking to its immediate communities and constituents while also presenting work of high standard and with global reach. CPR continues to be a priceless resource for the 800 or so members of the international network of performance studies scholars and artists which PSi represents. It is a matter of concern to me that the proposal by the Arts Council of Wales is threatening more than one organisation but a much larger network of artists and scholars for whom CPR is a vital hub of activity.
I certainly hope for the sake of PSi’s members that this decision will not stand but I also wonder about the cultural landscape in Wales. Who will do this work of both maintaining knowledge of the rich folk traditions of Welsh performance and producing contemporary performance practices at an international standard if CPR closes? What other institutions and their people, their art forms and practices will be targeted for cuts? As you know I come from New South Wales in Australia so I know how important small amounts of money can be to a fragile ecosystem of contemporary experimental culture.
I think the PSi community would want you to know that you are making an enormous contribution to world arts and cultures and that CPR remains a benchmark for what can be done with the will, the nous and a little bit of Government money.
On behalf of PSi I would like to thank you and your team for the work you have done and will, no doubt, continue to do.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Edward Scheer,
President, Performance Studies international (PSi)
School of Theatre, Performance and Cultural Policy Studies
University of Warwick
To: Judie Christie, Richard Gough and CPR
From: Associate Professor Edward Scheer
President, Performance Studies international (PSi)
Re: Arts Council of Wales’ Proposal to strip CPR of funding
Dear Judie and Richard,
On behalf of the board and membership of PSi I am writing to express my dismay and surprise at the proposed withdrawal of revenue funding from CPR.
The work of the centre over its recent life continues to place contemporary arts practice in Wales at the forefront of world attention. CPR has always managed the difficult task of being a very local organisation speaking to its immediate communities and constituents while also presenting work of high standard and with global reach. CPR continues to be a priceless resource for the 800 or so members of the international network of performance studies scholars and artists which PSi represents. It is a matter of concern to me that the proposal by the Arts Council of Wales is threatening more than one organisation but a much larger network of artists and scholars for whom CPR is a vital hub of activity.
I certainly hope for the sake of PSi’s members that this decision will not stand but I also wonder about the cultural landscape in Wales. Who will do this work of both maintaining knowledge of the rich folk traditions of Welsh performance and producing contemporary performance practices at an international standard if CPR closes? What other institutions and their people, their art forms and practices will be targeted for cuts? As you know I come from New South Wales in Australia so I know how important small amounts of money can be to a fragile ecosystem of contemporary experimental culture.
I think the PSi community would want you to know that you are making an enormous contribution to world arts and cultures and that CPR remains a benchmark for what can be done with the will, the nous and a little bit of Government money.
On behalf of PSi I would like to thank you and your team for the work you have done and will, no doubt, continue to do.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Edward Scheer,
President, Performance Studies international (PSi)
School of Theatre, Performance and Cultural Policy Studies
University of Warwick
Se-Rok Park - performer/ vocalist/ teacher, Berlin
Dear Julie Christie and Richard Gough,
I am a German- Korean performer/ vocalist/ teacher based in Berlin/ Seoul/ Bolivia after having lived and worked in London for several years. Since that time I have always followed the many activities by the Centre of Performance Research (CPR) with great interest, engagement and respect. The CPR is one of the only institutions in Europe and maybe even in the world which has not only decades of experience in the active research of performing arts, but is also constantly developing innovative and exciting ways of making collaborations and exchange possible. Its truly cross- cultural and interdisciplinary approach makes it a unique place for sharing knowledge and experience and provides a significant platform for artistic growth.
I am in deep shock, anger and filled with great disappointment to hear that the financial support shall end from July 2008 without any reasonable explanation. This is an act of ignorance and single- mindedness from an artistic as well as from a humanistic point of view and shall be opposed by all means. I urge the Arts Council Wales to carefully reconsider their decision. I also urge the Arts Council to keep in mind the damage and consequences the decision would have if it will not be changed.
With regards, Se-Rok Park
performer/ vocalist/ teacher
Berlin, 28th February 2008
I am a German- Korean performer/ vocalist/ teacher based in Berlin/ Seoul/ Bolivia after having lived and worked in London for several years. Since that time I have always followed the many activities by the Centre of Performance Research (CPR) with great interest, engagement and respect. The CPR is one of the only institutions in Europe and maybe even in the world which has not only decades of experience in the active research of performing arts, but is also constantly developing innovative and exciting ways of making collaborations and exchange possible. Its truly cross- cultural and interdisciplinary approach makes it a unique place for sharing knowledge and experience and provides a significant platform for artistic growth.
I am in deep shock, anger and filled with great disappointment to hear that the financial support shall end from July 2008 without any reasonable explanation. This is an act of ignorance and single- mindedness from an artistic as well as from a humanistic point of view and shall be opposed by all means. I urge the Arts Council Wales to carefully reconsider their decision. I also urge the Arts Council to keep in mind the damage and consequences the decision would have if it will not be changed.
With regards, Se-Rok Park
performer/ vocalist/ teacher
Berlin, 28th February 2008
Peter Cox - Playwright and screenwriter, Rhayader, Wales
As a professional playwright and screenwriter living and working in Wales I have benefited from the excellence of the work created by CPR on many occasions. Each programme they generate provokes my imagination, develops my international sectoral knowledge and offers me practical opportunities to engage with visiting artists and practitioners who lead in their field. It is astonishing to consider losing CPR just as the new National Theatre is born. CPR's status and leadership is extraordinary.
Peter Cox
Playwright and screenwriter
Rhayader
Wales
Peter Cox
Playwright and screenwriter
Rhayader
Wales
Wednesday 27 February 2008
Dartington College of Arts
FOR THE ATTENTION OF:
Professor Dai Smith,
Chair, The Arts Council of Wales
__________________________________________________
Dear Professor Smith,
RE. CENTRE FOR PERFORMANCE RESEARCH, ABERYSTWYTH
We are writing with regard to ACW’s recent decision to withdraw revenue funding from the Centre for Performance Research (CPR) in Aberystwyth. We are disappointed and shocked by this decision, and urge you to reconsider it without delay, with a view to returning the CPR to ongoing revenue funding. Without such continuity, the infrastructure which supports its work risks being severely compromised and ultimately irreparably damaged.
For many years, the CPR has been one of Wales’s core cultural hubs creatively and intellectually, with an international reputation for dynamic, challenging and innovative projects and programming. It is a unique point of congruence and exchange between practice and scholarship, and between traditions, forms, languages and cultures. Furthermore, it is recognised as a highly respected and active contributor within a world-wide network of performance makers and scholars, and it remains instrumental in the development of new work both in practical and theoretical contexts.
Its record speaks for itself, and is unsurpassed. Over the past 30 odd years since its beginnings in the Cardiff Lab, countless practitioners, scholars and students have travelled from all over the world to take part in the CPR’s workshops and conferences, and to consult its remarkable archive.
During this period, it has brought to Wales some of the most important practitioners in theatre, dance, new performance, and world theatre, including e.g. (to name just a few): Jerzy Grotowski’s Teatr Laboratorium, Eugenio Barba and the Odin Teatret/ISTA, Akademia Ruchu and Gardzienice (Poland), Forced Entertainment, Goat Island and the SITI Company (USA), Victoria Theatre (Belgium), Theatre Bazi (Iran), Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Rachel Rosenthal and Anna Deavere Smith - as well as performers from Southern Indian Kathakali, Balinese Topeng, Peking Opera. In addition to the highly influential ‘Giving Voice’ and ‘Magdalena’ festivals, it has organised symposia and masterclasses through its prestigious ‘Points of Contact’, ‘Past Masters’ and ‘Summer Shift’ programmes of events. In 1999, it hosted the major international conference ‘Performance Studies International’ (PSi5). Furthermore, it has been instrumental in the dissemination of new performance work and scholarship through its diverse publications, including 12 years of the international peer-reviewed journal Performance Research (Taylor & Francis/Routledge), and the recent publication of A Performance Cosmology (2006). In short, the CPR has brought into Wales – and into contact with Welsh practitioners - literally hundreds of practitioners and academics at the forefront of developments in performance making and scholarship internationally.
Crucially, and invariably, all of this work has involved opportunities and support for Welsh performance makers, writers, and other practitioners and scholars, in terms of providing platforms for the creation and showing of work, for cross-art form collaborations, international connections, training and professional development. It has elaborated a vibrant model of congruence between professional practice, higher education (through its relationship with the University of Aberystwyth), and public and private enterprise. The integrity and continuity of its commitment to Wales is unquestionable. On many levels, it offers a core element of the prototype of a non-building based ‘national theatre’ in Wales.
On behalf of the staff and students of Dartington College of Arts - for whom the CPR has been and remains absolutely crucial in the continuing development of performance making and scholarship in Britain, as resource, opportunity and stimulus - we urge the Arts Council of Wales to review its decision, and to return to full revenue funding support for the CPR.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Simon Murray,
Director of Theatre
Dartington College of Arts
Professor David Williams,
Associate Director of Theatre
Dartington College of Arts
Professor Claire Donovan, Deputy Principal
Professor Antonia Payne, Dean of Research
Catriona Scott, Associate Director of Theatre
Misha Myers, Snr Lecturer, Theatre
Simon Persighetti, Snr Lecturer, Theatre
Joe Richards, Snr Lecturer, Theatre
Misri Dey, Snr Lecturer, Theatre
Dr Joanne Whalley, Snr Lecturer, Theatre
Sue Palmer, Associate Lecturer, Theatre
Paula Crutchlow, Associate Lecturer, Theatre
Jerome Fletcher, Snr Lecturer, Writing
Deborah Price, Snr Lecturer, Writing
Dr Mark Leahy, MA Programme Leader
Dr Trevor Wiggins, Director of Music
Sara Reed, Director of Choreography
Rob Gawthrop, Director of Art
Professor Dai Smith,
Chair, The Arts Council of Wales
__________________________________________________
Dear Professor Smith,
RE. CENTRE FOR PERFORMANCE RESEARCH, ABERYSTWYTH
We are writing with regard to ACW’s recent decision to withdraw revenue funding from the Centre for Performance Research (CPR) in Aberystwyth. We are disappointed and shocked by this decision, and urge you to reconsider it without delay, with a view to returning the CPR to ongoing revenue funding. Without such continuity, the infrastructure which supports its work risks being severely compromised and ultimately irreparably damaged.
For many years, the CPR has been one of Wales’s core cultural hubs creatively and intellectually, with an international reputation for dynamic, challenging and innovative projects and programming. It is a unique point of congruence and exchange between practice and scholarship, and between traditions, forms, languages and cultures. Furthermore, it is recognised as a highly respected and active contributor within a world-wide network of performance makers and scholars, and it remains instrumental in the development of new work both in practical and theoretical contexts.
Its record speaks for itself, and is unsurpassed. Over the past 30 odd years since its beginnings in the Cardiff Lab, countless practitioners, scholars and students have travelled from all over the world to take part in the CPR’s workshops and conferences, and to consult its remarkable archive.
During this period, it has brought to Wales some of the most important practitioners in theatre, dance, new performance, and world theatre, including e.g. (to name just a few): Jerzy Grotowski’s Teatr Laboratorium, Eugenio Barba and the Odin Teatret/ISTA, Akademia Ruchu and Gardzienice (Poland), Forced Entertainment, Goat Island and the SITI Company (USA), Victoria Theatre (Belgium), Theatre Bazi (Iran), Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Rachel Rosenthal and Anna Deavere Smith - as well as performers from Southern Indian Kathakali, Balinese Topeng, Peking Opera. In addition to the highly influential ‘Giving Voice’ and ‘Magdalena’ festivals, it has organised symposia and masterclasses through its prestigious ‘Points of Contact’, ‘Past Masters’ and ‘Summer Shift’ programmes of events. In 1999, it hosted the major international conference ‘Performance Studies International’ (PSi5). Furthermore, it has been instrumental in the dissemination of new performance work and scholarship through its diverse publications, including 12 years of the international peer-reviewed journal Performance Research (Taylor & Francis/Routledge), and the recent publication of A Performance Cosmology (2006). In short, the CPR has brought into Wales – and into contact with Welsh practitioners - literally hundreds of practitioners and academics at the forefront of developments in performance making and scholarship internationally.
Crucially, and invariably, all of this work has involved opportunities and support for Welsh performance makers, writers, and other practitioners and scholars, in terms of providing platforms for the creation and showing of work, for cross-art form collaborations, international connections, training and professional development. It has elaborated a vibrant model of congruence between professional practice, higher education (through its relationship with the University of Aberystwyth), and public and private enterprise. The integrity and continuity of its commitment to Wales is unquestionable. On many levels, it offers a core element of the prototype of a non-building based ‘national theatre’ in Wales.
On behalf of the staff and students of Dartington College of Arts - for whom the CPR has been and remains absolutely crucial in the continuing development of performance making and scholarship in Britain, as resource, opportunity and stimulus - we urge the Arts Council of Wales to review its decision, and to return to full revenue funding support for the CPR.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Simon Murray,
Director of Theatre
Dartington College of Arts
Professor David Williams,
Associate Director of Theatre
Dartington College of Arts
Professor Claire Donovan, Deputy Principal
Professor Antonia Payne, Dean of Research
Catriona Scott, Associate Director of Theatre
Misha Myers, Snr Lecturer, Theatre
Simon Persighetti, Snr Lecturer, Theatre
Joe Richards, Snr Lecturer, Theatre
Misri Dey, Snr Lecturer, Theatre
Dr Joanne Whalley, Snr Lecturer, Theatre
Sue Palmer, Associate Lecturer, Theatre
Paula Crutchlow, Associate Lecturer, Theatre
Jerome Fletcher, Snr Lecturer, Writing
Deborah Price, Snr Lecturer, Writing
Dr Mark Leahy, MA Programme Leader
Dr Trevor Wiggins, Director of Music
Sara Reed, Director of Choreography
Rob Gawthrop, Director of Art
Tony Gordon - Aberystwyth, Wales
It is difficult to comprehend the short-sighted stupidity involved in cutting funding at such short notice. CPR is a hugely successful organisation that has emerged and evolved over 3 decades and needs continued funding and encouragement to continue its innovative work. My contact has been through their leadership of community choral projects which have been inspirational.
Aberystwyth, at least two hours travel time from other arts-based centres, will be a cultural desert without them.
Tony Gordon
Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth, at least two hours travel time from other arts-based centres, will be a cultural desert without them.
Tony Gordon
Aberystwyth
Anne-Marie Blink - Stichting Andere Klank,the Netherlands
To Judie Christie and/or Richard Cough,
Many years ago I met in Wales the CPR. Being a Dutch professional singer and teacher, I was surprised by the wideness of their knowledge and their professionalism about voice, not only the Western voice but voice qualities from all over the world.
Complete unique in the voicework is a library where you find a documentation of all the material which appeared in history. Extremely well documented and visited by many people, I think it is about time to realise which treasure you have in Aberystwyth.
I consider it an incredible, huge, worldwide mistake to stop the funding to CPR. It is impossible to expect from such organisation to compete with other cultural organisations, because of their worldwide character.
Looking to the program of the Voices Festival, you can imagine how important it is to be sure of a certain stream of money. Beside this, Wales can even use their University more, knowing that a so unique centre is situated there.
SUPPORT THIS WONDERFUL STRUCTURE !!!!
Anne-Marie Blink
Stichting Andere Klank, Colenso, the Netherlands
www.andereklank.nl
Many years ago I met in Wales the CPR. Being a Dutch professional singer and teacher, I was surprised by the wideness of their knowledge and their professionalism about voice, not only the Western voice but voice qualities from all over the world.
Complete unique in the voicework is a library where you find a documentation of all the material which appeared in history. Extremely well documented and visited by many people, I think it is about time to realise which treasure you have in Aberystwyth.
I consider it an incredible, huge, worldwide mistake to stop the funding to CPR. It is impossible to expect from such organisation to compete with other cultural organisations, because of their worldwide character.
Looking to the program of the Voices Festival, you can imagine how important it is to be sure of a certain stream of money. Beside this, Wales can even use their University more, knowing that a so unique centre is situated there.
SUPPORT THIS WONDERFUL STRUCTURE !!!!
Anne-Marie Blink
Stichting Andere Klank, Colenso, the Netherlands
www.andereklank.nl
Kerrie Farrar - Ceredigion, Wales
Wales needs more, not less, support and funding to encourage world quality arts of all media. We must nurture our talents so they can be shared by and benefit society as a whole, both within and beyond Wales & as a meeting place, for ideas, exchange and discovery, CPR’s work is deeply rooted in Wales and also reaches nationally and internationally to promote innovation, experimentation, and process in theatre and performance.
Kerrie Farrar
Talybont
Ceredigion
Kerrie Farrar
Talybont
Ceredigion
Włodzimierz Staniewski - Director of Centre for Theatre Practice “Gardzienice”
To whom it may concern
I hereby express my deep disappointment and protestation, that such a noble cultural institution as Centre for Performance Research in Aberystwyth has difficulties with continuing their activity.
CPR delivers innovation, experimentation and process, and offers access at all levels to innovative training programmes and approaches to making theatre alongside programmes of high quality presentations and performances from around the world that pursue ideals of accessibility without artistic compromise.
CPR supports the Arts Council’s aspiration to redress years of under-funding to the independent theatre sector, to revitalise it in order to face the challenges – and opportunities - ahead. Despite the richness and diversity of work and practice that has long been a strength of theatre in Wales, funding policy and decisions over the last decade, playing to safety through a concentration of resources privileging the mainstream, the ‘establishment’ and the highly-visible, have helped create a fragile and fragmented theatre ecology in Wales; CPR has no wish to propagate the climate of competition for limited resources that has existed for so long, and indeed welcomes the funding uplifts to fellow artists and companies that can allow for their future development and growth.
A revitalised theatre culture emerges out of a confluence of different ideas and influences across disciplines and sectors. As a meeting place, for ideas, exchange and discovery, CPR has consistently pursued and promoted this idea of collaboration and confluence, of dialogue and engagement - across borders, between cultures and between disciplines.
I think that the international theatre community will be impoverished if CPR disappears from the map of the most important cultural institutions in Europe.
Włodzimierz Staniewski
Director of Centre for Theatre Practice “Gardzienice”, Poland
Michele George - Voice Specialist, Singer, Actor, Canada
“a vital and prestigious player in the arts in Wales, whose history, experience, and present interests are important to mobilise into the challenges of new resources for drama theatre and performance, centring now in Wales on the development of a non-building based national theatre."
Now, if I were to read such a profound acknowledgment of an organization, and then look to see who wrote it, only to discover it was from the government funding body which helps so essentially to keep this organization afloat, I'd smile and be grateful that at least somewhere in this backwards world which does not remember the utter necessity of the arts in a crumbling society, at least in Wales there is an understanding of priorities.
But this is not the case, is it?
I have been associated with CPR for well over a decade, and I can honestly say, as an international theatre maker for thirty-five years, that my association with you all has been and remains one of the highlights of my creative life. Each time I have gone to work with you, I have come away with a deeper understanding of why theatre is necessary for past and future to meet in the present.
To bring artists from literally all over the world, and artists of profound quality and diversity, together, both to pass on their knowledge to those who come as students, and also to allow those professionals who are teaching and performing to have the rare opportunity to spend time together to share the work, to share the sources and the reasons why we all continue to do this work in spite of the financial difficulties which become ever more drastic, this is a rare gift.
And now your own country has joined the ranks of the unenlightened.
Such sorrow on the one hand, and such anger on the other.....I fear that if I clap these two hands together, holding such bleak emotions, there will be a dull thunder of despair.
Please pass this letter on to those who would break something so valuable, and let us hope and pray that the support of those who know will have a genuine
voice which will truly be heard.
I worked with the extraordinary theatre director, Peter Brook, as an actor, for ten years, and we travelled all over the world, seeking how to heal the suffering that was infecting theatre and all the performing arts. What an extraordinary decade that was in my life, and what a privilege! And here you are, having reversed that process, you are bringing the world of the performing arts to Wales! You are true pioneers who work with a passion and an intelligence which is indeed rare.
Whoever needs to hear this in the Arts Council of Wales, I beg you to listen:
CONTINUE TO SUPPORT THE LIFE OF THE
CENTRE FOR PERFORMANCE RESEARCH
BY CONTINUING TO FUND THEIR ESSENTIAL WORK.
Thank you, and bless you all at CPR, may you go on and on.
And you know what? I know that you will.
With love and gratitude,
looking forward to seeing you all at Giving Voice,
Michele George
Voice Specialist, Singer, Actor - Canada
Now, if I were to read such a profound acknowledgment of an organization, and then look to see who wrote it, only to discover it was from the government funding body which helps so essentially to keep this organization afloat, I'd smile and be grateful that at least somewhere in this backwards world which does not remember the utter necessity of the arts in a crumbling society, at least in Wales there is an understanding of priorities.
But this is not the case, is it?
I have been associated with CPR for well over a decade, and I can honestly say, as an international theatre maker for thirty-five years, that my association with you all has been and remains one of the highlights of my creative life. Each time I have gone to work with you, I have come away with a deeper understanding of why theatre is necessary for past and future to meet in the present.
To bring artists from literally all over the world, and artists of profound quality and diversity, together, both to pass on their knowledge to those who come as students, and also to allow those professionals who are teaching and performing to have the rare opportunity to spend time together to share the work, to share the sources and the reasons why we all continue to do this work in spite of the financial difficulties which become ever more drastic, this is a rare gift.
And now your own country has joined the ranks of the unenlightened.
Such sorrow on the one hand, and such anger on the other.....I fear that if I clap these two hands together, holding such bleak emotions, there will be a dull thunder of despair.
Please pass this letter on to those who would break something so valuable, and let us hope and pray that the support of those who know will have a genuine
voice which will truly be heard.
I worked with the extraordinary theatre director, Peter Brook, as an actor, for ten years, and we travelled all over the world, seeking how to heal the suffering that was infecting theatre and all the performing arts. What an extraordinary decade that was in my life, and what a privilege! And here you are, having reversed that process, you are bringing the world of the performing arts to Wales! You are true pioneers who work with a passion and an intelligence which is indeed rare.
Whoever needs to hear this in the Arts Council of Wales, I beg you to listen:
CONTINUE TO SUPPORT THE LIFE OF THE
CENTRE FOR PERFORMANCE RESEARCH
BY CONTINUING TO FUND THEIR ESSENTIAL WORK.
Thank you, and bless you all at CPR, may you go on and on.
And you know what? I know that you will.
With love and gratitude,
looking forward to seeing you all at Giving Voice,
Michele George
Voice Specialist, Singer, Actor - Canada
Pip Woolf - Artist, Wales
The Centre for Performance Research offers challenging opportunities for creative risk taking. At a time when people are paralysed by the inability to take risks this is a crucial resource in a world in need of inventiveness and vision.
Pip Woolf, Artist
Wales
Pip Woolf, Artist
Wales
Peter Bond - Senior Lecturer, Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, London
Dear CPR
I very much support the continued funding of the Centre for Performance Research and feel the withdrawal of government funding is a real loss to an area of very important and very relevant research.
This is particularly true in respect of an increased use of mediatisation where dissemination is required through live medium. From a university lecturer point of view i detect an increased demand for live work which is probably because it offers a sharp perspective and contrast to mediatiatised communication systems. We appear to be wanting to reinstate our identities as real people as opposed to virtual people and that is why performance research is vital to the health of our communities.
Peter Bond
Senior Lecturer
Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, London
I very much support the continued funding of the Centre for Performance Research and feel the withdrawal of government funding is a real loss to an area of very important and very relevant research.
This is particularly true in respect of an increased use of mediatisation where dissemination is required through live medium. From a university lecturer point of view i detect an increased demand for live work which is probably because it offers a sharp perspective and contrast to mediatiatised communication systems. We appear to be wanting to reinstate our identities as real people as opposed to virtual people and that is why performance research is vital to the health of our communities.
Peter Bond
Senior Lecturer
Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, London
Sian Summers - Playwright, Wales
This invaluable and unique resource has enriched Wales’ cultural life immeasurably over a long period of time. The threat to its funding is a short-sighted measure with long term, detrimental effect to the arts in Wales
Sian Summers,
Playwright
Wales
Sian Summers,
Playwright
Wales
Theresa Smalec - PhD Candidate, Performance Studies, NYU
Dear Richard Gough and Judie Christie,
I was saddened to learn that the Centre for Performance Research is
threatened with a massive loss of funding, and thus with the possibility of
being unable to sustain its thirty-year commitment to our field. I hope that
those who control your future funding will reconsider. It would be
devastating on so many levels to lose CPR as we know it.
My first encounter with CPR was in my first year of grad school at NYU. I
came over to Aberystwyth from New York City. What I remember most (aside
from the sheep in the fields, the peace and quiet, the change of pace, and
the spectacular body of water below the even more striking cliffs) was your
warmth.
I remember thinking that this was how *every* Performance Studies
international conference should be: inclusive, well-organized, fun,
attentive to the fact that people would be disoriented and lonely and
confused and excited and looking for things to do. "Here Be Dragons" stands
out in my mind as a model of interpersonal excellence, and as a model for
integrating theoretical inquiries with performance research. I felt a sense
of adventure in Wales, a sense that I was learning something new at every
turn, especially when someone analyzed a soccer game (football, as you guys
call it) between Wales and England at the closing plenary!
I still think very fondly of my short time in Wales. And over the years, I
have come to know more of the work done by your organization through your
journal, PERFORMANCE RESEARCH, and through your recent book, A PERFORMANCE
COSMOLOGY. I am impressed by the lives you've touched in many different
countries. I am moved by your own lifework, and hope you will be able to
continue doing what you do so well.
And as I finish up my dissertation, I realize now how glad I am that I met
you at the very start. Your organization is a role model in my mind for how
scholars/performers/people should be in the world.
Sincere best wishes,
Theresa Smalec
PhD Candidate, Performance Studies, NYU
I was saddened to learn that the Centre for Performance Research is
threatened with a massive loss of funding, and thus with the possibility of
being unable to sustain its thirty-year commitment to our field. I hope that
those who control your future funding will reconsider. It would be
devastating on so many levels to lose CPR as we know it.
My first encounter with CPR was in my first year of grad school at NYU. I
came over to Aberystwyth from New York City. What I remember most (aside
from the sheep in the fields, the peace and quiet, the change of pace, and
the spectacular body of water below the even more striking cliffs) was your
warmth.
I remember thinking that this was how *every* Performance Studies
international conference should be: inclusive, well-organized, fun,
attentive to the fact that people would be disoriented and lonely and
confused and excited and looking for things to do. "Here Be Dragons" stands
out in my mind as a model of interpersonal excellence, and as a model for
integrating theoretical inquiries with performance research. I felt a sense
of adventure in Wales, a sense that I was learning something new at every
turn, especially when someone analyzed a soccer game (football, as you guys
call it) between Wales and England at the closing plenary!
I still think very fondly of my short time in Wales. And over the years, I
have come to know more of the work done by your organization through your
journal, PERFORMANCE RESEARCH, and through your recent book, A PERFORMANCE
COSMOLOGY. I am impressed by the lives you've touched in many different
countries. I am moved by your own lifework, and hope you will be able to
continue doing what you do so well.
And as I finish up my dissertation, I realize now how glad I am that I met
you at the very start. Your organization is a role model in my mind for how
scholars/performers/people should be in the world.
Sincere best wishes,
Theresa Smalec
PhD Candidate, Performance Studies, NYU
Megan Broadmeadow - Artist, Glan Conwy, Wales
The centre is a lifeline to performers and artists from across Wales, but particularly useful for us in the North who cannot afford to go to Cardiff all the time.. Please re-consider the funding cuts, and support the centre, to allow them to focus on providing a great centre...constant applications for grants will inhibit creativity by wasting their time, and resources.
Megan Broadmeadow,
Artist
Glan Conwy, Wales
Megan Broadmeadow,
Artist
Glan Conwy, Wales
Cristina Márquez - Compañía de Danza y Teatro "Vera-Danza", Mexico
Miss Judie Christie:
Le escribo para expresar mi apoyo a CPR porque considero que su labor es muy importante para los artistas de su país y del orbe, en el campo de la investigación teórica y práctica.
Aunque no he tenido el gusto de estar en CPR, creo que la dedicación y trabajo de 30 años que le han dedicado a la reunión de material como libros, audio y video del folklor y arte de las culturas del mundo; además del espacio abierto a los artistas internacionales para experimentar, aprender, practicar y exponer su obra, son de gran aporte para la herencia artística y conservación e innovación de las artes escénicas; ademàs de colaborar en la comprensión de otras expresiones culturales.
En verdad espero que las autoridades correspondientes en Wales reflexionen y cambien su decisiòn, para seguir apoyando a CPR y a los artistas involucrados que se verìan afectados, no sólo nacionales sino del mundo.
Mis mejores deseos.
ATENTAMENTE
Cristina Márquez
Compañía de Danza y Teatro "Vera-Danza"
Secretarìa de Educación de Veracruz
MÉXICO
Miss Judie Christie
I am writing to you to express my support for CPR because I consider its work to be very important for the artists of its country and the globe both for its theoretical and practical investigations. Although I have not had the pleasure to visit CPR,I believe that the dedication and work that over the last 30 years you have devoted to the gathering of books, audio material and video of the folklore and art of the cultures of the world; in addition to the space opened to the international artists to experiment, to learn, to practice and to expose their work, are a great contribution to the artistic inheritance and conservation and innovation of the scenic arts and to encourage the understanding of other cultural expressions. In truth I hope that the corresponding authorities in Wales reflect and change its decision and continue supporting CPR and the involved artists that are affected, not only on the national level but also throughout the world.
Best wishes
Kindly
Cristina Márquez
Compañía de Danza y Teatro "Vera-Danza"
Secretarìa de Educación de Veracruz MÉXICO
Roger Wooster - Wales
It seems so absurd that the CPR should be under threat when it was encouraged to go the Abersytwyth for security and the spread the artistic centres around Wales. The artistic establishments of Wales have come to respect, rely on and appreciate deeply the cutting edge performance work emanating from the centre. The cultural 'industries' as so important to Wales' economy and offer the new venture 'priming' that recent policies are supposed to promote. It just doesn't make sense.
Roger Wooster,
Wales
Roger Wooster,
Wales
Prof. Michal Kobialka - University of Minnesota
Dear Professor Smith:
As an academic associated with an American institution of higher learning and a chair of the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance, I am pretty well versed in the need to prioritize the requests for funding in the arts in the time of shrinking resources in the post-2001 culture of anxiety and fear, when Anglo-American practicality and expediency are used not only to fight the global war on terrorism, but also to camouflage the forces that define and set the limits to what is possible and can be done.
It is in this context that I am writing to you about the Centre for Performance Research, whose funding structure may be altered by the Arts Council of Wales. As you are well aware, we are all faced with difficult decisions within the current financial climate. This is the reason why it is impetrative that we pay attention to how these decisions are framed; how they are rationalized; what conditions make it possible for these decision to structure what is represented, how it is represented, and what it is represented; and, finally, it is impetrative that we pay attention to what will be lost in the process of constructing a new format for the culture industry, which, using a capitalist or entrepreneurial model, has substituted 'front-line activities' for the older 'new' (read: with a new
use-value) category.
I believe that it is our ethical responsibility as academics, administrators, and educators to explore and question the dominant modes of cultural operations. If we fail to do so, indeed, as Walter Benjamin once said, the documents of our culture may as well be the documents of barbarism.
The Centre for Performance Research is unique organization, which, for over thirty years, has escaped the confines of traditional thinking about the arts by continuously forging new modes of thinking about the arts, designating new terminology describing how we critically and physically/performatively relate to what is going on not only in theatre, performance, and performance research, but also, and maybe more important, in the environment that surrounds us. Firmly rooted in Wales, and always celebrating Wales, which by many is still perceived on the periphery of Europe, the Centre for Performance Research has been actively engaged in seeking that which makes the marginal central and exists on the border between different art forms, between different social actions, different political ideologies, and different aesthetics. By so doing the Centre for Performance Research is of very few academic and performance sites in the world which disturbs, illuminates, and challenges the norm, the purpose, or the predictable. It can perform this function only because of the unique support, the Centre has received up till now. If this support is altered-that is, if the Arts Council of Wales will switch the funding mechanism from revenue funding to project funding-the Centre for Performance Research will lose its status and become one of many producing organization, which are now mushrooming in England, subscribing to the American model of arts management.
Please consider the following: having focused on that which goes beyond the 'ordinary' realm of established interests and differences, beyond the 'ordinary' realm of approved knowledge or beyond the 'ordinary' realm of theoretical innovations which persist only through the proclamations of those who position themselves as the subjects of a marketable truth, the Centre for Performance Research compels us to envision a new mode of being which brings to the fore that something which escapes the limits of present intelligibility or instrumental culture-of that which is thinkable or performable right now.
The stakes are high.
Changing a funding model is a political decision as well as an artistic one. If the Arts Council of Wales wishes to follow into the footsteps of other English and American arts management organizations, nothing will stop that. If, however, there is an opening to go beyond the ordinary realm, I would strongly urge the Members of the Arts Council of Wales to rethink their decision regarding the Centre for Performance Research and ponder over the questions which I posed at the beginning of this letter.
Michal Kobialka
Professor and Chair
Department of Theatre Arts & Dance
University of Minnesota
Michal Kobialka is Chair and Professor of Theatre at the Department of Theatre Arts & Dance at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of a book on Tadeusz Kantor's theatre, A Journey Through Other Spaces: Essays and Manifestos, 1944-1990 (1993) and on the early medieval drama and theatre, This Is My Body: Representational Practices in the Early Middle Ages (1999); an editor of Of Borders and Thresholds: Theatre History, Practice, and Theory (1999); a co-editor (with Barbara Hanawalt) of Medieval Practices of Space (2000); as well as of more than 65 articles, essays and reviews. His new book on Tadeusz Kantor, Tadeusz Kantor's
Theatre: Representation, Memory, and History, will be published by University of Minnesota Press in 2008.
As an academic associated with an American institution of higher learning and a chair of the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance, I am pretty well versed in the need to prioritize the requests for funding in the arts in the time of shrinking resources in the post-2001 culture of anxiety and fear, when Anglo-American practicality and expediency are used not only to fight the global war on terrorism, but also to camouflage the forces that define and set the limits to what is possible and can be done.
It is in this context that I am writing to you about the Centre for Performance Research, whose funding structure may be altered by the Arts Council of Wales. As you are well aware, we are all faced with difficult decisions within the current financial climate. This is the reason why it is impetrative that we pay attention to how these decisions are framed; how they are rationalized; what conditions make it possible for these decision to structure what is represented, how it is represented, and what it is represented; and, finally, it is impetrative that we pay attention to what will be lost in the process of constructing a new format for the culture industry, which, using a capitalist or entrepreneurial model, has substituted 'front-line activities' for the older 'new' (read: with a new
use-value) category.
I believe that it is our ethical responsibility as academics, administrators, and educators to explore and question the dominant modes of cultural operations. If we fail to do so, indeed, as Walter Benjamin once said, the documents of our culture may as well be the documents of barbarism.
The Centre for Performance Research is unique organization, which, for over thirty years, has escaped the confines of traditional thinking about the arts by continuously forging new modes of thinking about the arts, designating new terminology describing how we critically and physically/performatively relate to what is going on not only in theatre, performance, and performance research, but also, and maybe more important, in the environment that surrounds us. Firmly rooted in Wales, and always celebrating Wales, which by many is still perceived on the periphery of Europe, the Centre for Performance Research has been actively engaged in seeking that which makes the marginal central and exists on the border between different art forms, between different social actions, different political ideologies, and different aesthetics. By so doing the Centre for Performance Research is of very few academic and performance sites in the world which disturbs, illuminates, and challenges the norm, the purpose, or the predictable. It can perform this function only because of the unique support, the Centre has received up till now. If this support is altered-that is, if the Arts Council of Wales will switch the funding mechanism from revenue funding to project funding-the Centre for Performance Research will lose its status and become one of many producing organization, which are now mushrooming in England, subscribing to the American model of arts management.
Please consider the following: having focused on that which goes beyond the 'ordinary' realm of established interests and differences, beyond the 'ordinary' realm of approved knowledge or beyond the 'ordinary' realm of theoretical innovations which persist only through the proclamations of those who position themselves as the subjects of a marketable truth, the Centre for Performance Research compels us to envision a new mode of being which brings to the fore that something which escapes the limits of present intelligibility or instrumental culture-of that which is thinkable or performable right now.
The stakes are high.
Changing a funding model is a political decision as well as an artistic one. If the Arts Council of Wales wishes to follow into the footsteps of other English and American arts management organizations, nothing will stop that. If, however, there is an opening to go beyond the ordinary realm, I would strongly urge the Members of the Arts Council of Wales to rethink their decision regarding the Centre for Performance Research and ponder over the questions which I posed at the beginning of this letter.
Michal Kobialka
Professor and Chair
Department of Theatre Arts & Dance
University of Minnesota
Michal Kobialka is Chair and Professor of Theatre at the Department of Theatre Arts & Dance at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of a book on Tadeusz Kantor's theatre, A Journey Through Other Spaces: Essays and Manifestos, 1944-1990 (1993) and on the early medieval drama and theatre, This Is My Body: Representational Practices in the Early Middle Ages (1999); an editor of Of Borders and Thresholds: Theatre History, Practice, and Theory (1999); a co-editor (with Barbara Hanawalt) of Medieval Practices of Space (2000); as well as of more than 65 articles, essays and reviews. His new book on Tadeusz Kantor, Tadeusz Kantor's
Theatre: Representation, Memory, and History, will be published by University of Minnesota Press in 2008.
Mario Ruggeri - CIRT (Centro Indipendente Ricerca Teatrale), Milan
Dear Friends,
We had occasion last year to see your openness to us and to realize that this is rare and precious, we hope that the actual situation can change even in better than before, that, as you know, life is transformation, so, will be better, may be after some adjustment, when we always fight for life, than life come to us, go on!
So, good chance to you, and the best thoughts,
Mario Ruggeri
Artistic Director
CIRT (Centro Indipendente Ricerca Teatrale), Milan
www.teacirt.it.
Margaret Ames - Ceredigion, Wales
This action by ACW represents yet another attack on the communities of the rural west of Wales and our ability to communicate specific cultural experiences and visions in both the international and local context. Our colleagues have worked tirelessly for many years, in the spirit of artistic freedom and enquiry, providing inspiration and renewing commitment to the creative response to socio/cultural crisis and prevailing ideology.
Margaret Ames,
Ceredigion,
Wales
Margaret Ames,
Ceredigion,
Wales
Petra Kuppers - Associate Professor, University of Michigan
I am writing to add my voice to the chorus of people nationally and internationally who are astonished at the Arts Council's decision to withdraw revenue funding from the CPR. I want to speak to the issue from two perspectives: as an international scholar and practitioner far removed from Wales who values the CPR, and as someone who lived in Wales for ten years and knows the importance and influence of the CPR where it is most vital, at home.
As a researcher living across the ocean from Wales, I look towards the CPR as a guide and powerhouse in our discipline and practice: it is a place I send students to, a website I visit regularly, a place where I find information about new research efforts, and a beacon of exciting and invigorating art practice. These days, I am a Professor in the US, and although I haven't been to visit the CPR physically for a number of years, its website is in my favorite list, and electronically, I visit often.
But before taking up my position here in the US, I was a performance researcher and practitioner living in Wales, and I have been able to benefit from the CPRs resources in many different ways. I have studied in the resource centre, was able to interview and work with guest artists from around the world, found my own practice as a community artist in Wales refreshed and in constant dialogue with international practices through the kind of programming and support the CPR offers. I am amazed that the Arts Council considers taking such a vital piece of Welsh support away from the many performance artists who live and work in a region that needs strong networks not just in Cardiff or Swansea, but in the far-flung areas of its land, where many exciting art practices flourish. My career in Wales, the UK and now internationally is enabled by structures such as the CPR, and I hope that the Art Council can reconsider its plan to undermine the centre's functioning.
Revenue funding, rather than project funding, is vital if work is to be sustained, guided, and visionary.
Please consider the costs of these cuts to all of us: Welsh artists and researchers who require networks and centres to come together and grow, and international artists and researchers, to whom the CPR continues to be an important part of the world scene in performance research.
Respectfully,
Petra Kuppers
--
Petra Kuppers
Associate Professor
English, Theatre and Dance, Women's Studies
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor
As a researcher living across the ocean from Wales, I look towards the CPR as a guide and powerhouse in our discipline and practice: it is a place I send students to, a website I visit regularly, a place where I find information about new research efforts, and a beacon of exciting and invigorating art practice. These days, I am a Professor in the US, and although I haven't been to visit the CPR physically for a number of years, its website is in my favorite list, and electronically, I visit often.
But before taking up my position here in the US, I was a performance researcher and practitioner living in Wales, and I have been able to benefit from the CPRs resources in many different ways. I have studied in the resource centre, was able to interview and work with guest artists from around the world, found my own practice as a community artist in Wales refreshed and in constant dialogue with international practices through the kind of programming and support the CPR offers. I am amazed that the Arts Council considers taking such a vital piece of Welsh support away from the many performance artists who live and work in a region that needs strong networks not just in Cardiff or Swansea, but in the far-flung areas of its land, where many exciting art practices flourish. My career in Wales, the UK and now internationally is enabled by structures such as the CPR, and I hope that the Art Council can reconsider its plan to undermine the centre's functioning.
Revenue funding, rather than project funding, is vital if work is to be sustained, guided, and visionary.
Please consider the costs of these cuts to all of us: Welsh artists and researchers who require networks and centres to come together and grow, and international artists and researchers, to whom the CPR continues to be an important part of the world scene in performance research.
Respectfully,
Petra Kuppers
--
Petra Kuppers
Associate Professor
English, Theatre and Dance, Women's Studies
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor
Anne Marie Carty - Artist, Wales
Please consider how central and important this resource is, not only to us locally but to performance internationally.
Anne Marie Carty,
Artist
Wales
Anne Marie Carty,
Artist
Wales
Tuesday 26 February 2008
Jessica Cohen & Jim Ennis - Artistic Directors , Earthfall, Cardiff
Peter Tyndale
Chief Executive
Arts Council of Wales
Dear Peter
We would like to express our surprise and deep regret that Arts Council of Wales wish to withdraw revenue funding from The Centre for Performance Research. We understand the need for ACW to periodically review its client base and the directive from our Culture Minister not to fund mediocrity but high quality work. We agree with these criteria but feel strongly that the length of time CPR have been funded has been money well spent and the work done by CPR is exemplary for its high standards and world renown recognition.
CPR continues to enable Welsh practitioners and audiences to experience unprecedented world class performances, educational workshops and master classes.
Through more than 30 years of developing partnerships and building relationships CPR has brought into Wales great individuals such as Grotowski, Eugenio Barba and Patricia Bardi to deliver master classes. They have run festivals of world note ie Giving Voice and Restless Gravity. They have hosted many of the best companies from all over the world in performance and theatre research ie The Peking Opera from China, Gardienice from Poland and Odin Theatre from Denmark to name a few.
CPR’s unique and comprehensive archiving and analysis of Welsh and International companies is a much used resource. Their theatre publications and the archive is one of the most important resources for theatre in the world and provides a physical legacy to an otherwise ethereal art form.
Without CPR this research and hosting of such vital theatre work will not happen in Wales. CPR has developed their contacts and partnerships over 30 years, no other organisation could deliver this programme with the dedication, knowledge and consistency that they have shown.
CPR will not function on project funding, the organisation needs the continuity of revenue funding to enable the appropriate lead in time for these ambitious projects and to achieve an appropriate level of quality activity.
We very much hope that the Welsh Arts Council will reverse their decision on the future funding of The Centre for Performance Research.
Yours sincerely,
Jessica Cohen , Jim Ennis
Artistic Directors
Earthfall, Cardiff
Chief Executive
Arts Council of Wales
Dear Peter
We would like to express our surprise and deep regret that Arts Council of Wales wish to withdraw revenue funding from The Centre for Performance Research. We understand the need for ACW to periodically review its client base and the directive from our Culture Minister not to fund mediocrity but high quality work. We agree with these criteria but feel strongly that the length of time CPR have been funded has been money well spent and the work done by CPR is exemplary for its high standards and world renown recognition.
CPR continues to enable Welsh practitioners and audiences to experience unprecedented world class performances, educational workshops and master classes.
Through more than 30 years of developing partnerships and building relationships CPR has brought into Wales great individuals such as Grotowski, Eugenio Barba and Patricia Bardi to deliver master classes. They have run festivals of world note ie Giving Voice and Restless Gravity. They have hosted many of the best companies from all over the world in performance and theatre research ie The Peking Opera from China, Gardienice from Poland and Odin Theatre from Denmark to name a few.
CPR’s unique and comprehensive archiving and analysis of Welsh and International companies is a much used resource. Their theatre publications and the archive is one of the most important resources for theatre in the world and provides a physical legacy to an otherwise ethereal art form.
Without CPR this research and hosting of such vital theatre work will not happen in Wales. CPR has developed their contacts and partnerships over 30 years, no other organisation could deliver this programme with the dedication, knowledge and consistency that they have shown.
CPR will not function on project funding, the organisation needs the continuity of revenue funding to enable the appropriate lead in time for these ambitious projects and to achieve an appropriate level of quality activity.
We very much hope that the Welsh Arts Council will reverse their decision on the future funding of The Centre for Performance Research.
Yours sincerely,
Jessica Cohen , Jim Ennis
Artistic Directors
Earthfall, Cardiff
Richard Gregory - Artistic Director, Quarantine, Manchester
Dear Judie and Richard
I'm shocked and saddened to hear your news from the Arts Council of Wales. It appears to be ill-considered and shortsighted. All of us at Quarantine want to add our support to your campaign to reverse this decision
CPR is utterly unique. Over such a long history you've managed to forge a vital organisation which at once sits both clearly rooted in Wales and yet is widely recognised internationally for its distinctive breadth of activity. You're one of those very few British arts organisations whose work is truly embedded in its home environment yet manages to engage with (and share, with breadth, depth and vision) what is happening right now in the bigger wider world.
Our visit last year to CPR with our production SUSAN & DARREN strongly illustrated some of CPR's strengths. We were welcomed warmly and informally, yet with complete efficiency and excellence in the support of our work. The audience for our show and the participants for our workshops came from near and far and both experts and first-timers were represented. I can't think of another organisation that has quite this ability to embed and share its work and ideas with local audiences and artists and yet persistently look to the wider world for new ways of thinking and working.
The diverse combination of means of exploring and exposing the practice and the processes of performance-making by an incredible range of activities means that CPR seems able to constantly change shape. It's impossible to single out one element of CPR's work in terms of relative value. To my mind, the greatest potential loss - for Aberystwyth, for Wales, the UK, Europe and further - is that those moments of unexpected inspiration and revelation (whether through watching a show, making work, taking part in a workshop, reading a publication, using the archive or via other routes you've invented) may no longer be accessible to so many of us. My understanding is that these are the very qualities the Arts Council of Wales aspires towards nurturing - in the organisations and artists it supports and for the audiences it wants to help develop and serve. It seems utterly absurd to cut CPR's regular funding when it is a proven, celebrated expert in delivering these moments and extending them, time after time. From here, it seems obvious that your activities need and deserve continuity of investment, not the stop-start uncertainty of project funding. Wales and the world without CPR would be a poorer place.
Please let me know if there is anything else Quarantine can do to help. If you'd like a paper copy of this letter I'll happily send one.
With best wishes
Richard
Richard Gregory
Artistic Director, Quarantine, Manchester
www.qtine.com
I'm shocked and saddened to hear your news from the Arts Council of Wales. It appears to be ill-considered and shortsighted. All of us at Quarantine want to add our support to your campaign to reverse this decision
CPR is utterly unique. Over such a long history you've managed to forge a vital organisation which at once sits both clearly rooted in Wales and yet is widely recognised internationally for its distinctive breadth of activity. You're one of those very few British arts organisations whose work is truly embedded in its home environment yet manages to engage with (and share, with breadth, depth and vision) what is happening right now in the bigger wider world.
Our visit last year to CPR with our production SUSAN & DARREN strongly illustrated some of CPR's strengths. We were welcomed warmly and informally, yet with complete efficiency and excellence in the support of our work. The audience for our show and the participants for our workshops came from near and far and both experts and first-timers were represented. I can't think of another organisation that has quite this ability to embed and share its work and ideas with local audiences and artists and yet persistently look to the wider world for new ways of thinking and working.
The diverse combination of means of exploring and exposing the practice and the processes of performance-making by an incredible range of activities means that CPR seems able to constantly change shape. It's impossible to single out one element of CPR's work in terms of relative value. To my mind, the greatest potential loss - for Aberystwyth, for Wales, the UK, Europe and further - is that those moments of unexpected inspiration and revelation (whether through watching a show, making work, taking part in a workshop, reading a publication, using the archive or via other routes you've invented) may no longer be accessible to so many of us. My understanding is that these are the very qualities the Arts Council of Wales aspires towards nurturing - in the organisations and artists it supports and for the audiences it wants to help develop and serve. It seems utterly absurd to cut CPR's regular funding when it is a proven, celebrated expert in delivering these moments and extending them, time after time. From here, it seems obvious that your activities need and deserve continuity of investment, not the stop-start uncertainty of project funding. Wales and the world without CPR would be a poorer place.
Please let me know if there is anything else Quarantine can do to help. If you'd like a paper copy of this letter I'll happily send one.
With best wishes
Richard
Richard Gregory
Artistic Director, Quarantine, Manchester
www.qtine.com
Etelvino Vazquez - Teatro del Norte
Estimada Judie Christie:
Desde el Teatro del Norte en Asturias, España, solicitamos y exigimos que no se os retire la ayuda que llevabais recibiendo, pues vuestro trabajo es un camino y un estimulo para todos los que hacemos teatro.
Nuestro apoyo mas incondicional.
Etelvino Vazquez
Teatro del Norte
Dear Judie Christie:
From the Teatro del Norte in Asturias, Spain, we are soliciting and demanding that your grant is not taken away; your work is a path and a catalyst for all those make theater.
With our unconditional support.
Etelvino Vazquez
Teatro del Norte
Desde el Teatro del Norte en Asturias, España, solicitamos y exigimos que no se os retire la ayuda que llevabais recibiendo, pues vuestro trabajo es un camino y un estimulo para todos los que hacemos teatro.
Nuestro apoyo mas incondicional.
Etelvino Vazquez
Teatro del Norte
Dear Judie Christie:
From the Teatro del Norte in Asturias, Spain, we are soliciting and demanding that your grant is not taken away; your work is a path and a catalyst for all those make theater.
With our unconditional support.
Etelvino Vazquez
Teatro del Norte
Berith Lochery - Touring Manager, Wales
Dear Judie and Richard,
I meant to write much sooner.
The Arts Council of Wales decision to cut your revenue funding has left me absolutely shocked and deeply sadden. In light of ACW’s recent drama strategy publications, it seems to highlight how far removed council has become in understanding performing arts in Wales. In fact, when was the last time your lead officer actually attended a CPR meeting or event? To expect CPR to operate on a “project by project” basis is not only completely unrealistic but will seriously jeopardize CPR’s core operations. How can ACW claim to support” innovative and interdisciplinary practice in the Theatre” when they choose to close a door on an organisation that has defined and challenged innovative theatre practice for decades and continues to do so today and does it in WALES! How can ACW expect to drive an exciting collaborative English National Language Theatre forward for Wales when it doesn’t “tap into” resources of imminent skill and expertise on its doorstep.
CPR’s ability to nurture and foster talents from within Wales as well as provide an international platform for performance is something that there is precious little of in Wales and yet remains high on ACW’s agenda. CPR is a vital resource; not only for established national and international performers but offers access on all levels through pioneering training regardless of age, race or language and gender.
I strongly believe that CPR is a very important part of our Theatre Ecology in Wales. CPR must not “disappear…down the plughole of the diminishing project funding pots”. Please let me know if there is anything I can do.
Words fail me.
Best Best Wishes,
Berith Lochery
Touring Manager, Wales
I meant to write much sooner.
The Arts Council of Wales decision to cut your revenue funding has left me absolutely shocked and deeply sadden. In light of ACW’s recent drama strategy publications, it seems to highlight how far removed council has become in understanding performing arts in Wales. In fact, when was the last time your lead officer actually attended a CPR meeting or event? To expect CPR to operate on a “project by project” basis is not only completely unrealistic but will seriously jeopardize CPR’s core operations. How can ACW claim to support” innovative and interdisciplinary practice in the Theatre” when they choose to close a door on an organisation that has defined and challenged innovative theatre practice for decades and continues to do so today and does it in WALES! How can ACW expect to drive an exciting collaborative English National Language Theatre forward for Wales when it doesn’t “tap into” resources of imminent skill and expertise on its doorstep.
CPR’s ability to nurture and foster talents from within Wales as well as provide an international platform for performance is something that there is precious little of in Wales and yet remains high on ACW’s agenda. CPR is a vital resource; not only for established national and international performers but offers access on all levels through pioneering training regardless of age, race or language and gender.
I strongly believe that CPR is a very important part of our Theatre Ecology in Wales. CPR must not “disappear…down the plughole of the diminishing project funding pots”. Please let me know if there is anything I can do.
Words fail me.
Best Best Wishes,
Berith Lochery
Touring Manager, Wales
Fatima Miranda - Performer, Spain
We must fight all the power-government mediocrity who gives money to empty, superficial, expensive projects decorated with so much strong kitsch lights, and fire works, that blinds and stupefies the people with bad taste, avoiding questioning themselves; instead of supporting the real culture and poetry that leads to the evolution of the human being, to the freedom and the reflection about the sense of living and how to live, of being ourselves through art and individual behaviour, accepting our differences and avoiding standard and equal behaviours in order to reach and build a real community.
It is a real shame what they are doing.
Fatima Miranda
Performer, Spain
www.fatima-miranda.com
It is a real shame what they are doing.
Fatima Miranda
Performer, Spain
www.fatima-miranda.com
Jen Walke - Artsadmin
Dear Judy and Richard,
I am writing to say how shocked and sad I am that CPR is to have its annual revenue funding cut. As you know my internship at CPR from October 2006 – April 2007 was invaluable to me as my first opportunity for professional development in the arts after graduating, leading to paid employment and an enjoyable developing career as an emerging producer. Without the support offered by the internship programme at CPR I would not be where I am today. The internship allowed me time and resources to gain an insight into the workings of an internationally recognised and highly acclaimed theatre organisation, working alongside the Marketing and Development Director.
The timing of my internship was at the point when CPR moved into its new building within the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, little more than 1 year ago. This was a massive change and development for CPR, they were finally given the space needed after 30 years of ground-breaking work in Wales with little such acknowledgment. A new theatre/studio space, an excellent position within the University, close to the Theatre, Film and Television Department, CPR were able to house properly its fantastic resource centre, logically near to the departments’ students and in comfortable weatherproof surroundings! It was always, however, in this transition period, a constant negotiation between CPR and UWA to yes, affiliate with the University, but to also maintain CPR’s identity as its own arts organisation, working alongside the University and collaborating with its staff and students, with its own set of creative aims and objectives and international partners.
I do hope that ACW revoke their decision, so that CPR are able to continue their excellent work, for which professionals travel from around the world to take part in. It would be foolish not to.
Best wishes,
Jen Walke
Projects Assistant
Artsadmin
I am writing to say how shocked and sad I am that CPR is to have its annual revenue funding cut. As you know my internship at CPR from October 2006 – April 2007 was invaluable to me as my first opportunity for professional development in the arts after graduating, leading to paid employment and an enjoyable developing career as an emerging producer. Without the support offered by the internship programme at CPR I would not be where I am today. The internship allowed me time and resources to gain an insight into the workings of an internationally recognised and highly acclaimed theatre organisation, working alongside the Marketing and Development Director.
The timing of my internship was at the point when CPR moved into its new building within the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, little more than 1 year ago. This was a massive change and development for CPR, they were finally given the space needed after 30 years of ground-breaking work in Wales with little such acknowledgment. A new theatre/studio space, an excellent position within the University, close to the Theatre, Film and Television Department, CPR were able to house properly its fantastic resource centre, logically near to the departments’ students and in comfortable weatherproof surroundings! It was always, however, in this transition period, a constant negotiation between CPR and UWA to yes, affiliate with the University, but to also maintain CPR’s identity as its own arts organisation, working alongside the University and collaborating with its staff and students, with its own set of creative aims and objectives and international partners.
I do hope that ACW revoke their decision, so that CPR are able to continue their excellent work, for which professionals travel from around the world to take part in. It would be foolish not to.
Best wishes,
Jen Walke
Projects Assistant
Artsadmin
Prof. Ian Watson - Rutgers University-Newark
Dear Richard and Judie,
I have just heard about the pending cut in funding to the Centre for Performance Research, Wales (CPR). This is catastrophic. Yours is one of the most important research centers in the field anywhere in the world. The work you have been doing over the past thirty some years is not only groundbreaking for those of us interested in the artistic, cultural, and intellectual implications of performance, it is something that has brought attention to an organization that is deeply rooted in the land that spawned it. You have done more than any organization I am aware of to raise the visibility of Wales throughout the United Kingdom and beyond than any similarly scaled artistic/research organization. For a quasi-governmental organization like the Arts Council of Wales to cut off your funding is at best short sighted, at worst damaging to Wales itself.
From this side of the pond, there is little more I can do than put my support for what you have been doing in writing. In doing so, please convey to the Arts Council my protestations about their intended cuts. Please explain to them that the innovative programming, research opportunities, and the forum for ideas that you provide cannot be allowed to fade into memory. Yours is a vital, necessary endeavour that serves a local, national, and international community that is both rooted in and vital to Wales itself.
If I can do more in this matter, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Ian Watson
Professor of Theatre and Chair
Department of Visual and Performing Arts
Rutgers University-Newark
USA
I have just heard about the pending cut in funding to the Centre for Performance Research, Wales (CPR). This is catastrophic. Yours is one of the most important research centers in the field anywhere in the world. The work you have been doing over the past thirty some years is not only groundbreaking for those of us interested in the artistic, cultural, and intellectual implications of performance, it is something that has brought attention to an organization that is deeply rooted in the land that spawned it. You have done more than any organization I am aware of to raise the visibility of Wales throughout the United Kingdom and beyond than any similarly scaled artistic/research organization. For a quasi-governmental organization like the Arts Council of Wales to cut off your funding is at best short sighted, at worst damaging to Wales itself.
From this side of the pond, there is little more I can do than put my support for what you have been doing in writing. In doing so, please convey to the Arts Council my protestations about their intended cuts. Please explain to them that the innovative programming, research opportunities, and the forum for ideas that you provide cannot be allowed to fade into memory. Yours is a vital, necessary endeavour that serves a local, national, and international community that is both rooted in and vital to Wales itself.
If I can do more in this matter, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Ian Watson
Professor of Theatre and Chair
Department of Visual and Performing Arts
Rutgers University-Newark
USA
Polly Bolton - Singer, composer, teacher, UK
Dear Judie and Roger and all at CPR
I am very shocked to hear that your future might be in jeopardy. I have been a member for many years in my capacity as a teacher and singer. I have attended "Giving Voice" several times and there is nothing like it taking place anywhere in the British Isles. It is a unique and wonderful resource for all those interested in voice work and the country will be all the poorer if this valuable event were not to take place.
Sincerely
Polly Bolton
Singer, composer, teacher, UK
www.pollybolton.co.uk
I am very shocked to hear that your future might be in jeopardy. I have been a member for many years in my capacity as a teacher and singer. I have attended "Giving Voice" several times and there is nothing like it taking place anywhere in the British Isles. It is a unique and wonderful resource for all those interested in voice work and the country will be all the poorer if this valuable event were not to take place.
Sincerely
Polly Bolton
Singer, composer, teacher, UK
www.pollybolton.co.uk
Cecilia Gramajo - UNCPBA, Argentina
Judie Christie y/o Richard Gough:
En latinoamérica conocemos largamente la implementación de recortes presupuestarios como políticas de desfinanciamiento, cuya aplicación no es otra cosa que la invalidación de años de trabajo, del prestigio alcanzado, y el dictado de muerte para proyectos artísticos, de investigación y de intercambio cultural. La rapiña presupuestaria emplea el lenguaje técnico militar para poder justificar lo que de otra manera no sabrían cómo hacerlo, de hecho no lo saben. A nosotros no nos es desconocido porque permanentemente lo padecemos y nos entristece la reiteración de estas prácticas en cualquier lugar del mundo en dónde éstas se lleven a cabo. Solo un grupo parece ser el más listo para determinar qué es rentable, qué es sustentable y ante la quita de financiamiento sugieren soluciones que ellos mismos no sabrían cómo llevarlas a cabo. La explicación de quienes quitan presupuesto son siempre inconsistentes y el lenguaje que utilizan para justificarse solo revelan lo que ocultan: PATRAÑAS.
Sres Judie y Richard intercedan para que el reclamo y apelación del CPR sea atendido y que el desfinanciamiento NO TENGA LUGAR.
El daño que produciría la quita de apoyo finaciero no lo van a constatar solamente hoy.
LA UNICA LUCHA QUE SE PIERDE ES LA QUE SE ABANDONA
Cecilia Gramajo
Prof. Adj. Facultad de Arte
UNCPBA- Tandil - Argentina
In Latin America we have long known the implementation of budgetary cuts and policies of financial withdrawals, whose application no other than the invalidation of years of work, of the prestige reached, and the notification of death for artistic projects, investigations and cultural interchanges.
This budgetary pillage uses military technical language to be able to justify what in any other way they could and for what they do not know. This is not unknown to us because permanently we suffer it and the reiteration of these practices in any place of the world where it is carried out saddens us.
Only one group seems to be so clever that it determines what is profitable, what is sustainable and before the financial acquittal it suggests solutions that it would not know how to carry out. The explanation of those who withdraw budgets is always inconsistent and the language that used to justify itself seldom reveals what they hide: LIES.
Judie and Richard we are interceding so that the reclamation and appeal of the CPR is taken care of and that the budget cut DOES NOT TAKE PLACE.
The damage that would produce the withdrawal of financial support would not just be short-lived.
THE ONLY FIGHT THAT IS LOST IS THE ONE THAT GIVES IN
Cecilia Gramajo
Prof. Adj. Faculta d de Arte
UNCPBA- Tandil - Argentina
En latinoamérica conocemos largamente la implementación de recortes presupuestarios como políticas de desfinanciamiento, cuya aplicación no es otra cosa que la invalidación de años de trabajo, del prestigio alcanzado, y el dictado de muerte para proyectos artísticos, de investigación y de intercambio cultural. La rapiña presupuestaria emplea el lenguaje técnico militar para poder justificar lo que de otra manera no sabrían cómo hacerlo, de hecho no lo saben. A nosotros no nos es desconocido porque permanentemente lo padecemos y nos entristece la reiteración de estas prácticas en cualquier lugar del mundo en dónde éstas se lleven a cabo. Solo un grupo parece ser el más listo para determinar qué es rentable, qué es sustentable y ante la quita de financiamiento sugieren soluciones que ellos mismos no sabrían cómo llevarlas a cabo. La explicación de quienes quitan presupuesto son siempre inconsistentes y el lenguaje que utilizan para justificarse solo revelan lo que ocultan: PATRAÑAS.
Sres Judie y Richard intercedan para que el reclamo y apelación del CPR sea atendido y que el desfinanciamiento NO TENGA LUGAR.
El daño que produciría la quita de apoyo finaciero no lo van a constatar solamente hoy.
LA UNICA LUCHA QUE SE PIERDE ES LA QUE SE ABANDONA
Cecilia Gramajo
Prof. Adj. Facultad de Arte
UNCPBA- Tandil - Argentina
In Latin America we have long known the implementation of budgetary cuts and policies of financial withdrawals, whose application no other than the invalidation of years of work, of the prestige reached, and the notification of death for artistic projects, investigations and cultural interchanges.
This budgetary pillage uses military technical language to be able to justify what in any other way they could and for what they do not know. This is not unknown to us because permanently we suffer it and the reiteration of these practices in any place of the world where it is carried out saddens us.
Only one group seems to be so clever that it determines what is profitable, what is sustainable and before the financial acquittal it suggests solutions that it would not know how to carry out. The explanation of those who withdraw budgets is always inconsistent and the language that used to justify itself seldom reveals what they hide: LIES.
Judie and Richard we are interceding so that the reclamation and appeal of the CPR is taken care of and that the budget cut DOES NOT TAKE PLACE.
The damage that would produce the withdrawal of financial support would not just be short-lived.
THE ONLY FIGHT THAT IS LOST IS THE ONE THAT GIVES IN
Cecilia Gramajo
Prof. Adj. Faculta d de Arte
UNCPBA- Tandil - Argentina
Teatro delle Albe - Ravenna, Italy
Cari amici,
abbiamo letto con preoccupazione e stupore la notizia del taglio del finanziamento alle vostre attività da parte del Arts Council of Wales. Il valore delle vostre attività artistiche e culturali ci è noto da molti anni, il Festival Giving Voice ci sembra un importante riferimento internazionale per la ricerca di tanti artisti, e sarebbe una grave perdita la sua scomparsa.
Ci auguriamo che l'Arts Council of Wales voglia rivedere la decisione presa, e garantirvi di nuovo il finanziamento in modo da permettervi di svolgere serenamente il vostro importante lavoro.
Avete tutto il nostro sostegno e speriamo di potervi aiutare con il nostro appoggio.
Cari Richard e Judie, un abbraccio, e forza forza forza!
Teatro delle Albe
Ravenna Teatro
Dear friends,
We read with concern and astonishment the news about the ACW’s decision to cut the funding for your activities. We have known for many years the value of your artistic and cultural activities. We think that the Giving Voice Festival is an important international point of reference for the research of many artists, and its disappearance would be a serious loss.
We hope that the Arts Council of Wales will review this decision, and will give you back the revenue funding, so that you will be able to serenely develop your significant work.
You have all our support.
Dear Richard and Judie, a hug, and force force force!
Teatro delle Albe
Ravenna Teatro
J Michael Walton - Emeritus Professor of Drama, University of Hull
Dear Richard
I read with dismay about the proposed cut to your budget and write to offer my support.
As you may or may not know, I was part of both the Revenue and the Project Funding Advisory Panels for the Arts Council of England for about twelve years from the late 1980s, writing nearly 100 reports for them. I suspect that the relationship between the two panels in Wales will be similar to what it used to be in England, so I think I am aware of the implications for your work of such a change of status.
The range of your artistic achievement at Aber has no parallel in Britain and has established your Centre as a place of international repute of which Wales can be, and ought to be, justly proud. The time I was invited to contribute to the Past Masters series on Appia and Craig I count as one of the most exciting occasions - I can think of no better word to describe it - that I have attended in Europe or America. To diminish such creativity seems to me an act of artistic vandalism for which I can see no possible justification.
The proposed cuts at the Arts Council of England were difficult to comprehend, but at least some threatened organisations have found their arguments listened to and have gained a reprieve on appeal. I very much hope you will be similarly heard.
I will keep this short. I don't need a reply. I'm sure you have far better things to do with
your time. If you wish to pass on anything I have said to the powers that be, please do so.
My warmest best wishes to you all
Michael
J Michael Walton
Emeritus Professor of Drama
University of Hull
I read with dismay about the proposed cut to your budget and write to offer my support.
As you may or may not know, I was part of both the Revenue and the Project Funding Advisory Panels for the Arts Council of England for about twelve years from the late 1980s, writing nearly 100 reports for them. I suspect that the relationship between the two panels in Wales will be similar to what it used to be in England, so I think I am aware of the implications for your work of such a change of status.
The range of your artistic achievement at Aber has no parallel in Britain and has established your Centre as a place of international repute of which Wales can be, and ought to be, justly proud. The time I was invited to contribute to the Past Masters series on Appia and Craig I count as one of the most exciting occasions - I can think of no better word to describe it - that I have attended in Europe or America. To diminish such creativity seems to me an act of artistic vandalism for which I can see no possible justification.
The proposed cuts at the Arts Council of England were difficult to comprehend, but at least some threatened organisations have found their arguments listened to and have gained a reprieve on appeal. I very much hope you will be similarly heard.
I will keep this short. I don't need a reply. I'm sure you have far better things to do with
your time. If you wish to pass on anything I have said to the powers that be, please do so.
My warmest best wishes to you all
Michael
J Michael Walton
Emeritus Professor of Drama
University of Hull
Liliana Biamonte - Costa Rica
Deseo, a traves de este correo, expresar mi apoyo a la ayuda económica para el Centre for Performance Research, Pues concidero indispensable la ayuda economica para el mantenimiento y el desarrollo del arte teatral, el cual nos une como individuos expresivos en todo el mundo.
Costa Rica
With this email I would like to express my support for financial aid to the Centre for Performance Research, as I consider the financial support vital for the maintenance and development of the theatrical art, which unites us as expressive individuals throughout the world.
Liliana Biamonte
Costa Rica
Costa Rica
With this email I would like to express my support for financial aid to the Centre for Performance Research, as I consider the financial support vital for the maintenance and development of the theatrical art, which unites us as expressive individuals throughout the world.
Liliana Biamonte
Costa Rica
Steve Seaberg - Seaberg Acrobatic Poetry, Georgia, USA
Friends,
We are very sorry to hear that CPR is threatened by the withdrawel of funding. This seems to be a common problem now the world over as business interests are in the ascendancy and arts and culture are made subservient to financial gain. As performance artists in another country we are sorry to see this coming in the way of the international contacts that we need as culture workers. With most of our money going into the pockets of oil companies and arms manufacturers we decry this inhumane situation.
Steve Seaberg
Seaberg Acrobatic Poetry
Atlanta Georgia USA
We are very sorry to hear that CPR is threatened by the withdrawel of funding. This seems to be a common problem now the world over as business interests are in the ascendancy and arts and culture are made subservient to financial gain. As performance artists in another country we are sorry to see this coming in the way of the international contacts that we need as culture workers. With most of our money going into the pockets of oil companies and arms manufacturers we decry this inhumane situation.
Steve Seaberg
Seaberg Acrobatic Poetry
Atlanta Georgia USA
Some miscellaneous facts, hearsay and opinions:
1. (Fact) - October 2007. The Welsh Assembly government agrees to fund 13.5 million pounds for the accumulated deficit of the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff, to save it from closure, and the Heritage Minister assures the Assembly that there will be no cutbacks in funding in arts outside Cardiff.
2. (Fact) The current revenue grant of Aberystwyth-based CPR at £118,300 is 0.875% of 13.5 million pounds.
3. (Hearsay) The Heritage Minister upholds the arms length principle of funding for the arts
4. (Fact) - 29th January 2007. ACW notifies CPR by letter of its intention to withdraw revenue funding from CPR with effect from July 2008, despite its own internal 2007 CPR review report’s conclusion that:
(Opinion) ‘CPR is a vital and prestigious player in the arts in Wales. It is at an important transitional stage with new possibilities opening out with occupancy of The Foundry. It’s history, experience, and present interests are important to mobilise into the challenges of new resources for drama theatre and performance, centring now in Wales on the development of a non-building based national theatre.’(ACW Director of Arts, 2007)
5. (Opinion) the letter states that ‘unfortunately… faced with some very difficult decisions within the current financial climate … the main reason [for this decision] is that ACW is focusing funding on front-line activity’
6. (Opinion) ACW 2008/09 Budget Press Release 30th January:
"The development of a sustainable portfolio of arts organisations is a key priority for ACW, as is the provision of opportunities for all the people of Wales to experience and participate in the arts.
"It is therefore essential that ACW can develop and fund organisations able to deliver this aspiration to a high standard, enabling them to grow and reach their full potential. We have been delighted to announce new areas of growth for next year, but this inevitably means we have had to look for savings from elsewhere in the portfolio."
(ACW Chief Executive, Peter Tyndall)
7. (Fact) ACW 2008/09 Budget Press Release 30th January: additional funding from the Welsh Assembly Government has been earmarked for developing the English Language National Theatre for Wales, and for beacon companies and individuals.
8. (Fact) ACW 2008/09 Budget Press Release 30th January: Other welcome developments include: £125,000 for a new community arts initiative for the Heads of the Valleys; £43,000 for Community Arts provision in Cardiff and Barry; £150,000 for Welsh Language Theatre provision; £125,000 to develop Wales's presence at the next Venice Biennale in 2009; £750,000 from the National Lottery to the Wales Film Agency.
9. (Opinion) Arguments of merit, artistic or otherwise, would appear to be disallowed as grounds for appeal within the formal terms of the ACW’s appeals procedure, wherein whether there is a case for appeal is, in the first instance, judged solely by ACW Chief Executive (currently Peter Tyndall), who was of course involved in the original decision-making process.
10. (Hearsay) After adjudicating the Appeals in early March, Peter Tyndall will be leaving ACW to take up a senior post at the Ombudsman.
11. (Opinion) ACW’s notification letter of 29th January to CPR goes on to say that ‘in [ACW’s] view, the current approach to programming by CPR is probably best funded on a project by project basis’
12. (Fact) ACW Project Scheme Guidelines – published February 2008 - allow only one application per organisation per year for projects and one training grant application per year. (For regional or local projects the maximum project grant available will be £30,000. For national or cross-regional projects, or if your project is a high priority for an ACW Regional Plan, ACW may consider applications up to £50,000)
13. (Fact) Over-arching priorities for ACW Project Schemes, where projects must meet one or more of the following:
- Projects delivered in acknowledged deprived communities, especially those
areas that have traditionally received lower levels of grant.
• Projects that promote the work of artists from under-represented groups
including disabled people and people from black and minority ethnic
backgrounds.
• Projects delivered in Welsh or bilingually
14. (Opinion) ACW expects available Lottery funding for projects to substantially diminish over the next few years
15. (Hearsay) February 2008 - A Senior Director of ACW concurs that getting project funding ‘is extremely difficult but not impossible’.
16. (Opinion) Practically speaking, six months notice of revenue disinvestment effectively means that within four months of the new financial year, CPR’s infrastructure will be decimated. The lack of the revenue grant means:
- loss of project-priming seed investment and operational and administrative overheads means
- redundancy of the ACW funded public/ professional programme staff, including:
Judie Christie (Creative Producer/ Curator/ Executive Director/ Marketing, Fundraising and Development Director/ Projects Director
Helen Gethin (Administrative Director/ Financial Administrator/ Marketing & Database Manager/ Resources Manager)
Cathy Piquemal (Projects Co-ordinator and Production Manager)
Siu-Lin Rawlinson (Assistant Producer/ PR and Publicity Co-ordinator/CPR Bookshop Manager)
It will leave the posts funded by Aberystwyth University of: Professor/ Artistic Director; part-time Research Assistant; part-time Publications and Journal Administrator, full-time Resource Centre / Archivist; and full-time Publications and Journal Administrative Assistant.
17. (Opinion) Such short notice is dishonourable to an organization with which ACW has had a thirty-year relationship, and does not provide any real practical feasible transition.
18. (Opinion) Such short notice does not take account of the possible jeopardy or compromise to CPR’s relationship with its partner, Aberystwyth University, a partnership to which ACW itself was party to creating and which it encouraged as a model of effective and efficacious funding partnership.
19. (Fact) ACW’s decision to withdraw revenue funding from CPR was made at the very point ACW is going out to consultation on its five year artform strategies.
20. (Opinion) CPR would appear to have been rendered ineligible to apply for the new Beacon funding available at 1.5 million pounds annually across the art forms.
21. (Fact) 1st February 2008. ACW press release, in which the first three points of draft evaluation criteria for Beacon Company status listed by ACW are:
· An organisation that is an exemplar in its artform/area of work, which has a reputation within Wales, in the UK and beyond and/or which stands comparison with the best of International practice.
· An organisation that develops its art form/area of work by investment in new work or the radical re-interpretation of existing work or practice.
· An organisation that works actively to bring on new talent and create the next generation of artists
22. (Opinion) ..a shift [to project funding] would rob CPR - and hence Wales and beyond - of a curatorial capability only very rarely equalled across Europe. Project funding would quickly sever the lines of communication, collaboration and knowledge exchange that are the very source of projects worth funding... CPR's long, distinguished and properly celebrated history of nourishing performance cultures is not something to be consigned to an honourable history - it is a vital living organism that has essential work to do now…At the very least, the message needs to go back up the bureaucratic line that robbing CPR of an essential lifeline will be an act of cultural vandalism that will have serious consequences for decades to come
(Professor Mick Wallis, England)
23. (Opinion) CPR’s effect may be difficult to quantify, even to describe, but then Art is like that isn't it? To outsiders it may seem a tad cultist in its intensity of language and specificity of thought, but we practitioners, we who make theory into practice, need to be fed new ideas, no matter how alien, rarefied and obscure they may seem to some at the time. It would be an ironic shame is the sometime chaotic, revolutionary and freeform thinking of CPR were to be replaced with straight lines and orthodoxy described to us, or even dictated to us, from above . (Greg Cullen, playwright and director, Wales)
24. (Opinion)CPR has placed performing arts in Wales on the map, it has made it something to contend with whether we are talking of artists, audiences or academics. It has made it a field that ripples out in every direction seeking out and creating relationships and exchanges with every other field possible. It has opened the doors to whole new ways of approaching the world of performance … what sense does it make for anyone to put brakes on this?! It is beyond my understanding. (Vikram Ingemar, Ranan Theatre, India)
25. (Opinion) First of all, I am shocked to see that a remarkable institution such as CPR has enjoyed a miserable public support of 118.000 pounds by the ACW so far. That is all? This is some sort of Moldavian/Albanian level of support for a rich, productive, original and extremely engaged perf arts organization that has consistently been a beacon of experimentation, reflection, cooperation and innovation.. In a normal European country one would expect that CPR would have 3-5 times more subsidy, that would be normal, not exceptional. In this perspective ACW decision is ridiculous and absurd…( Dr Dragan KlaicVisiting Professor, Central Europen University, Budapest, Permanent Fellow, Felix Meritis, Amsterdam The Netherlands)
26. (Opinion)..my shock at hearing of what's happened at CPR is immense given the foundation of the work, the global and inter-generational aspect of it, the significance of the archive and it's importance as as resource, as an academic touchstone, a living archive and internationally vital resource linking communities worldwide (David Baird, Theatre Artist, England)
27. (Opinion) In its history it consistently demonstrates itself as a unique organisation that captures and provokes the cultural debate in Wales, in ways that are consistently playful and insightful. The calibre of its production and the global scope of its partnership are unquestionable. It therefore seems hugely shortsighted to be dismantling the autonomy of the organisation for the sake of decisions that are ultimately driven by a need to cut costs. The long-term impact of the demise of this particular organisation is profound.
(Simon Thorne, Director and Composer, Wales)
28. (Opinion) I am shocked, angry and dismayed to learn that your funding is to be cut as from July 2008…CPR is of vital importance not only to Wales, but nationally and internationally. (Maria Hayes, Artist, Wales)
29. (Opinion)..The loss of this organization would impact across the United Kingdom.
(UK Black Arts Alliance)
30. (Opinion)The organisation performs a valuable and indeed unique service that is respected well beyond its local and national context. The impact of its pioneering interdisciplinary performance work is truly international… {project funding] is no substitute for revenue support and the certainty and ability this gives to organisations to plan effectively and strategically. (Bryan Biggs, Artistic Director, The Bluecoat, Liverpool)
31. (Opinion) To lose CPR would be to lose an essential, 'vital' part of Welsh culture and heritage as well as a future in which Wales can confidently embrace a progressive world vision in its theatre, research and performance practice.(Jessica Naish, Head of Learning and Engagement, Sherman Cymru, Wales)
32. (Opinion) Over time the name CPR has become a hallmark of passion, innovation and intellectual and artistic integrity. It remains a unique and dynamic force of great influence and importance. Surely the Welsh Arts Council realises the incredible value of an established and respected institution that so successfully operates in a manner that is at once intensely local’ and intensely international? Surely they would not risk jeopardising its future? (Geraldine Harris,Professor of Theatre Studies,University Of Lancaster)
33. (Fact) During 2007/8 in discussions variously with ACW Arts Director, ACW Drama Director, and ACW Chair, and in forward planning documents, CPR identified the need – offered ideas and made constructive project proposals - for opportunities in Wales for training, professional development, placements beyond Wales, mentoring and refreshment for directors.
34. (Opinion) CPR has a proven track record in providing high quality programmes for directors’ training, whether that be specific projects as organized in the past by CPR which were led by Peter Brook, Augusto Boal, Eugenio Barba, Tadeusz Bradecki, Roberto Bacci Anatoli Vasiliev etc. or even the development projects for theatre-makers in the last year which have included: Cooking Chaos led by Phelim McDermott Improbable Theatre (Feb (2008); The Point of Theatre? led by John Fox and Sue Gill (February 2008); Reportage Theatre led by Annet Henneman (October 2007) Ways of Working led by TG Stan (Dec 2007); Ways of Working led byQuarantine Theatre (Oct 2007); Carnivalesque Experimentation led by Marissa Carnesky (July 2007); Site-specific performance led by Geraldine Pilgrim (July 2007); Interactive Theatre in Public Space led by Natural Theatre’s Ric Jerrom and Brian Popay (July 2007); Ways of Working led by Lone Twin (Feb 2007).
35. (Fact) In ACW’s Project Scheme Guidelines published February 2008 appears a new training fund priority:
Providing opportunities to develop or refresh rehearsal and directorial
approaches for Wales based theatre and drama practitioners through direct
experience with internationally recognised directors
36. (Fact) The Centre for Performance Research (CPR) is a pioneering and multi-faceted theatre organisation located and rooted in Wales, working nationally and internationally. CPR aims to develop and improve the knowledge, understanding and practice of theatre in its broadest sense, to affect change through investigation, sharing and discovery and to make this process as widely available as possible. Its programmes of work combine cultural co-operation, collaboration and exchange practical training, education and research, performance, production and promotion, documentation and publishing, information and resource
(Fact) CPR produces innovative performance work, productions and installations
Types of activity:
1. Productions for nationwide and international touring.
2. Residencies, special events, commissions.
3. Community concerts and choral events.
4. Performance lectures, edible installations, exhibitions.
Examples:
1. From Honey to Ashes (tour throughout Europe and Brazil)
2. Inside the Folds of a Serviette (site-specific performance for the International Surrealist Conference, West Dean, Chichester)
3. The Traveller (massed gathering of community choirs from throughout Wales rehearsing and performing special commission by composer Karl Jenkins)
4. Playing in the Shadows (exhibition of Asian shadow plays accompanied by a programme of workshops, demonstrations and performances)
(Fact) CPR arranges workshops, conferences, lectures and masterclasses (for the professional, the amateur and the curious)
Types of activity:
1. Summer schools, summer retreats, workshop festivals
2. Major international conferences, symposia, talks and debates.
3. Seasons of short courses and weekend workshops.
4. Explorations of world theatre and dance forms.
Examples:
1. Summer Shift (annual programme of international artists sharing methods and approaches, resident in Aberystwyth for 4-6 weeks)
2. Here be Dragons (5th congress of Performance Studies International – 570 delegates converging in Aberystywth)
3. Cross Currents (annual Autumn series of weekend courses arranged throughout Wales)
4. Peking Opera Explorations (two-year long cultural collaboration with China – in its time the largest ever staged in the UK)
(Fact) CPR curates and produces festivals, expositions and exchanges with theatre companies from around the world;
Types of activity:
1. Nationwide theatre dance and performance festivals.
2. Expositions of contemporary theatre companies and traditional dance/theatre forms.
3. Intensive series of workshops, presentations and master classes exploring vocal traditions of the world.
4. UK wide tours of international theatre companies.
Examples:
1. Restless Gravity International Theatre festival (18 companies visiting/ 80 performances across Wales as part of the Millennium Festival)
2. Gardzienice Theatre Association, Poland (productions, workshops, talks, presentations, conference, films, expeditions – UK introduction)
3. Giving Voice International Festival (entering its 10th biennial edition)
4. Theatre Bazi from Iran (1st UK visit of an Iranian theatre company since the Islamic revolution)
(Fact) CPR publishes and distributes theatre books, the journal Performance Research and houses a resource centre and library that specialises in world theatre and performance and maintains an archive on contemporary Welsh performance.
Types of activity:
1. Resource Centre, Library, Archive.
2. Translation, editing and publishing of books, CD, DVDs and teaching manuals.
3. Publishing a quarterly journal of the performing arts.
4. Bookshop, Conference Bookshop and online sales.
Examples:
1. Audio visual collection of world theatre and dance traditions at the CPR Resource Centre.
2. 99 Georgian Songs (a collection of traditional songs from Georgia specially prepared as a teaching manual for community choirs).
3. Performance Research (embarking on Volume 13 with 42 issues already produced and distributed worldwide)
4. Stock of specialist books and DVDs on contemporary performance work.
2. (Fact) The current revenue grant of Aberystwyth-based CPR at £118,300 is 0.875% of 13.5 million pounds.
3. (Hearsay) The Heritage Minister upholds the arms length principle of funding for the arts
4. (Fact) - 29th January 2007. ACW notifies CPR by letter of its intention to withdraw revenue funding from CPR with effect from July 2008, despite its own internal 2007 CPR review report’s conclusion that:
(Opinion) ‘CPR is a vital and prestigious player in the arts in Wales. It is at an important transitional stage with new possibilities opening out with occupancy of The Foundry. It’s history, experience, and present interests are important to mobilise into the challenges of new resources for drama theatre and performance, centring now in Wales on the development of a non-building based national theatre.’(ACW Director of Arts, 2007)
5. (Opinion) the letter states that ‘unfortunately… faced with some very difficult decisions within the current financial climate … the main reason [for this decision] is that ACW is focusing funding on front-line activity’
6. (Opinion) ACW 2008/09 Budget Press Release 30th January:
"The development of a sustainable portfolio of arts organisations is a key priority for ACW, as is the provision of opportunities for all the people of Wales to experience and participate in the arts.
"It is therefore essential that ACW can develop and fund organisations able to deliver this aspiration to a high standard, enabling them to grow and reach their full potential. We have been delighted to announce new areas of growth for next year, but this inevitably means we have had to look for savings from elsewhere in the portfolio."
(ACW Chief Executive, Peter Tyndall)
7. (Fact) ACW 2008/09 Budget Press Release 30th January: additional funding from the Welsh Assembly Government has been earmarked for developing the English Language National Theatre for Wales, and for beacon companies and individuals.
8. (Fact) ACW 2008/09 Budget Press Release 30th January: Other welcome developments include: £125,000 for a new community arts initiative for the Heads of the Valleys; £43,000 for Community Arts provision in Cardiff and Barry; £150,000 for Welsh Language Theatre provision; £125,000 to develop Wales's presence at the next Venice Biennale in 2009; £750,000 from the National Lottery to the Wales Film Agency.
9. (Opinion) Arguments of merit, artistic or otherwise, would appear to be disallowed as grounds for appeal within the formal terms of the ACW’s appeals procedure, wherein whether there is a case for appeal is, in the first instance, judged solely by ACW Chief Executive (currently Peter Tyndall), who was of course involved in the original decision-making process.
10. (Hearsay) After adjudicating the Appeals in early March, Peter Tyndall will be leaving ACW to take up a senior post at the Ombudsman.
11. (Opinion) ACW’s notification letter of 29th January to CPR goes on to say that ‘in [ACW’s] view, the current approach to programming by CPR is probably best funded on a project by project basis’
12. (Fact) ACW Project Scheme Guidelines – published February 2008 - allow only one application per organisation per year for projects and one training grant application per year. (For regional or local projects the maximum project grant available will be £30,000. For national or cross-regional projects, or if your project is a high priority for an ACW Regional Plan, ACW may consider applications up to £50,000)
13. (Fact) Over-arching priorities for ACW Project Schemes, where projects must meet one or more of the following:
- Projects delivered in acknowledged deprived communities, especially those
areas that have traditionally received lower levels of grant.
• Projects that promote the work of artists from under-represented groups
including disabled people and people from black and minority ethnic
backgrounds.
• Projects delivered in Welsh or bilingually
14. (Opinion) ACW expects available Lottery funding for projects to substantially diminish over the next few years
15. (Hearsay) February 2008 - A Senior Director of ACW concurs that getting project funding ‘is extremely difficult but not impossible’.
16. (Opinion) Practically speaking, six months notice of revenue disinvestment effectively means that within four months of the new financial year, CPR’s infrastructure will be decimated. The lack of the revenue grant means:
- loss of project-priming seed investment and operational and administrative overheads means
- redundancy of the ACW funded public/ professional programme staff, including:
Judie Christie (Creative Producer/ Curator/ Executive Director/ Marketing, Fundraising and Development Director/ Projects Director
Helen Gethin (Administrative Director/ Financial Administrator/ Marketing & Database Manager/ Resources Manager)
Cathy Piquemal (Projects Co-ordinator and Production Manager)
Siu-Lin Rawlinson (Assistant Producer/ PR and Publicity Co-ordinator/CPR Bookshop Manager)
It will leave the posts funded by Aberystwyth University of: Professor/ Artistic Director; part-time Research Assistant; part-time Publications and Journal Administrator, full-time Resource Centre / Archivist; and full-time Publications and Journal Administrative Assistant.
17. (Opinion) Such short notice is dishonourable to an organization with which ACW has had a thirty-year relationship, and does not provide any real practical feasible transition.
18. (Opinion) Such short notice does not take account of the possible jeopardy or compromise to CPR’s relationship with its partner, Aberystwyth University, a partnership to which ACW itself was party to creating and which it encouraged as a model of effective and efficacious funding partnership.
19. (Fact) ACW’s decision to withdraw revenue funding from CPR was made at the very point ACW is going out to consultation on its five year artform strategies.
20. (Opinion) CPR would appear to have been rendered ineligible to apply for the new Beacon funding available at 1.5 million pounds annually across the art forms.
21. (Fact) 1st February 2008. ACW press release, in which the first three points of draft evaluation criteria for Beacon Company status listed by ACW are:
· An organisation that is an exemplar in its artform/area of work, which has a reputation within Wales, in the UK and beyond and/or which stands comparison with the best of International practice.
· An organisation that develops its art form/area of work by investment in new work or the radical re-interpretation of existing work or practice.
· An organisation that works actively to bring on new talent and create the next generation of artists
22. (Opinion) ..a shift [to project funding] would rob CPR - and hence Wales and beyond - of a curatorial capability only very rarely equalled across Europe. Project funding would quickly sever the lines of communication, collaboration and knowledge exchange that are the very source of projects worth funding... CPR's long, distinguished and properly celebrated history of nourishing performance cultures is not something to be consigned to an honourable history - it is a vital living organism that has essential work to do now…At the very least, the message needs to go back up the bureaucratic line that robbing CPR of an essential lifeline will be an act of cultural vandalism that will have serious consequences for decades to come
(Professor Mick Wallis, England)
23. (Opinion) CPR’s effect may be difficult to quantify, even to describe, but then Art is like that isn't it? To outsiders it may seem a tad cultist in its intensity of language and specificity of thought, but we practitioners, we who make theory into practice, need to be fed new ideas, no matter how alien, rarefied and obscure they may seem to some at the time. It would be an ironic shame is the sometime chaotic, revolutionary and freeform thinking of CPR were to be replaced with straight lines and orthodoxy described to us, or even dictated to us, from above . (Greg Cullen, playwright and director, Wales)
24. (Opinion)CPR has placed performing arts in Wales on the map, it has made it something to contend with whether we are talking of artists, audiences or academics. It has made it a field that ripples out in every direction seeking out and creating relationships and exchanges with every other field possible. It has opened the doors to whole new ways of approaching the world of performance … what sense does it make for anyone to put brakes on this?! It is beyond my understanding. (Vikram Ingemar, Ranan Theatre, India)
25. (Opinion) First of all, I am shocked to see that a remarkable institution such as CPR has enjoyed a miserable public support of 118.000 pounds by the ACW so far. That is all? This is some sort of Moldavian/Albanian level of support for a rich, productive, original and extremely engaged perf arts organization that has consistently been a beacon of experimentation, reflection, cooperation and innovation.. In a normal European country one would expect that CPR would have 3-5 times more subsidy, that would be normal, not exceptional. In this perspective ACW decision is ridiculous and absurd…( Dr Dragan KlaicVisiting Professor, Central Europen University, Budapest, Permanent Fellow, Felix Meritis, Amsterdam The Netherlands)
26. (Opinion)..my shock at hearing of what's happened at CPR is immense given the foundation of the work, the global and inter-generational aspect of it, the significance of the archive and it's importance as as resource, as an academic touchstone, a living archive and internationally vital resource linking communities worldwide (David Baird, Theatre Artist, England)
27. (Opinion) In its history it consistently demonstrates itself as a unique organisation that captures and provokes the cultural debate in Wales, in ways that are consistently playful and insightful. The calibre of its production and the global scope of its partnership are unquestionable. It therefore seems hugely shortsighted to be dismantling the autonomy of the organisation for the sake of decisions that are ultimately driven by a need to cut costs. The long-term impact of the demise of this particular organisation is profound.
(Simon Thorne, Director and Composer, Wales)
28. (Opinion) I am shocked, angry and dismayed to learn that your funding is to be cut as from July 2008…CPR is of vital importance not only to Wales, but nationally and internationally. (Maria Hayes, Artist, Wales)
29. (Opinion)..The loss of this organization would impact across the United Kingdom.
(UK Black Arts Alliance)
30. (Opinion)The organisation performs a valuable and indeed unique service that is respected well beyond its local and national context. The impact of its pioneering interdisciplinary performance work is truly international… {project funding] is no substitute for revenue support and the certainty and ability this gives to organisations to plan effectively and strategically. (Bryan Biggs, Artistic Director, The Bluecoat, Liverpool)
31. (Opinion) To lose CPR would be to lose an essential, 'vital' part of Welsh culture and heritage as well as a future in which Wales can confidently embrace a progressive world vision in its theatre, research and performance practice.(Jessica Naish, Head of Learning and Engagement, Sherman Cymru, Wales)
32. (Opinion) Over time the name CPR has become a hallmark of passion, innovation and intellectual and artistic integrity. It remains a unique and dynamic force of great influence and importance. Surely the Welsh Arts Council realises the incredible value of an established and respected institution that so successfully operates in a manner that is at once intensely local’ and intensely international? Surely they would not risk jeopardising its future? (Geraldine Harris,Professor of Theatre Studies,University Of Lancaster)
33. (Fact) During 2007/8 in discussions variously with ACW Arts Director, ACW Drama Director, and ACW Chair, and in forward planning documents, CPR identified the need – offered ideas and made constructive project proposals - for opportunities in Wales for training, professional development, placements beyond Wales, mentoring and refreshment for directors.
34. (Opinion) CPR has a proven track record in providing high quality programmes for directors’ training, whether that be specific projects as organized in the past by CPR which were led by Peter Brook, Augusto Boal, Eugenio Barba, Tadeusz Bradecki, Roberto Bacci Anatoli Vasiliev etc. or even the development projects for theatre-makers in the last year which have included: Cooking Chaos led by Phelim McDermott Improbable Theatre (Feb (2008); The Point of Theatre? led by John Fox and Sue Gill (February 2008); Reportage Theatre led by Annet Henneman (October 2007) Ways of Working led by TG Stan (Dec 2007); Ways of Working led byQuarantine Theatre (Oct 2007); Carnivalesque Experimentation led by Marissa Carnesky (July 2007); Site-specific performance led by Geraldine Pilgrim (July 2007); Interactive Theatre in Public Space led by Natural Theatre’s Ric Jerrom and Brian Popay (July 2007); Ways of Working led by Lone Twin (Feb 2007).
35. (Fact) In ACW’s Project Scheme Guidelines published February 2008 appears a new training fund priority:
Providing opportunities to develop or refresh rehearsal and directorial
approaches for Wales based theatre and drama practitioners through direct
experience with internationally recognised directors
36. (Fact) The Centre for Performance Research (CPR) is a pioneering and multi-faceted theatre organisation located and rooted in Wales, working nationally and internationally. CPR aims to develop and improve the knowledge, understanding and practice of theatre in its broadest sense, to affect change through investigation, sharing and discovery and to make this process as widely available as possible. Its programmes of work combine cultural co-operation, collaboration and exchange practical training, education and research, performance, production and promotion, documentation and publishing, information and resource
(Fact) CPR produces innovative performance work, productions and installations
Types of activity:
1. Productions for nationwide and international touring.
2. Residencies, special events, commissions.
3. Community concerts and choral events.
4. Performance lectures, edible installations, exhibitions.
Examples:
1. From Honey to Ashes (tour throughout Europe and Brazil)
2. Inside the Folds of a Serviette (site-specific performance for the International Surrealist Conference, West Dean, Chichester)
3. The Traveller (massed gathering of community choirs from throughout Wales rehearsing and performing special commission by composer Karl Jenkins)
4. Playing in the Shadows (exhibition of Asian shadow plays accompanied by a programme of workshops, demonstrations and performances)
(Fact) CPR arranges workshops, conferences, lectures and masterclasses (for the professional, the amateur and the curious)
Types of activity:
1. Summer schools, summer retreats, workshop festivals
2. Major international conferences, symposia, talks and debates.
3. Seasons of short courses and weekend workshops.
4. Explorations of world theatre and dance forms.
Examples:
1. Summer Shift (annual programme of international artists sharing methods and approaches, resident in Aberystwyth for 4-6 weeks)
2. Here be Dragons (5th congress of Performance Studies International – 570 delegates converging in Aberystywth)
3. Cross Currents (annual Autumn series of weekend courses arranged throughout Wales)
4. Peking Opera Explorations (two-year long cultural collaboration with China – in its time the largest ever staged in the UK)
(Fact) CPR curates and produces festivals, expositions and exchanges with theatre companies from around the world;
Types of activity:
1. Nationwide theatre dance and performance festivals.
2. Expositions of contemporary theatre companies and traditional dance/theatre forms.
3. Intensive series of workshops, presentations and master classes exploring vocal traditions of the world.
4. UK wide tours of international theatre companies.
Examples:
1. Restless Gravity International Theatre festival (18 companies visiting/ 80 performances across Wales as part of the Millennium Festival)
2. Gardzienice Theatre Association, Poland (productions, workshops, talks, presentations, conference, films, expeditions – UK introduction)
3. Giving Voice International Festival (entering its 10th biennial edition)
4. Theatre Bazi from Iran (1st UK visit of an Iranian theatre company since the Islamic revolution)
(Fact) CPR publishes and distributes theatre books, the journal Performance Research and houses a resource centre and library that specialises in world theatre and performance and maintains an archive on contemporary Welsh performance.
Types of activity:
1. Resource Centre, Library, Archive.
2. Translation, editing and publishing of books, CD, DVDs and teaching manuals.
3. Publishing a quarterly journal of the performing arts.
4. Bookshop, Conference Bookshop and online sales.
Examples:
1. Audio visual collection of world theatre and dance traditions at the CPR Resource Centre.
2. 99 Georgian Songs (a collection of traditional songs from Georgia specially prepared as a teaching manual for community choirs).
3. Performance Research (embarking on Volume 13 with 42 issues already produced and distributed worldwide)
4. Stock of specialist books and DVDs on contemporary performance work.
Monday 25 February 2008
Kate Hannah Perry - Director of Au Brana Cultural Centre and member of OBRA theatre company.
Dear Judie
I am appalled, absolutely appalled at the Arts Council of Wales decision to withdraw funding from the CPR. My recognition of the profound effect that CPR's work has had on my own can be seen through varying routes;
- As a theatre student at Rose Bruford between 2000-2003 I found the Performance Research journal a valuable source for my studies in European Theatre Arts. I found the journal informative for my research as it was one of the only publications to consider not only new directions in performance and training but placed them in relation to European theatre history. As a theatre maker I continue to refer to the journals to reassess my company's work within Contemporary practice and as a way to stay informed.
- As a practitioner in Europe I cannot ignore how many of the now established (in terms of recognition, financially independent and respected) companies that I have learnt from through workshops owe a debt to the CPR for supporting their work in the early stages. I refer to Song of the Goat, Gardzienice among a long list who were able to reach a larger audience through leading workshops and performing with the support of the CPR. New and exciting work can only continue to evolve if there are respected institutions that are prepared to help companies during their early fragile stages. If one sees that a project has been supported by CPR, the International theatre community can safely be assured that the group involved are working towards something unique or have redefined their craft.
- As a director of a cultural centre in Southern France I looked to the CPR as a model for how to create an institution that supports new work and can be a resource for developing artists. When I had the opportunity to meet with Judie Christie last November I was heartened by the centre's continuing openness to new ideas. After 30 years, the CPR's doors are still open to young theatre makers and I found myself treated as an equal rather than a beginner. The response to our project was not that we were in competition but rather, how can we be in contact to help each other further? How can we pool our collective knowledge to continue to seek out new work and bring it to a larger audience? I left Aberystwyth with more ideas and more contacts and content that in the modern climate of competition and everyone pushing to grab at what little is available, that there are still institutions that recognise that art can only survive through collaboration.
Our centre in France and theatre company are in their formative stages, I hope that in 30 years we will have achieved even just a fraction of what the CPR has in terms of support for the arts. New and experimental work, alongside the safe-guarding of traditional practice requires that there are established institutions to take risks and help to cultivate new directions in theatre. In Western Europe I know of only one place that has collected an archive of publications and video that is selective in it's quality but not closed in terms of content, as it really represents a broad spectrum of Theatre practice. This archive is added to daily and the number of companies that can benefit from the CPR's support grows daily. The theatre community need daily access to the CPR and this cannot happen if they are limited by project to project funding. The remarkable nature of the CPR is that it is a constant resource, something that is ongoing and not governed by people having to compete to be the best at selling their product.
Kate Hannah Perry
Director of Au Brana Cultural Centre and member of OBRA theatre company.
With our best best wishes
Kate
Au Brana Cultural Centre, France
www.aubrana.com
I am appalled, absolutely appalled at the Arts Council of Wales decision to withdraw funding from the CPR. My recognition of the profound effect that CPR's work has had on my own can be seen through varying routes;
- As a theatre student at Rose Bruford between 2000-2003 I found the Performance Research journal a valuable source for my studies in European Theatre Arts. I found the journal informative for my research as it was one of the only publications to consider not only new directions in performance and training but placed them in relation to European theatre history. As a theatre maker I continue to refer to the journals to reassess my company's work within Contemporary practice and as a way to stay informed.
- As a practitioner in Europe I cannot ignore how many of the now established (in terms of recognition, financially independent and respected) companies that I have learnt from through workshops owe a debt to the CPR for supporting their work in the early stages. I refer to Song of the Goat, Gardzienice among a long list who were able to reach a larger audience through leading workshops and performing with the support of the CPR. New and exciting work can only continue to evolve if there are respected institutions that are prepared to help companies during their early fragile stages. If one sees that a project has been supported by CPR, the International theatre community can safely be assured that the group involved are working towards something unique or have redefined their craft.
- As a director of a cultural centre in Southern France I looked to the CPR as a model for how to create an institution that supports new work and can be a resource for developing artists. When I had the opportunity to meet with Judie Christie last November I was heartened by the centre's continuing openness to new ideas. After 30 years, the CPR's doors are still open to young theatre makers and I found myself treated as an equal rather than a beginner. The response to our project was not that we were in competition but rather, how can we be in contact to help each other further? How can we pool our collective knowledge to continue to seek out new work and bring it to a larger audience? I left Aberystwyth with more ideas and more contacts and content that in the modern climate of competition and everyone pushing to grab at what little is available, that there are still institutions that recognise that art can only survive through collaboration.
Our centre in France and theatre company are in their formative stages, I hope that in 30 years we will have achieved even just a fraction of what the CPR has in terms of support for the arts. New and experimental work, alongside the safe-guarding of traditional practice requires that there are established institutions to take risks and help to cultivate new directions in theatre. In Western Europe I know of only one place that has collected an archive of publications and video that is selective in it's quality but not closed in terms of content, as it really represents a broad spectrum of Theatre practice. This archive is added to daily and the number of companies that can benefit from the CPR's support grows daily. The theatre community need daily access to the CPR and this cannot happen if they are limited by project to project funding. The remarkable nature of the CPR is that it is a constant resource, something that is ongoing and not governed by people having to compete to be the best at selling their product.
Kate Hannah Perry
Director of Au Brana Cultural Centre and member of OBRA theatre company.
With our best best wishes
Kate
Au Brana Cultural Centre, France
www.aubrana.com
Phillip Zarilli -theatre director, actor trainer, teacher, and author, Wales
Arts Council of Wales
To Whom it May Concern:
I work internationally as a theatre director, actor trainer, teacher, and author. I have an international reputation. In 1999 I moved to Wales. Why? Because of the innovative programming and work of the Centre for Performance Research. I first came to Wales in 1995 when CPR invited me to be part of its incredibly exciting ‘Past Masters’ series of events—this one focusing on Meyerhold. I was immediately struck by the tremendously creative programming that brought together an internationally diverse set of professional actors, directors, scholars, and students to focus upon, learn about, explore with, and reflect upon the work/approach of one of the great masters of the Western theatre tradition. My initial enthusiasm for CPR’s innovative and exciting programming was not short-lived. I attended other events they organized and I was invited to return to Wales several times by CPR. I gave intensive workshops for actors and directors exposing them to my own unique approach to training actors in psychophysical process through Asian martial arts and yoga. I said to myself, ‘if theatre in Wales (and the UK) is benefiting from this type of artistic programming, perhaps I should consider moving to Wales to be in an environment where such work is valued.’ Coming from the US where such ongoing, subsidized, innovative programming is seldom (if ever) encountered, I made the decision to move to West Wales, close to CPR’s new home in Aberystwyth.
The recent news that CPR’s core funding is to be terminated is shocking. The kind of long-term, innovative programming that CPR invented, has sustained, and more recently been (often poorly) copied by other organizations MUST continue, and MUST CONTINUE IN WALES. CPR is one of Wales’ unique cultural treasures. It is a resource that inspires working professionals from Wales, the UK, and beyond these shores. Ongoing, core funding is NECESSARY for the kind of long-term programming that CPR has undertaken. Quite simply, major programming such as PAST MASTERS, GIVING VOICE, SUMMER SHIFT, etc. would be impossible to sustain without core funding. CPR has been a magnet drawing people to experience what Wales has to offer within an international programming environment. CPR helps Wales take its place on an international stage.
CPR’s work takes place between more conventional theatre and the constantly shifting cutting edge of performance work. As such it serves to build bridges between more conventional approaches to acting/performance and innovative experimentation.
My own work reflects this mix. Just so that ACW is aware of some of my activities, I am currently directing Kaite O’Reilly’s new play, The Almond and the Seahorse, at Sherman Cymru. Immediately after the production opens I travel to Seoul, Korea for a three month residency where I’ll be directing the Korean premiere of Sarah Kane’s 4:48 Psychosis. During July I will be running my now annual month-long intensive summer training programme at my studio in Llanarth. The international group that gathers at my studio in Llanarth always interacts with and attends CPR’s SUMMER SHIFT events.
I urge the Arts Council of Wales to reconsider this decision. Core funding for CPR should continue as a matter of priority and urgency.
Most Sincerely,
Phillip Zarrilli
Author: Acting Reconsidered, Making the Body All Eyes, Kathakali Dance-Drama, Psychophysical Acting (forthcoming).
To Whom it May Concern:
I work internationally as a theatre director, actor trainer, teacher, and author. I have an international reputation. In 1999 I moved to Wales. Why? Because of the innovative programming and work of the Centre for Performance Research. I first came to Wales in 1995 when CPR invited me to be part of its incredibly exciting ‘Past Masters’ series of events—this one focusing on Meyerhold. I was immediately struck by the tremendously creative programming that brought together an internationally diverse set of professional actors, directors, scholars, and students to focus upon, learn about, explore with, and reflect upon the work/approach of one of the great masters of the Western theatre tradition. My initial enthusiasm for CPR’s innovative and exciting programming was not short-lived. I attended other events they organized and I was invited to return to Wales several times by CPR. I gave intensive workshops for actors and directors exposing them to my own unique approach to training actors in psychophysical process through Asian martial arts and yoga. I said to myself, ‘if theatre in Wales (and the UK) is benefiting from this type of artistic programming, perhaps I should consider moving to Wales to be in an environment where such work is valued.’ Coming from the US where such ongoing, subsidized, innovative programming is seldom (if ever) encountered, I made the decision to move to West Wales, close to CPR’s new home in Aberystwyth.
The recent news that CPR’s core funding is to be terminated is shocking. The kind of long-term, innovative programming that CPR invented, has sustained, and more recently been (often poorly) copied by other organizations MUST continue, and MUST CONTINUE IN WALES. CPR is one of Wales’ unique cultural treasures. It is a resource that inspires working professionals from Wales, the UK, and beyond these shores. Ongoing, core funding is NECESSARY for the kind of long-term programming that CPR has undertaken. Quite simply, major programming such as PAST MASTERS, GIVING VOICE, SUMMER SHIFT, etc. would be impossible to sustain without core funding. CPR has been a magnet drawing people to experience what Wales has to offer within an international programming environment. CPR helps Wales take its place on an international stage.
CPR’s work takes place between more conventional theatre and the constantly shifting cutting edge of performance work. As such it serves to build bridges between more conventional approaches to acting/performance and innovative experimentation.
My own work reflects this mix. Just so that ACW is aware of some of my activities, I am currently directing Kaite O’Reilly’s new play, The Almond and the Seahorse, at Sherman Cymru. Immediately after the production opens I travel to Seoul, Korea for a three month residency where I’ll be directing the Korean premiere of Sarah Kane’s 4:48 Psychosis. During July I will be running my now annual month-long intensive summer training programme at my studio in Llanarth. The international group that gathers at my studio in Llanarth always interacts with and attends CPR’s SUMMER SHIFT events.
I urge the Arts Council of Wales to reconsider this decision. Core funding for CPR should continue as a matter of priority and urgency.
Most Sincerely,
Phillip Zarrilli
Author: Acting Reconsidered, Making the Body All Eyes, Kathakali Dance-Drama, Psychophysical Acting (forthcoming).
Dr Roger Owen - Aberystwyth University
21st February 2008
Dear Richard and Judie,
I’m writing this with an increasingly familiar feeling of sadness and frustration at the way in which arts organisations which I deeply respect are being treated by the Arts Council of Wales.
ACW’s decision to revoke CPR’s revenue funding is misinformed, myopic, instrumentalist and cravenly dishonest. The implications of this decision for some of your most hardworking and committed staff members at CPR are deeply regrettable. Without a full team, the value of your work is placed in severe jeopardy; and ACW’s view that it may continue on a project funded basis is simply contemptible.
CPR has been a leading organisation in Wales and the UK for many years; it is a beacon company if ever there was one. It has introduced me to theatre and performance work of the highest order: it has been bold, exploratory, uncompromising, inspirational. It is through CPR’s international reputation and contacts that I’ve had some of the most compelling theatrical experiences of my life – performances which have completely exploded the limits of what I thought I knew: Teatr Osmego Dnia, Akademia Ruchu, Victoria, Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Tg Stan, and many more. My career as an academic and my feeling for theatre art in theory and practice has been immeasurably enriched by CPR’s conferences, events, workshops and resources. You simply cannot conjure these things out of thin air, nor sustain them on good will.
I can only thank you for all this, and hope that you will fight tooth and nail to sustain your commitment to excellence and innovation in theatre and performance in some way.
Yours,
Roger
Dr Roger Owen
Lecturer
Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies
Aberystwyth University
Christine Fentz - Artistic Director of Secret Hotel, Denmark
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
I've always thought of the outmost Western part of Europe - Aberystwyth - as one of the most coolest places in a cultural sense!
Solely because of how the Center for Performance Research in Aberystwyth always is absolutely on the beat or even ahead of what's Important, Groundbreaking or super-Inspiring work in the stage arts on this planet.
Almost each time a new publication comes or a new call for a workshop or other activity arrives before my eyes, I'm impressed how CPR is always making me wish I could attend all they do, read all they publish and know all the knowledge they administer, collect, make happen and disseminate. And this ability to being both up-dated and masters in in-depth research is nota bene not just something that's come with the internet. The net is just a new tool for their curiosity and impressive work of connecting the right artists with the right researchers, etc.
When the innovation of stage art is in question, you set out on voyages without a known goal. This is how new islands of art can be found; as a parallel world to the concrete globe that is already mapped. Such traveling needs an ongoing translation of the new languages that are found or developed. This is research. And with an ongoing - and long - tradition of serious research in stage art and it's practices, CPR have had and still has immense effect on the thinking of and innovative approaches to stage art for more artists in Europe and beyond than you wanna use your time counting.
Good art and art of the future can only be explored and invented without any pressure of production and presenting - and good frames for such work and research voyages without defined goals can only exist within it's contrast: Secure financial and organizational framework.
The organisation exists;
CPR. The financial support is not only supporting some-center-in-Western-Wales - it supports the work of international artists and researches, who would be left almost alone & without important vitamins, if CPR stopped to exist on a regular, secure basis.
With the hope of a stable future for the work of Center for Performance Research, Wales
Yours sincerely
Christine Fentz
Director & Dramaturge (MA), Artistic Director of Secret Hotel, Denmark
I've always thought of the outmost Western part of Europe - Aberystwyth - as one of the most coolest places in a cultural sense!
Solely because of how the Center for Performance Research in Aberystwyth always is absolutely on the beat or even ahead of what's Important, Groundbreaking or super-Inspiring work in the stage arts on this planet.
Almost each time a new publication comes or a new call for a workshop or other activity arrives before my eyes, I'm impressed how CPR is always making me wish I could attend all they do, read all they publish and know all the knowledge they administer, collect, make happen and disseminate. And this ability to being both up-dated and masters in in-depth research is nota bene not just something that's come with the internet. The net is just a new tool for their curiosity and impressive work of connecting the right artists with the right researchers, etc.
When the innovation of stage art is in question, you set out on voyages without a known goal. This is how new islands of art can be found; as a parallel world to the concrete globe that is already mapped. Such traveling needs an ongoing translation of the new languages that are found or developed. This is research. And with an ongoing - and long - tradition of serious research in stage art and it's practices, CPR have had and still has immense effect on the thinking of and innovative approaches to stage art for more artists in Europe and beyond than you wanna use your time counting.
Good art and art of the future can only be explored and invented without any pressure of production and presenting - and good frames for such work and research voyages without defined goals can only exist within it's contrast: Secure financial and organizational framework.
The organisation exists;
CPR. The financial support is not only supporting some-center-in-Western-Wales - it supports the work of international artists and researches, who would be left almost alone & without important vitamins, if CPR stopped to exist on a regular, secure basis.
With the hope of a stable future for the work of Center for Performance Research, Wales
Yours sincerely
Christine Fentz
Director & Dramaturge (MA), Artistic Director of Secret Hotel, Denmark
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