Prof. Jane Goodall - University of Western Sydney

Dear Richard and Judy,

Like many people around the globe, I am very concerned indeed to hear the disappointing news about the loss of ongoing funding support for CPR.

As a writer and researcher in performance studies, I have benefited greatly from an association with CPR which has included participation in two major conferences and a period of residency during a study leave financed by my own university. The conferences were without question the most dynamic I have attended in the discipline. This is a reflection on the special capacity of CPR to blend creative practice with analytical and scholarly exchange, and the extraordinary energy, flair and generosity with which the CPR team conceive every event they host. These characteristics also account for the international reach of the organization.

International though it is, I have always been conscious when I attend a CPR event that I am in Wales, and that the powerhouse of creative and intellectual work established in Aberystwyth is testament to a long cultural history in Wales of independence and innovation in the arts.

This would seem to be the worst time to cut back on major arts initiatives in Wales, especially those arising from a catalytic organization whose infrastructure, built up through vigorous effort and skill over a long period of time, is stringently cost effective. Clearly funding organizations must look to the future, and to the investment value of arts funding. This is a time when fundamental cultural changes are afoot in all countries. Climate change and a set of major economic crises have taught us that narrow economic rationalism is no longer viable. Cultural change is the driver of future viability, and that means cultural leadership.

How utterly sad it would be if, for the sake of a financial saving quite minor in the broad scheme of things, the Arts Council of Wales passed up what may be their best chance of making a real impact in such leadership over the next decade.

I send my warmest wishes to all at CPR at this difficult time, and my strongest pleas to the Arts Council of Wales to come up with a way forward.

Jane Goodall

Professor Jane Goodall
Writing and Society Research Program.
University of Western Sydney