Prof.Freddie Rokem - Vice President, Performance Studies International

Dear Judy and Richard

I want you to pass on this message to the Arts Council of Wales - expressing my consternation with regard to their decision to cut the funding to the CPR.

The international impact of the CPR has been enormous, not only in terms of the quality of the work you have produced, but also in terms of the optimism and even hope you have given to peripheral places - and Israel is peripheral academically - showing us how that innovation in the field of performance studies does not only come from big metropolitan areas like New York or Berlin. By cutting the regular funding to the CPR, the ACW is telling the world that geographical marginality means isolation from the international community of scholars. Since its formation the CPR has been a source of inspiration for numerous scholars all over the world.

During my tenure as Dean of the Faculty of the Arts at Tel Aviv University the chief administrators of the university made deep cuts in all the departments of the faculty - theatre, film, TV, music - thinking that this is a place where funding cuts will not be felt - because these fields are 'marginal'. At one point they even wanted to close down the faculty - but we were luckily able to prevent that.

Now they are openly regretting their decisions - and it is much harder to rebuild something than to keep it working even if there will be a temporary lowering of budgets. I hope you will not make the same mistake. It takes minutes to destroy institutions that have developed over decades. And then they are gone.

In today's complicated world the field of performance research is crucial for a deepened understanding of differences - and for really grasping the complicated democratic processes that are constantly endangered by fear. It will be a big mistake to close down this valuable critical tool.

I have been the guest of CPR once - it was a formative experience for me!!!


Best regards
Freddie Rokem
Imanuel Herzikovitz Professor of the Arts
Faculty of the Arts
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv, Israel

Editor
TRI (published by Cambridge University Press)

Vice President
Performance Studies International