Richard Downing - U-Man Zoo, Wales

Dear Richard and Judie

It seems to me that amongst the many values and virtues of CPR it is the structure that the organisation has built (and built upon) over more than thirty years that is particularly distinctive, rare and valuable. This structure has fostered and enabled a range of thinking, activity and debate of an enormous span (geographical, cultural and intellectual) and this in turn has connected Arts practice and enquiry in the UK (and Wales especially) with the rest of the world. In this respect, the organisation is unique. But you can't sustain a structure on the hit and miss basis of competitive project funding. You can't expect a tree to stand (let alone grow) where rain falls only by lot. And you would think that another structure, the Arts Council of Wales, would understand this only too well as, in fact, I'm sure it does.

In passing I'd like to add that the sums of money involved are really rather shamefully small - the great tree has grown well on its drops. In plain business terms, CPR is terrific value for money. So, I'm sure like many others, I would urge the Arts Council of Wales to reconsider its decision. This, of course, requires looking through a somewhat wider optic. I appreciate that this may be rather against the temper of the times and note with some grim irony that that is exactly what CPR has been doing all along.

With best wishes


Richard Downing

Artistic Director
U-Man Zoo, Wales