Jenna Kumiega

Dear Richard and Judie

This being (hopefully) a good friday, in that I have had a bit of space to breathe, I have taken some time to read through both your blog, and additional comments on the petition list (which I signed some weeks ago when I first heard the news of your threatened cut).

So many names - some familiar, some old friends - and so many impassioned testimonies to the achievements and benefits of your life work! Whatever the outcome of this latest potential bureaucratic blunder, I am sure you must find comfort and strength in knowing that such an illustrious international community is standing shoulder to shoulder with you.

As I read through the many succinct and powerful arguments for ACW to continue support which (up until now) has gained Wales a reputation for vision and courage in the international cultural community, I found myself thinking: they can't possibly ignore these persuasive and powerful voices........can they?

My fear - knowing and understanding how bureaucracy works - is that they can. The very fact that they were able to throw you the sop of 'project funding' (possibly without even blushing at the crassness of that suggestion) betrays a level of disingenuousness of which any senior ACW official should be deeply ashamed. The fact that they can bandy about excuses such as prioritising 'front-line' work (without acknowledging that such work will inevitably stultify without the level of cross-fertilisation that CPR has brought about over the years) is also not hopeful.

However, they can also change their minds. They could listen to those many voices on your website and in the petition (from very local community groups and individuals as well as from across the world) and re-think their position and decision. They could ponder the fact that, at times with very little support and subsidy, you have built up over the years an irreplaceable and towering resource of interlinked activity, experiment, teaching, and fellowship, which has fostered a truly electric and fertile environment for local, national and global performance creativity in Wales. With one short-sighted and misguided act they could indeed pull the plug on that. Or they could stop and think - hang on a minute, what on earth are we doing withdrawing our wholehearted support from a creative centre which more than any other in Wales has carved out for our nation a global reputation for the most exciting, daring and consistently rigorous exploration in performance work? Hell - let's double their grant!

with love, and support, and gratitude that you were there, doing what you do best, so many decades ago, and hope that you will still be there in decades to come.

Jenna Kumiega