House of Commons
Early Day Motion
WITHDRAWAL OF ARTS COUNCIL WALES FUNDING
03.04.2008
Williams, Mark
That this House notes with concern the decision of Arts Council Wales to withdraw funding to six clients across Wales; further notes that two of these clients, the Centre for Performance Research and Dawns Dyfed are based in Ceredigion; regrets that the decision to reprioritise Lottery funding to the London Olympics has left Arts Council Wales with significant budgetary pressures; pays tribute to the achievement of Dawns Dyfed with children, young people and the disadvantaged across three counties for over 18 years; pays tribute also to the excellent regard in which the Centre for Performance Research is held on a national and international level for being a trailblazer in intercultural and interdisciplinary exchange in theatre and performance; further notes that the achievement of both organisations have been fully recognised by Arts Council Wales; reminds the Welsh Assembly Government of its commitment made in November that there would be no cutbacks to funding to arts bodies outside Cardiff; and urges the Arts Council Wales to work with the Assembly Government Culture Minister and the UK Government to reconsider their decision to withdraw funding, which stands to jeopardise the future of these two very successful organisations.
Thursday, 17 April 2008
Moira Vincentelli - Senior lecturer in Art History, School of Art, Aberystwyth and Board member of CPR
Letter of Support for the Centre for performance Research
I am very concerned about the decision to cut the revenue funding to the Centre for Performance Research. This company may be based in Aberystwyth but it plays a unique role in the international world of avant-garde performance. Wales has enough such companies and CPR has a very special place among them. It has proved over decades its ability to attract considerable additional funding but all such funds are predicated on having the infrastructure in place from which grant applications and new initiatives can be launched. In removing the base funding which attracts partnership funding from the university and many others the Art Council embarks on a very dangerous game of brinkmanship. It may claim that it wants to maintain this organisation and recognises its excellent work but cuts at this level will quickly lead to withering away of the fine initiatives that have been established and were so clearly reaching to new audiences with the opening of the Foundry.
Moira Vincentelli
Senior lecturer in Art History
School of Art
Buarth Mawr, Aberystwyth
Board member of CPR
I am very concerned about the decision to cut the revenue funding to the Centre for Performance Research. This company may be based in Aberystwyth but it plays a unique role in the international world of avant-garde performance. Wales has enough such companies and CPR has a very special place among them. It has proved over decades its ability to attract considerable additional funding but all such funds are predicated on having the infrastructure in place from which grant applications and new initiatives can be launched. In removing the base funding which attracts partnership funding from the university and many others the Art Council embarks on a very dangerous game of brinkmanship. It may claim that it wants to maintain this organisation and recognises its excellent work but cuts at this level will quickly lead to withering away of the fine initiatives that have been established and were so clearly reaching to new audiences with the opening of the Foundry.
Moira Vincentelli
Senior lecturer in Art History
School of Art
Buarth Mawr, Aberystwyth
Board member of CPR
Tuesday, 15 April 2008
Gordon Kennedy - Performance Artist, Glasgow
Dear Sir / Madam –
I am a writer and performance artist from Glasgow, and recently visited Wales to attend a workshop at Giving Voice Festival, run by the Centre for Performance Research at Aberystwyth.
I am aware that the Centre is currently funded by yourselves, and would like to congratulate you on your support for this excellent resource.
I was delighted in particular, by the intensely practical and applicable basis of the workshop training, and by the way in which the practical, theoretical and performance aspects of the festival as a whole informed and cross- pollinated each other. The environment provided by the CPR was intensely stimulating, and I have to say I have not encountered anything quite like it elsewhere.
I understand that you are presently considering withdrawing funding from this institution, and feel bound to say that this would represent a major blow to the performing arts, both in Wales and further afield. A few countries can boast a broad-based voice festival of this stature, attracting such a calibre if international coaches and performers – and that fact stands as testament to the international status of the Centre.
Events such as this, and institutions such as the CPR, are the seedbed of artistic practice.
It would seem strange, entrusted with the stewardship of a house, to invest in the windows, doors and furniture, and remove the foundations.
Best Wishes
Gordon Kennedy
I am a writer and performance artist from Glasgow, and recently visited Wales to attend a workshop at Giving Voice Festival, run by the Centre for Performance Research at Aberystwyth.
I am aware that the Centre is currently funded by yourselves, and would like to congratulate you on your support for this excellent resource.
I was delighted in particular, by the intensely practical and applicable basis of the workshop training, and by the way in which the practical, theoretical and performance aspects of the festival as a whole informed and cross- pollinated each other. The environment provided by the CPR was intensely stimulating, and I have to say I have not encountered anything quite like it elsewhere.
I understand that you are presently considering withdrawing funding from this institution, and feel bound to say that this would represent a major blow to the performing arts, both in Wales and further afield. A few countries can boast a broad-based voice festival of this stature, attracting such a calibre if international coaches and performers – and that fact stands as testament to the international status of the Centre.
Events such as this, and institutions such as the CPR, are the seedbed of artistic practice.
It would seem strange, entrusted with the stewardship of a house, to invest in the windows, doors and furniture, and remove the foundations.
Best Wishes
Gordon Kennedy
Thursday, 10 April 2008
Frankie Armstrong - Singer and Voice Teacher, Wales
Dear Joan, Richard and all at C P R,
I must thank you for another wonderfully stimulating and enlivening Giving Voice event. As you know I have been to nine of the ten previous Giving Voice Workshop/Conferences and this one was full of the same rich mix of highly educative hands-on workshops, stimulating
papers and discussions and extraordinary world class
performances.
For me, as a Professional voice teacher and singer, Giving Voice has consistently given me the range of development opportunities
I need, all in an intense period of time. This was no exception. As well as the two day Workshop I ran, the three days with Lin Snelling from Canada was a profound learning experience and I know I will continue to work with her whether here or when visiting Canada.
I have participated in a variety of Voice Conferences in the U S and Australia as well as on the continent of Europe, but none offer me the stimulus and learning across such a wide spectrum of skills and understanding.
I can think of no other way in which, as a busy practitioner, I could keep developing my skills and hence for me, as for many others, it would be a terrible blow and impoverishment to our art should Giving Voice events have to end. There are teachers and practitioners from Wales and around the world who, like me, would feel bereft. It seems inconceivable that funding should be withdrawn from this rich unique event. Everyone I spoke to over the five days, be they like me, regular attenders or first time students or teachers, were astonished that this is now a real possibility. I thank you again most warmly and sincerely hope that the funders will recognise, however belatedly, the extraordinary work you do
here in Wales.
With very best wishes,
Frankie Armstrong
Singer and Voice Teacher, Wales
http://www.frankiearmstrong.com/
I must thank you for another wonderfully stimulating and enlivening Giving Voice event. As you know I have been to nine of the ten previous Giving Voice Workshop/Conferences and this one was full of the same rich mix of highly educative hands-on workshops, stimulating
papers and discussions and extraordinary world class
performances.
For me, as a Professional voice teacher and singer, Giving Voice has consistently given me the range of development opportunities
I need, all in an intense period of time. This was no exception. As well as the two day Workshop I ran, the three days with Lin Snelling from Canada was a profound learning experience and I know I will continue to work with her whether here or when visiting Canada.
I have participated in a variety of Voice Conferences in the U S and Australia as well as on the continent of Europe, but none offer me the stimulus and learning across such a wide spectrum of skills and understanding.
I can think of no other way in which, as a busy practitioner, I could keep developing my skills and hence for me, as for many others, it would be a terrible blow and impoverishment to our art should Giving Voice events have to end. There are teachers and practitioners from Wales and around the world who, like me, would feel bereft. It seems inconceivable that funding should be withdrawn from this rich unique event. Everyone I spoke to over the five days, be they like me, regular attenders or first time students or teachers, were astonished that this is now a real possibility. I thank you again most warmly and sincerely hope that the funders will recognise, however belatedly, the extraordinary work you do
here in Wales.
With very best wishes,
Frankie Armstrong
Singer and Voice Teacher, Wales
http://www.frankiearmstrong.com/
Pauline Down - Voice Practitioner, Wales
Dear Joan Mills,
I attended two days of CPRs Giving Voice Festival last week and I want to thank you for yet again providing an incredibly exciting professional development opportunity for me as a voice practitioner.
My work is in North Wales where I offer voice training to young people wishing to develop their theatre skills, lead the Bangor Community Choir, run various other singing and voice projects in the community and also perform and compose for voice myself.
Like any other artist, in order for my practice to develop and thrive I need to seek training, mentoring, exposure to new work etc. The Giving Voice Festival is the only opportunity I have found in Wales to develop my practical skills, through exciting workshops with international voice practitioners who are leaders in this field.
The 2 day workshop that I attended this year with Frankie Armstrong (Wales ) and Janet B. Rodgers (USA) was excellent and extremely valuable . The lecture/demonstrations that I attended in the late afternoon/early evening were all inspirational in different ways and the innovative evening performances gave me the exposure to new work in this field which I crave.
Simply being amongst other voice practitioners for two days with the networking and discussion opportunities that that brings felt as beneficial as an intensive mentoring session.
I’m not aware of other events that offer such a comprehensive mix of practical workshops, lecture/demonstrations and performances in the voice field.
I know that this mix is a familiar format to the CPR and used for other projects in the year not just the Giving Voice project.
I think we are very lucky here in Wales to have an organisation so committed to professional and artistic development that they put enormous energy into maintaining and developing a thriving international network which feeds practice back here in Wales and also enables positive and fruitful exchange between the different countries.
This is the 7th Giving Voice Festival that I have attended and every single time I have come away thrilled, inspired and with a fresh commitment to my work.
I am aware that the future of the CPR is uncertain at the moment and so I would be grateful if you could forward my letter to the Arts Council of Wales as a way of offering my support because it would be an enormous loss to me, and to those in North Wales with whom I collaborate or to whom I offer my skills, if the CPR were unable to continue offering such important events.
With thanks and appreciation,
Pauline Down, Wales
I attended two days of CPRs Giving Voice Festival last week and I want to thank you for yet again providing an incredibly exciting professional development opportunity for me as a voice practitioner.
My work is in North Wales where I offer voice training to young people wishing to develop their theatre skills, lead the Bangor Community Choir, run various other singing and voice projects in the community and also perform and compose for voice myself.
Like any other artist, in order for my practice to develop and thrive I need to seek training, mentoring, exposure to new work etc. The Giving Voice Festival is the only opportunity I have found in Wales to develop my practical skills, through exciting workshops with international voice practitioners who are leaders in this field.
The 2 day workshop that I attended this year with Frankie Armstrong (Wales ) and Janet B. Rodgers (USA) was excellent and extremely valuable . The lecture/demonstrations that I attended in the late afternoon/early evening were all inspirational in different ways and the innovative evening performances gave me the exposure to new work in this field which I crave.
Simply being amongst other voice practitioners for two days with the networking and discussion opportunities that that brings felt as beneficial as an intensive mentoring session.
I’m not aware of other events that offer such a comprehensive mix of practical workshops, lecture/demonstrations and performances in the voice field.
I know that this mix is a familiar format to the CPR and used for other projects in the year not just the Giving Voice project.
I think we are very lucky here in Wales to have an organisation so committed to professional and artistic development that they put enormous energy into maintaining and developing a thriving international network which feeds practice back here in Wales and also enables positive and fruitful exchange between the different countries.
This is the 7th Giving Voice Festival that I have attended and every single time I have come away thrilled, inspired and with a fresh commitment to my work.
I am aware that the future of the CPR is uncertain at the moment and so I would be grateful if you could forward my letter to the Arts Council of Wales as a way of offering my support because it would be an enormous loss to me, and to those in North Wales with whom I collaborate or to whom I offer my skills, if the CPR were unable to continue offering such important events.
With thanks and appreciation,
Pauline Down, Wales
Tuesday, 8 April 2008
Peter Brook - Director of Film, Theatre and Opera
I am very sad to hear of the difficulties that CPR are having.
It has achieved much and carries out immensely valuable and varied work.
It would be a great loss not only to Wales but also to the world of culture should they not be able to carry on.
Mr Peter Brook
Paris
France
It has achieved much and carries out immensely valuable and varied work.
It would be a great loss not only to Wales but also to the world of culture should they not be able to carry on.
Mr Peter Brook
Paris
France
Mark Williams MP
Ref: AR/CPR/ACW/290208
Dear Mr Tyndall,
I was baffled and extremely disappointed to hear of Arts Council of Wales’ decision to withdraw revenue funding for the Centre for Performance Research, based at Aberystwyth University in my constituency.
I should not need to remind you of the excellent regard in which the CPR is held on a national and international level. Indeed I have seen the glowing tribute the Arts Council to the work carried out by the Centre last year.
The CPR, whilst being an organisation deeply rooted in Wales, has been a trailblazer for intercultural and interdisciplinary exchange for many years, often ploughing a lonely furrow. The work it has done in these areas, and the expertise it has, makes the CPR an invaluable resource as this sort of collaborative work becomes ever more popular.
I have seen an astounding collection of letters of support from those who have worked with the CPR, which pays testament to the very high regard in which it is held across the country.
I appreciate that the ACW has serve pressure on its budgets due to the Government’s decision to shift lottery funding to the London Olympics. Nevertheless this decision runs counter to the assurance given by Rhodri Glyn Thomas AM, Assembly Culture Minister in October, that there would be no cutbacks to funding to arts outside Cardiff, when a further £13.5 million was found to save the Wales Millenium Centre. The current £118,300 revenue grant is a tiny proportion of this sum.
As you will know, the Centre is a very efficient, lean organisation that already operates on skeletal staffing levels.
I join with many others as Aberystwyth’s Member of Parliament to urge you to reconsider this decision, and continue to provide the CPR with revenue funding. Without it, there is a strong likelihood that at best, the CPR will be reduced to a shadow of its former self.
Yours sincerely,
Mark Williams MP
Dear Mr Tyndall,
I was baffled and extremely disappointed to hear of Arts Council of Wales’ decision to withdraw revenue funding for the Centre for Performance Research, based at Aberystwyth University in my constituency.
I should not need to remind you of the excellent regard in which the CPR is held on a national and international level. Indeed I have seen the glowing tribute the Arts Council to the work carried out by the Centre last year.
The CPR, whilst being an organisation deeply rooted in Wales, has been a trailblazer for intercultural and interdisciplinary exchange for many years, often ploughing a lonely furrow. The work it has done in these areas, and the expertise it has, makes the CPR an invaluable resource as this sort of collaborative work becomes ever more popular.
I have seen an astounding collection of letters of support from those who have worked with the CPR, which pays testament to the very high regard in which it is held across the country.
I appreciate that the ACW has serve pressure on its budgets due to the Government’s decision to shift lottery funding to the London Olympics. Nevertheless this decision runs counter to the assurance given by Rhodri Glyn Thomas AM, Assembly Culture Minister in October, that there would be no cutbacks to funding to arts outside Cardiff, when a further £13.5 million was found to save the Wales Millenium Centre. The current £118,300 revenue grant is a tiny proportion of this sum.
As you will know, the Centre is a very efficient, lean organisation that already operates on skeletal staffing levels.
I join with many others as Aberystwyth’s Member of Parliament to urge you to reconsider this decision, and continue to provide the CPR with revenue funding. Without it, there is a strong likelihood that at best, the CPR will be reduced to a shadow of its former self.
Yours sincerely,
Mark Williams MP
Yvon Bonenfant - Senior Lecturer in Performing Arts, University of Winchester
Dear Arts Council of Wales:
RE: Centre for Performance Research
Having just returned from Giving Voice 10, the international voice festival run by CPR, I feel compelled to express my opinion about the threatened defunding of the Centre for Performance Research by the Arts Council of Wales.
This festival is unique not only in the UK but in the world. It brings together workshops, presentations, and a wide variety of performances from across the worlds of music and theatre in a way that is representative of the practical nature of the CPR’s commitment to developing new art and allying this with relating that art to the work of the ‘past masters’ of the field.
Nowhere else on Earth could one hear Fatima Miranda, doing her avant-garde, theatrical, highly musically refined and visually vibrant pieces; Christian Wolz, a pioneering German artist working with extended voice and technology, and a wide variety of intercultural voice practices and experimental music theatre, and then be able to take workshops in these and many other techniques, all within one week.
This is special. It is original. It is practical. It allies thinking with doing, and embodied reflection with creative practice. It is what a centre for performance research funded by an arts council should be about – bringing otherwise rare and difficult to access performance practices to a constituency hungry to enrich their own artistic practices with this wide variety of cutting-edge and underexposed work.
The workshops, dissemination practices, and dialogue the CPR provides for artists and audience are important. They occupy a special place on the international performance scene. I hope you see fit to continue supporting this idiosyncratic and necessary star in the constellation of performance today.
Yours sincerely,
Yvon Bonenfant
Senior Lecturer in Performing Arts
University of Winchester
RE: Centre for Performance Research
Having just returned from Giving Voice 10, the international voice festival run by CPR, I feel compelled to express my opinion about the threatened defunding of the Centre for Performance Research by the Arts Council of Wales.
This festival is unique not only in the UK but in the world. It brings together workshops, presentations, and a wide variety of performances from across the worlds of music and theatre in a way that is representative of the practical nature of the CPR’s commitment to developing new art and allying this with relating that art to the work of the ‘past masters’ of the field.
Nowhere else on Earth could one hear Fatima Miranda, doing her avant-garde, theatrical, highly musically refined and visually vibrant pieces; Christian Wolz, a pioneering German artist working with extended voice and technology, and a wide variety of intercultural voice practices and experimental music theatre, and then be able to take workshops in these and many other techniques, all within one week.
This is special. It is original. It is practical. It allies thinking with doing, and embodied reflection with creative practice. It is what a centre for performance research funded by an arts council should be about – bringing otherwise rare and difficult to access performance practices to a constituency hungry to enrich their own artistic practices with this wide variety of cutting-edge and underexposed work.
The workshops, dissemination practices, and dialogue the CPR provides for artists and audience are important. They occupy a special place on the international performance scene. I hope you see fit to continue supporting this idiosyncratic and necessary star in the constellation of performance today.
Yours sincerely,
Yvon Bonenfant
Senior Lecturer in Performing Arts
University of Winchester
Wednesday, 2 April 2008
Dr Jonathan Bollen - President, Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies
Dear Judie and Richard,
The Executive and Membership of the Australasian Association for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies is dismayed and appalled at the proposal by the Arts Council of Wales to withdraw funding for the Centre for Performance Research.
For many years, the work of you and your colleagues has provided stimulation, provocation and inspiration far beyond the boundaries of Wales, contributing to an apprehension of Wales as a progressive, sophisticated and innovative site of performance culture and research. The CPR is itself a model to which many of us aspire, and it is deeply shocking that such a vibrant, dynamic site of international excellence could be so unceremoniously chopped off at the knees.
We urge the Arts Council to reverse any decision it has made about defunding the CPR, and offer you our deepest and sincerest support in what must be testing times. We are confident that sanity will prevail, and look forward to many, many years of your contribution to our discipline and artforms, and to the maintenance of Wales’ reputation and profile as a proponent for and advocate of all that is exciting and worthy in culture and the arts.
Please let us know what we can do to support you further, and keep us posted on events as they unfold.
Yours sincerely
Dr Jonathan Bollen,
ADSA President On behalf of the Executive and Membership of ADSA
Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies
www.adsa.edu.au
ADSA is the Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies. It is the peak academic body in the western Pacific region promoting the study of drama in any performing medium.
The Executive and Membership of the Australasian Association for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies is dismayed and appalled at the proposal by the Arts Council of Wales to withdraw funding for the Centre for Performance Research.
For many years, the work of you and your colleagues has provided stimulation, provocation and inspiration far beyond the boundaries of Wales, contributing to an apprehension of Wales as a progressive, sophisticated and innovative site of performance culture and research. The CPR is itself a model to which many of us aspire, and it is deeply shocking that such a vibrant, dynamic site of international excellence could be so unceremoniously chopped off at the knees.
We urge the Arts Council to reverse any decision it has made about defunding the CPR, and offer you our deepest and sincerest support in what must be testing times. We are confident that sanity will prevail, and look forward to many, many years of your contribution to our discipline and artforms, and to the maintenance of Wales’ reputation and profile as a proponent for and advocate of all that is exciting and worthy in culture and the arts.
Please let us know what we can do to support you further, and keep us posted on events as they unfold.
Yours sincerely
Dr Jonathan Bollen,
ADSA President On behalf of the Executive and Membership of ADSA
Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies
www.adsa.edu.au
ADSA is the Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies. It is the peak academic body in the western Pacific region promoting the study of drama in any performing medium.
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