Led by Suzie Nicklin of the British Council
These notes are representative of the participant's views and do not necessarily reflect the views of Wales Arts International.
The session opened with Ann Sholem of National Dance Company Wales speaking a little about the experience and value of the Company’s recent tour to China. They felt that they had learned much and grown as a Company by being put outside of their comfort zone. Also importantly, it had provided the Chinese audience with a completely new creative concept, where there was not correct or incorrect response. She described a post performance question and answer session in which the Chinese audience were keen to know if their response to the piece was right or wrong. This was both intriguing to the Company and challenging to the audience, to be faced will a piece of creative work from the West which allowed for personal response, no correct or incorrect reaction. Ann felt that their performances had subjected the audience to new possibilities of thought and creative appreciation.
The audiences’ behaviour had also posed challenges to the Company. Unlike European audiences, the Chinese take photos and talk openly with each other throughout a performance. This challenged the dancers in new ways.
The experience of travelling to and performing in China had three impacts: on Wales’s standing and reputation in the region; on the audiences to whom the Company performed and upon the development of the Company itself. Ann stated that the visit had had a long term effect on the Company as a whole, forcing them to think differently about how you prepare, present and communicate work.
Suzie Nicklin described taking an author of historic fiction out to China, and the shocked reception they received. China’s history is controlled by the government; therefore the fictionalising of it by an author is unheard of there. It transgresses the cultural norm.
Ann Shrosbree of Small World Theatre added to this discussion by describing their company’s experience of working overseas. She described it as work that combined the exporting and presentation of culture along with the development of a relationship, which inherently had many formal and informal aspects. She described the relationship building aspects as a combination of ambassadorial communication, informal relationship building, the presentation of work and the discussion and reflection (by both Company and audience) that arose from it. Furthermore, she spoke of how valuable developing an understanding of how ‘culture’ is viewed differently across the world. This aspect helps travelling artists to question their own work and perhaps better understand the value and cultural identity or roots of that work.
Angharad Wynne posed the question of the role Welsh Artists might play in the field of cultural diplomacy, as part of a strategy that the National Assembly might have. Jackie Brown of The Welsh Assembly Government confirmed that cultural diplomacy was being discussed and that future strategic work in the arena would be looking at this.
Kiran Ratna of India Dance Wales described their experience of bringing artists from India into Wales, and how they were able to inform those artists about Wales and our particular culture. The work of cultural exchange is valuable both ways, as we export our culture and import artists and artistic work into Wales.
Richard Cox described a project he’d been involved with some years earlier which involved cultural exchange with Rajasthan. This five year programme had developed great cultural exchange and valuable relationships between the two cultures. However, he raised the issue of sustainability. What happened after those five years? How can such cultural links be maintained in the mid and long term?
In turn, this prompted some discussion about the length of exchange in the region verses the depth of the exchange; i.e. whether there is more value in spreading our cultural exchange investment across a number of territories, or focussing on a few, deep rooted programmes within a few territories that can be maintained and sustainably nurtured over a number of years.
Robin Tomos, Arts Officer of the National Eisteddfod of Wales raised the issue of strategic international cultural exchange verses serendipitous exchange. He mentioned Llandysul’s links with Plogoneg in Brittany, citing the wealth of cultural exchange that had taken part as a result, and the lasting bonds of friendship and artistic activity that had flourished as a result. He saw this as a cultural exchange, where the culture of each area had somehow taken root in the other. He promoted a function that could allow for cultural links that developed organically rather than strategically.
Artist, Mary Lloyd Jones spoke about the importance for artists in Wales to be able to show work and have a presence elsewhere. Her experience is that artists working in Wales are often little acknowledged over the border. This can hamper an artist’s confidence in the value and quality of their work and it’s meaning outside of Wales. However, reception to Welsh artists work beyond the UK is very positive, and it is a significant boost both to individual artists and the Welsh arts scene as a whole to be able to interact directly with the rest of the world.
She explained that she worked for some twenty years to try to take her work beyond Wales, but that it was difficult in the past, with few well travelled routes and little know how or support in developing contacts.
Mary spoke about her experience of visiting India where she perceived that ‘everyone was an artist’. She expressed how refreshing that culture was for an artist; the Indian culture’s normalising of art – art and creativity in the everyday and their sophisticated use of colour. The result is seeing your own place in a different light on returning. It provides a different perspective with which to view the everyday, a different colour palette perhaps.
Her experience of working in China had been incredibly important to her own growth as an artist. Firstly, she gained great confidence and encouragement from her work being selected by a Chinese curator. The Chinese people’s enthusiasm and curiosity about her work and Wales had been refreshing and those links would now continue via Aberystwyth University. All in all, it fed artistic experience and expression.
Furthermore, she’d found the Smithsonian’s Wales Showcase extremely energizing – especially networking and socialising with other artists and performers of varying disciplines from Wales. She wondered whether a similar showcase could be developed in Wales annually to promote Welsh arts and Culture within Wales, and as a meeting point for artists and performers across disciplines.
Deborah Keyzer, representing both Creu Cymru and the Vale of Glamorgan Festival spoke of her experience of cultural exchange with Montreal. She was facilitated to go and see work by a young people’s performance group in Montreal by Wales Arts International which she greatly valued, but found great difficulty in sourcing the necessary funding to bring the production and tour it in Wales. Policy, routes and finance channels played a part in the difficulty. She suggested that investment in bringing significant work into Wales as part of an equal exchange is as important, and vital for positive ongoing cultural relations in the target territories.
Kevin Lewis of Theatre Iolo described the experience of being invited to perform at a summer festival in Korea last summer. While some of the performances had to be cancelled due to the Swine Flue epidemic, the work they did was very well received. They were performing in the main to young children, and in many cases these children’s parents came along too. They also ran workshops on how they had originally created the performance piece with children. Teachers and promoters came to these workshops. There was huge interest in the process, and the Koreans were very keen to continue to forge links through educational routes. Theatr Iolo had found enabling them to create links into the education system here in Wales quite difficult. They suggested that developing know how, links and a database of contacts for such outreach work would be valuable in helping to deepen the cultural exchange experience beyond the arts but also to education and other appropriate sectors.
Jill Greenhalgh of the Magdalena project expressed frustration that festivals inspired by Wales’s Magdalena project were flourishing across the globe e.g. Cuba, Brazil, Mexico and Peru, but that a gathering of those organisers back here in Wales couldn’t be funded. She also spoke about the organic development of cultural links that are based as much upon personal relationship and recommendation as anything else.
Kiran Ratna described the difficulty India Dance Wales had experienced finding out information about schools and educational establishments with an interest in dance that they could link up with internationally. A number of those in the group offered advice and contact details at this point, and the value of an arts information network became clear. It steered the discussion towards the possibility of some arts industry intranet under the Wales Arts International banner. This would be an informal way of sharing contacts, interests and opportunities relating to international cultural exchange.
A question was raised regarding the Assembly’s intention to support large scale arts events. Following the investment facilitated through the Major Events Unit, Jackie Brown of Welsh Assembly Government was asked about whether such support could be directed towards arts events. She mentioned that the Major Events Unit were partnering the bid to host WOMEX in 2012.
Angharad Wynne asked how acting as ambassadors or being purposefully engaged in artistic diplomacy sat with artists?
There was general consensus that they did feel like ambassadors for Wales when working internationally. They also felt that while Wales was often little known outside the UK and northern Europe, that in terms of diplomacy it had a number of assets that helped to connect with other cultures including:
• Distinctive identity
• Minority language
• Been in the shadow of a more dominant, ruling culture
• Been a conquered nation
Interestingly, these are also issues that inform much of Wales’s cultural product, and what the artists felt they often expressed through their work.
Harry McIver of Wales Arts International stated that he felt that a ‘sense of the unknown’ was a vital ingredient in cultural exchange work. Certainly, it had been an important and intentional factor in supporting the National Dance Company of Wales’s tour to China.
While much was discussed about the value of international exchange for audiences and artists, there was no discussion of the value of exchange of managerial and administrative personnel. This is an area that might be looked at in the future.
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