Dear Member
The “urge” to return early to London from (glorious) West Wales was compromised by the sunshine of the last few days – that in part explains why this newsletter is a little later than I planned it to be...........
Helen (Wakeman Jones) has been busy with the organisation of our next social event on September 14th and has recently written to you about it – I have no doubt that it will be a wonderful evening and I hope a sell out which will be a good start to the autumn “term”. There is such creative talent in Wales and it must be right that Helen is “importing” a jazz band from Wales for our event.
Slightly later that week, on Thursday 16th at 18.00, we have a warm invitation to the opening of an exhibition “Talking Pictures” by our friend Cambridge Jones who, as many of you know, is an inspirational photographer who spends his time between New York and London. This is a joint project with the Welsh Assembly Government and will be hosted in the Lobby of One Canada Square, Canary Wharf by WAG, The Canary Wharf Group and Cambridge. His exhibition is of photographs of creative people inspired by Wales and will be unveiled in Cardiff, London, New York and Los Angeles. Cambridge wanted more than just two dimensional images of some of Wales’s greatest stars so, during each photoshoot, he asked each celebrity who most inspired them and their answers accompany each of the portraits as a personal soundtrack which gives you a unique insight into each of the celebrities’ interests. Come and listen to the words of Michael Sheen, Kenneth Tynan, Terry Jones and others.
You can book your place be emailing Catrin Brace on Catrin.Brace@wales-uk.com. But spaces are limited so hurry.
Catrin is “our” representative in New York and does a magnificent job there on behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government and Wales (she organises Welsh Week in New York and is the inspiration behind attempts to mount a similar event here in London). I will be seeing Catrin in New York in November when I go there to see the New York premiere of Pieces which was premiered in the UK earlier this year by Clwyd Theatr Cymru. They are taking it over to New York as part of the Brits off Broadway season. (For those of you with sharp memories you will know that the play was written by my son Hywel who helps us on some of the web page management for Wales in London). The Guardian gave it a 4 star review with the quote “…a demonic contemporary fairy tale whose psychological surety will leave you in pieces”! And I thought that the business world was complex…......
Whilst there I am hoping to link with the Welsh societies both in New York and Boston to see whether / how we can bring our organisations closer together.
If any of you are over in New York I am sure Clwyd Theatr Cymru (and Hywel!) would welcome your support for Pieces which runs from November 3rd to November 21st at 59 E 59 off Broadway. Please let all your friends, contacts and relatives in New York know........... For details see www.britsoffbroadway.com or www.59e59.com with more detail in the news section.
Since last I wrote we had a very successful event, the Summer Reception, on July 14th where some 160 people gathered and a more, focussed discussion / seminar with Jonathan Price the Chief Economist with WAG and Dame Gillian Morgan the Permanent Secretary. The highlight for me on the former was that we had there as guests and friends senior representatives of all the main political parties with The Secretary of State for Wales, Cheryl Gillan MP, as our chief guest and main speaker. It was good to see many others there – Peter Hain MP, former Secretary of State for Wales; Elfyn Llwyd MP Leader of Plaid in Westminster; Kirsty Williams AM, leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, and other senior members/Ministers from both Westminster and Cardiff. Our thanks, of course, to Metrix who provided support for the evening.
The evening with Dame Gillian Morgan and Jonathan Price on July 27th was far more intimate (deliberately so) and the seminar type event proved to be a success – there was a lively conversation and the evening went well beyond its allotted time. Our thanks both to them and to Nicola Roberts of Macfarlanes who kindly hosted the event. If anyone wants to see the slides of the presentation by Jonathan please email me.
You will see in the news section a whole host of new stories / events:
• Thackeray Gallery September 7th-24th has an exhibition of 6 Welsh Painters and a potter. One of my favourite galleries they have had a long association with Wales being an early supporter of Kyffin Williams (from 1970).Based in Thackeray St W8 5ET –see www.thackeraygallery.com for more information.
• Martin Tinney Gallery 18 St. Andrew's Crescent, Cardiff CF10 3DD is another favourite and specialises in Welsh and Welsh based artists. They have a new exhibition of works by Darren Hughes starting on September 7th and is well worth visiting when in Cardiff. See www.artwales.com.
• Celebration of Welsh Lamb at Leadenhall Market. Wednesday 8th September – Wednesday 13th October. Each Wednesday chefs from some of London’s most popular restaurants will be using Welsh Lamb dishes and will provide samples free of charge (full lunch portions will also be available to purchase.........). Details in the news section.
• Friday 10th September at 19.00 at Penybryn Hall, Aberystwyth University, Plaid Cymru have their conference dinner with guest speaker journalist Martin Shipton. More information contact Vici Jones at vicijones@plaidcymru.org. Details of the annual conference are all so on the webpage and it runs from 9th – 11th September.
• Music Theatre Wales are at the Linbury Studios from Wednesday 15th September to 18th September where they are presenting “In the Penal Colony” a setting of Franz Kafka’s dark and chilling short story. This is the UK premiere of the work by one of the world’s most recognised and innovative opera composers – Philip Glass.
• London Welsh have started their season (one win one loss so far) with the first home fixture looming on the 11th September against Birmingham – it is always a good day out.
• 23rd September at 18.00 Cymmrodorian start their season with a lecture on Where next for Wales, in association with IWA, at the National Assembly, Cardiff. Their first London lecture will be on 20th October at 18.30 in 3 Carlton House Terrace where the Archbishop of Wales speaks to the topic Believer or Atheist- The Priest and Poet R S Thomas. Details of their programme for 2010 -2011 on their webpage www.cymmrodorion.org.
• Emerging Welsh artist, Hugh Hughes, is at the Barbican on Saturday 25th September with three of his shows being performed that day starting at 14.00. For more information look at the news section or contact Shon Dales-Jones, Artistic Director of HoiPolloi on shon@hoipolloi.org.uk.
• Tenovus have a ladies lunch at St David’s hotel, Cardiff on September 27th in the presence of their patron HRH The Princess Royal. See www.tenovuis.org.
• On September 29th at 20.00 at the London Welsh Centre there is a literary evening when Simon Thirsk will discuss his recently published book Not Quite White. The book covers issues relating to Welsh identity and devolution and will include readings by Simon and Q&As chaired by Fraser Cains the actor.
• Friday 1st October IWA have a full day conference on Creativity in Hard Times. In the 1930s and again in the 1980s, both times of hardship in Welsh economic life, there were surges in creativity. What will current hard times bring? How should policy makers respond? See www.iwa.org.uk/en/events. for conference details.
• One of our stalwarts is William Wilkins who many will know because of his work with Artes Mundi. He is also the driving force behind fundraising for Llanelly House a marvellous example of a town house in the Georgian period. They had a successful fundraising event in London in May and now are close to raising the £6million needed for the restoration (that has been a 10 year journey….). William sent me a copy of his article in the Magazine of the Georgian group which was fascinating. If anyone is interested in helping I am sure William would be delighted to give more information. Tel/fax 01558 823 242.
One of our purposes as an organisation is to support Welsh businesses or organisations. I was pleased to meet Tim Percival and Darryl Rothwell of (Welsh) Architects Powell Dobson. The discussion was how to adjust to the current challenge and how to build on their existing London based work flow which they service from offices in Kew. I am always encouraged when Welsh firms target the London market and we spent time looking at those areas of their practice where there can be an “edge”. Interestingly the focus in Wales on sustainable housing development could serve them well with increasing legislative targets for energy reduction. See www.powelldobson.com.
I have also been contacted by Chris Rowlands of the Wrexham and Shropshire Railways to “remind me” of their direct services to Wrexham and linking that with the National Eisteddfod, which will be held in Wrexham next year, and also the Wrexham celebration as a Town of Culture, which they sponsor, in 2011. I had not realised that they were independent, and as such celebrate the fact that they can be innovative on promotional ideas, and employ some 60 people in the Wrexham area – see www.wrexhamandshropshire.co.uk for details on their services.
You will see more on many of these items in the news section together with information on other events.
I look forward to seeing you all on the 14th and we must all be looking forward to the Ryder Cup which takes place at the Celtic Manor from October 1st – 3rd. Congratulations to the vision of Sir Terry Matthews – let’s hope Wales (and Newport) make the most of this wonderful occasion.
With best wishes
Robert
