Patrick Hannan Lecture - 'Time to get cocky' if we're going to realise Wales' artistic potential
Wales has huge creative resources, but won’t realise its full artistic potential until it learns to be cockier, escaping the shackles of policy and instead nurturing creative communities.
Published: 27 May 2016
If we believe that the richness of this country lies in its creativity, then we cannot tie that creativity into top-down politics. We need to free it up to surprise, excite, amaze.
That’s what the former artistic director of National Theatre Wales, John McGrath, will tell audiences at the Hay Festival next week when he delivers BBC Radio Wales’ 2016 Patrick Hannan Lecture.
In a lecture titled ‘Here, Now, Together: Re-imagining Wales through Culture’, McGrath challenges the notion that the role of the arts is simply to lift people and make their lives happier, arguing that there’s capacity in Wales for arts and culture to play a key part in a new kind of economy: digitally advanced, rooted in place, but internationally focused.
McGrath will say, “Invest in your emerging artists, your creative start-up companies, your studio spaces and digital networks. Worry less about numbers reached and partnerships demonstrated. Trust in creativity.”
Cautioning that the arts sector in Wales sometimes worries too much about fitting in with policies, McGrath - who recently became Artistic Director of the Manchester International Festival - will make the case that Wales needs to be bold and will only grow by making itself a magnet for emerging talent and creative initiatives, by nurturing its communities and networks and by supporting exciting creative scenes.
“If we bet on art,” he will say, “we are setting off on an adventure rather than marching to the regular beat of policies and plans. If we believe that the richness of this country lies in its creativity, then we cannot tie that creativity into top-down politics. We need to free it up to surprise, excite, amaze.”
For the second year - and as part of the BBC’s ongoing arts partnership with the Hay Festival - Radio Wales’ Patrick Hannan lecture is being broadcast live on Radio Wales during the annual literary and arts festival.
The annual lecture, held in memory of the writer and broadcaster Patrick Hannan, aims to stimulate debate around questions relevant to Wales. This is the fifth annual lecture, with previous addresses delivered by Baroness Morgan of Ely, Professor Ian Hargreaves, media commentator Steve Hewlett and devolution expert Professor Laura McAllister.
Steve Austins, Editor, Radio Wales says: “This, the fifth Patrick Hannan Lecture, promises to ask challenging questions of Welsh arts and culture. It’s a fitting tribute to Patrick, a man who always made it his business to ask the challenging questions facing Wales.”
Tickets for the lecture are free and available for booking via hayfestival.com, listen live on Radio Wales from 3pm and online at bbc.co.uk/radiowales. For more information about the BBC at Hay Festival and other free Hay BBC tent events visit – bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2016/hay-festival-presence
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Notes to Editors
Pictures will be available on request
The lecture will be presented by Bethan Rhys Roberts, BBC Wales News presenter.
John E. McGrath is the Artistic Director of Manchester International Festival. Appointed to the role in 2015, John was previously Artistic Director of National Theatre Wales which he launched in 2009 achieving an international reputation for large-scale site-specific work, digital innovation, international collaboration and extraordinary community involvement. John has worked as a theatre director in New York, London and was Artistic Director of Contact Theatre in Manchester from 1999 to 2008. Awards include the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts (NESTA) Cultural Leadership Award (2005) and an Honorary Doctorate from the Open University (2015).
BBC Radio Wales presenter Patrick Hannan was also a journalist, political correspondent and author who spent over four decades examining Welsh affairs in forensic detail. As an interviewer, Hannan had a reputation for candour and challenging those who did not give him straight answers. As a writer his sharp mind and penetrating insights drew the admiration of both peers and the public figures he placed under scrutiny.
SG
