From 2009 and into 2010

A hugely busy 2009 at TARA: with the National Theatre co-production and tour of Kureishi's THE BLACK ALBUM; the launch summer of SAILING TO BRITAIN awarded the Inspire mark by LOCOG; WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT touring to junior schools across the UK and TARA Studio growing and going from strength to strength as a dynamic theatre resource for emerging artists and our local community in south London.


What will 2010 bring?  New projects, new tours and new opportunities at TARA for our artists and audiences, no doubt. New theatre projects and artistic exchanges are already shaping up to cross from London to New Delhi as our cross cultural mission moves into the next decade. 


Yet with a general election ahead, an economy in decline and uncertainty around the Arts Council the jungle drums of anxiety are already starting to beat within the arts. More than ever we need the political strategists and policy makers to hold fast and continue their financial commitment and dynamic thinking around cultural provision in the UK. 


The combined ambition, reach and impact of our pioneering theatre artists and arts organisations in Britain are a powerfully potent cultural asset who provide compelling testimony for continuity and growth in governments support. Powerhouses like the National Theatre, V&A, West Yorkshire Playhouse alongside smaller organisations Freedom Studios in Leeds, the Midland Arts Centre in Birmingham and artists like Akram Khan, Antony Gormley on and on and on, their collective work makes a powerful case as to why the arts in Britain are of international significance. Work which reverberates far beyond the confines of this island; which has the potential to cross physical borders and imaginative boundaries.


If London 2012, the Cultural Olympiad and the proposed legacy of the Olympics (a legacy which is critically unclear) are to genuinely take flight after 2012 the collective imaginations of artists, audiences and government (of whichever political complexion) must come together to forge meaningful  theatre, visual arts, music, dance.... and this needs resourcing properly. Artists and organisations working in partnership is clearly going to be important, it always has been, if resources are to be shared and economies of scale maximised. But this still requires DCMS, ACE, HLF, MLA and all those who are at the heart of lobbying and decision making to wholeheartedly make the case for the arts in 2010.