Historical Perspectives on engaging local audiences with innovative performance practice: Cardiff's Chapter Arts Centre in the 1970s

"Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff was founded in 1971 by three artists: painters Christine Kinsey and Brian Jones and writer Mik Flood. Chapter presents in many respects a paradigmatic case study for the emergence of alternative art spaces in Britain at the time: in an era when established theatre and gallery locations were deemed inappropriate for housing the formal and political ambitions of new artistic practices such as performance and body art, political theatre, physical theatre, postmodern dance, multi-media performance and located or site-specific art, artists started to open up different spaces in which to make and present work. The hope was that new spaces would attract new audiences to this work. Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s similar arts labs and centres sprung up all across the UK -Chapter's establishment therefore offers an important insight into the emergence of new infrastructures for the alternative British performance and theatre scene of the 1970s and the impact these had on the development of local audience communities. The history of this scene is inextricably linked with that of Chapter, which became one of the primary venues for the presentation of the work of such companies as The People Show and Belt and Braces, Monstrous Regiment and IOU.
A number of factors, however, make Chapter distinctive, even unique among its peer institutions. Firstly, Chapter was one of the few new art spaces in the UK were work was both produced and presented in the 1970s. As a consequence, the Art Centre had to devise proactively strategies for developing audiences for the experimental art practices it had set out to foster. Secondly, Chapter attempted from the outset to be both a home for artists and a community venue. One of its first resident initiatives was a nursery school run by local mothers, followed later by a Roma/Gypsy-Traveller school. Chapter worked closely with teachers on educational outreach programmes and summer schools. And the Arts Centre found itself repeatedly in conflict with local authorities not just for its presentation of challenging art but also for its support of the homeless charity, Shelter, and of gay rights. It became a home for amateur theatre companies and local cine societies, community-based print and video workshops, who existed side by side with the Art Centre's many resident professional performance companies, among them Moving Being, Cardiff Laboratory Theatre, Red Light Theatre, Highway Shoes and Paupers Carnival.

Chapter is today one of Europe's largest multi-disciplinary arts centres. In the wake of its fortieth anniversary celebrations in 2011, the Arts Centre's desire now is to evaluate the history of its operations that is recorded in these files in order to a) inform its future directions, especially in audience development and innovative programming; and b) engaging its present audiences in its rich history.

The central question this collaborative doctoral research project seeks to pose is as follows: How might a detailed scrutiny of the audience development activities of Chapter Arts Centre during its formative years in the 1970s further our understanding of the nature of community participation in experimental or innovative performance practice? And how can historical perspectives on community participation in experimental performance practice inform future initiatives in audience development? To address this, the project will be provided with unprecedented access to Chapter's unique archive of administrative, programme and marketing files, dating back to its founding in 1971, and to its key personnel. Chapter will also host a series of practical research explorations, which will aim to engage present audiences in Chapter's past history."