Dr Heike Roms from Aberystwyth University has been awarded the inaugural David Bradby TaPRA Award for Research in International Theatre and Performance, for outstanding research in any area of Theatre and Performance Studies.
The award is sponsored by the UK’s TaPRA Theatre and Performance Research Association and named in honour of the late Professor David Bradby, one of the leading voices in theatre research in the UK.
Dr Roms was presented with the award at TaPRA’s annual conference, held this year at the University of Kingston.
Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the research team from the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies at Aberystwyth University, which includes research assistant Dr Rebecca Edwards, produced an online resource which locates the early history of performance art in Wales between 1965 and 1979.
The website, “It was forty years ago today” – Locating the early history of performance art in Wales 1965-1979, features events such as Happenings in Cardiff in 1965, “Fluxus” in Aberystwyth in 1968 and improvised music on Anglesey in 1970.
The research team spent two years combing through the archives, at major National collections such as the National Library of Wales and the Tate Archive in London, but also in numerous private collections and supported by hours of interviews with key individuals who were there.
The work was commended by the judges as a ‘significant research project’, ‘most original and far-reaching’ and ‘exemplary in the level of engagement over time with a specific topic’.
Dr Roms said “We were honoured to receive this award. It reflects an increasing recognition for the important and fascinating developments in artistic experimentation that were carried out in Wales during the 1960s and 1970s.”
“The hope is now that the resource, covering some 650 events in all, will be used to gain a better insight into the way in which performance art, and its affiliated networks and institutions, emerged and developed here in Wales, the UK and beyond.”
The on line resource can be found at www.performance-wales.org
