Longline: Welfare State International

Back in March 2006 I made a short documentary about Welfare State International - a theater group from Ulverston, Cumbria. Here it is in it's full version.

Credits:
CREW: Thomas Wotan Suski (Director, Camera, Editor)
Paul Chan (Sound)
Grant McPhee - second camera
Mark Deas - second sound recordist

Founded in 1968 by John Fox and Sue Gill, Roger Coleman and others, Welfare State International was a loose association of freelance artists bought together by shared values and philosophy.

WSI first became well known for large-scale outdoor spectacular events. When the company began, taking art out of theaters and galleries into the street was considered revolutionary. The company's name was originally 'The Welfare State' offering art for all on the same basis as education and health.

Under the Welfare State umbrella, a remarkable group of engineers, musicians, sculptors, performers, poets and pyrotechnicians invented and developed site-specific theater in landscape, lantern processions, spectacular fireshows, community carnivals and participatory festivals. These creations were by turns beautiful, abrasive, didactic, provocative, disturbing, wondrous and even gently therapeutic.

Some big events such as "The Raising of the Titanic" (London International Festival of Theatre 1983), 'False Creek' in Expo '86, Vancouver, and the biggest lantern festival in Europe (Glasgow City of Culture 1990) have become touchstones balancing the aesthetic with the social.

Welfare State International also exported artists, ideas, prototypes and artworks nationally and internationally.

Nativity of the Beasts'Engineers of the Imagination', the WSI Handbook, spread ideas and techniques worldwide and is still essential reading for artists working in the community. Many artists and companies in Britain and abroad have been influenced by Welfare State's vision and practice.

From 1983 WSI championed local participation in lantern parades, street flag displays and carnival performance from its new base in Ulverston, Cumbria. Today Ulverston is known as a 'Festivals Town' where culture and economic regeneration go hand in hand.

Looking beyond public festival, the company also moved into inventing and leading ceremonies for rites of passage, creating installations, and working with children and their parents to explore imaginative play.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• wsi
• welfare
• state
• international
• ulverston
• cumbria
• john
• fox
• longline
• thomas
• wotan
• suski
• pilton
• video
• performance
• acrobats

[kathrynkirk1]

I really enjoyed seeing the company in action -

just reading John Fox's book, 'Eyes on stalks', and after the quote, "May your eyes wobble in their sockets, your creative juices boil over and your bum never ache" I am ready to create something

[ISwearIHaveNoCamera]

good luck to you too :) i hate that it's on the 2nd last day.

[PsycadelicShack]

Thank you so much! Very informative and very well made. Here in Sydney, Australia we studied it for the HSC. I really felt that for such a visually spectacular form of theatre, I really had to see it in action to understand it. There's only so much of an impression reading about it can do. Experiencing it through your documentary was great!

[geoffdellow]

Thanks for this video.

I've learnt a lot from Welfare State here in Ulverston. It's good to see their influence still present in the things that continue to happen here.

Best wishes to all those that are even now continuing to put into practice their philosophy .

[Jujuchap]

Thanks very much - a friend and I are giving a presentation on Welfare State tomorrow, and this has been really useful. :-)

[allanquang]

excellent work making this doco. really informative

[puppetz4eva]

that was very interesting.

Im currently doing a hw task which requires me to answer questions on welfare state but this has helped me heaps! its amazing what they do and how amazingly dedicated and creative those people are....ART is good for you!