Community Arts Rhayader and District
Cllr Alan Jones, Mayor
Newcastle Emlyn Town Council
c/o Town Clerk
Eirianfa
Heol Brynarian
Penlon Road
SA38 9HR
21 August, 2008
Dear Cllr Jones, Mayor, Newcastle Emlyn Town Council,
What a tremendous event your community’s Heart of the Dragon festival was. Our organisation, based in Rhayader, Powys, was lucky enough to be invited to bring two Dragons to feature at the event and how proud and privileged we were to take part.
Can I use your good offices to pass on our hearty congratulations to everyone who helped to create such an outstandingly successful and inspiring event. The atmosphere over the weekend was completely uplifting and it was a great delight to see so many children involved in so many different ways. Their sense of excitement, awe, fun and happiness was a great tribute to the organisers’ determination to produce an programme that would celebrate creativity as well as history in your community. And it wasn’t just the children who had a great time. After a week of national bad news - from terrorist bombs to extensive flooding and interest rate rises - it provided an excellent opportunity for people from a wide range of backgrounds and abilities to come together with a single core purpose - to build an event that would create new social networks and strengthen the ‘glue’ that holds communities together in an atmosphere of safety as well as celebration.
The whole festival and every individual concerned were great ambassadors for Newcastle Emlyn and its surrounding communities and the deep sense of civic pride and community spirit on display was admirable. It was also clear that the amount of volunteer activity that supported the festival was massive and again the organisers are to be commended for their generosity of time as well as spirit.
One of our Rhayader dragons drew a great deal of attention during the festival and visitors were amazed to learn that it had been made by five thousand people from all over the world. This giant copper dragon carries the good name of Rhayader with it wherever it goes and has now been seen ‘live’ by over four and a half million people. It has also had television broadcast audiences approaching twenty million - clearly the kind of good publicity and PR that a small community like ours could never buy! This background led to many discussions with locals and tourists alike who were fascinated by the story behind the long-term success of our community’s successful arts and heritage project.
Many of your local community that I spoke with over the weekend felt sure that the Town Council may be interested to hear a little more about how our independent Community Arts and Heritage organisation works here in Rhayader. Most of them were staggered to learn that within the last ten years we have brought over two and a half million pounds of inward investment into our small rural market town without a single penny ever being added to the local rates precept!
Our organisation was born out of a large-scale Community Play project set up by local people between 1991 and 1994. This project, led by a committee representing local businesses, the farming community and other enthusiastic skilled individuals raised £95,000 to create a comprehensive programme of community development activity which they firmly intended would leave a legacy of skills and confidence in the area which would, in turn, benefit their community for many years to come. These goals were clearly achieved as, some sixteen years later, CARAD now has a strategic regional significance and offers a strong voice on behalf of rural mid Wales in political as well as tourism, media and cultural sector activity.
In 1992, when our first Steering Committee went to Rhayader Town Council at the start of that large-scale drama project there was some scepticism but the council felt that the long term aims were worth supporting. As a result they gave the project its first grant of one thousand pounds – a large amount of money for such a small council. Their faith paid off, however, as their support acted like a ‘golden key’ to unlock more and more ‘match funding’ from outside of the area - most of which would come from sources that the town council itself would never have been able to access. Ever since then, by developing strong links and informal partnerships with the town council and others CARAD has become a key player in the social, cultural and economic regeneration of our community and is often described as ‘having put Rhayader on the map’.
One very significant result of this long-term community development here in Rhayader is shown in the attitude of the younger generation who have grown up with CARAD as part of their lives. In the past young people were leaving the area because ‘ interesting things always seemed to be happening somewhere else’. Now, many young people who first got involved with our activities as teenagers are coming back to the area having been away for their higher education. It is very satisfying when they tell us how much they gained through participation in our activity as well as extremely humbling when they say they have returned because they have recognised the importance of their community and its values and that ‘they want to put something back’.
One thing many local people at your festival said to me was how grateful they were to the Newcastle Emlyn Town Council for having had the foresight and commitment to pursue the recent partnership with CADW that allowed for the development of the riverside walk and park as well as the castle remains. Without that vision the festival could not have achieved the heights that it did. What a fantastic amenity this is for your community and visitors alike - surely one of the most beautiful riverside public spaces in Wales and a wonderful venue for possible future festival activity.
Finally, the organisers of the Heart of the Dragon festival set a very high professional standard that sent a clear message of quality to everyone who came. Although the initial cost may have seemed high to some, by setting the bar high they raised the aspirations of everyone who took part and I’m sure, in many cases, people of all ages achieved more by working collaboratively than they would ever be able to achieve as individuals. It was quite clear that the festival organisers clearly smashed their targets for attendance and I’m sure that there will be a hunger for new creative endeavours and social enterprises to be born out of the amazing amount of effort and hard work that went into this first festival.
On behalf of our organisation may I thank the town and festival for inviting us and reiterate that we are more than happy to offer them whatever future assistance they may require. On the next stage of this journey, if any councillors or festival committee members would like to visit our base here in Rhayader, we would be delighted to share our experience of how creative cultural projects can inspire, develop and strengthen communities.
Llongyfarchiadau mawr gennym oll.
Yours sincerely
(Unsigned as electronically generated. Hard copy on headed paper to follow.)
Peter Cox
Chairman of CARAD Trustees
(Community Arts Rhayader and District)