Fundraising campaign
The Centre Artistique International Roy Hart has launched a fundraising campaign to help finance the preservation of its material archives and to create a dedicated website for online research. Please give generously.
We are delighted to announce that the CAIRH has been awarded a grant by the Direction régionale des affaires culturelles, Occitanie (Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs, French Ministry for Culture) in support of its project to digitize and make more accessible its considerable archives.
This is a turning point in curating the historical legacy of the Roy Hart Theatre and the Centre Artistique International Roy Hart. It enables us to employ technology and the vast reach of the internet to make this priceless heritage more accessible internationally. Our public – students, researchers, teachers, vocal artists and practitioners, theatre goers and lovers of a great story – will be able to access a wide range of material : including written, audio, photo, and video.
There will also be an online version of Ivan Midderigh’s forthcoming book tracing the visual history from Alfred Wolfsohn’s visionary approach to the voice, to Roy Hart and Roy Hart Theatre’s expansion of that intuition to its present day embodiment in the CAIRH : a hundred years of photos, programs, and posters, underscored with an audio narrative.
The grant awarded by the DRAC represents approximately 38% of the total budget required to complete the project in the immediate term. It is contingent on our raising at least the equivalent amount to match the grant allocated. Any shortfall will be deducted from the total amount we will be eligible to receive.
This history that these archives represent is our legacy and we ask you to help us to reach our goal of putting this legacy online by 2025.
Please consider making a donation to our appeal here. Your generosity will help to ensure the preservation and accessibility of the material legacies of Alfred Wolfsohn, Roy Hart, the Roy Hart Theatre, and the Centre Artistique International Roy Hart.
Another way to contribute to the fundraising campaign is by commissioning a personalised work of art by textile artist M’Anne (Anne Pernell). For further details please see here.
You can also contribute by volunteering your time to assist us in the scanning and indexation of the archives and learn more about the origins of voice work at the Roy Hart Centre. Please contact Paula Molinari at archecom@centreroyhart.org for further information.
Roy Hart Theatre Archives
FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN
The Centre Artistique International Roy Hart has launched a fundraising campaign to help finance the preservation of its material archives and to create a dedicated website for online research. Please give generously.
LA MEMOIRE / Clara Silber and Paul Silber (d. 2022)
In 2008 and 2009 “La Mémoire” – the archives room in Malérargues – was created by Paul and Clara Silber, who curated it until their departure from Malérargues in 2018.
Carol Mendelsohn is now the official guardian of this room. La Mémoire houses the archival and intellectual legacy of Alfred Wolfsohn, Roy Hart, and the Roy Hart Theatre, as well as numerous documents that trace the history of the Centre Artistique International Roy Hart since its inception in 1992. The archive is available for consultation by students, teachers, and researchers of the voice work, upon request to Carol Mendelshon at carolmendelsohn@hotmail.com.
“Giving Context to the Voice Work”, was a live presentation given by Paul and Clara Silber for many years during the summer months, during which they presented the archives and showed documentary films about the life and work of Alfred Wolfsohn, Roy Hart, and the Roy Hart Theatre, followed by a discussion period with those who attended.
Paul Silber also created and maintained the original Roy Hart Theatre archival website, where you can learn more about the legacy of the Roy Hart Voice Work.
www.roy-hart.com
ROY HART THEATRE PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVES / Ivan Midderigh
Over the past fifty years, Ivan Midderigh and several other photographers produced a huge body of work, consisting of thousands of images that were added to the material that already existed prior to the creation of the Roy Hart Theatre in 1969, and which Ivan curates and is working to preserve and make available for consultation.
The Roy Hart Theatre Photo Archive is a visual record of an extraordinary story. It constitutes a vast amount of photographic material, dating from when Alfred Wolfsohn – the founder of the vocal research work that influenced the Roy Hart Theatre – was a child, up to the present time: a history of over a century.
The history of the vocal exploration which was later to become known as the Roy Hart Theatre is a fascinating one. Although the company was formed in 1969, the vocal work had been researched and explored for many years by a group of pioneers who would become the founding members of the Roy Hart Theatre and whose groundbreaking work with the human voice would gain worldwide recognition.
By its very nature, the Roy Hart Theatre Photographic Archive is an ongoing project, as its purpose is to document a history that continues to develop and grow.
Ivan’s first publication “Roy Hart Theatre: A Personal Recollection, Vol. I” is available for purchase via Apple Books and he is currently working on the second volume.
www.royharttheatrephotographicarchives.com
ArcheCOM
Created in 2021, the ArcheCOM volunteer committee’s mission is to preserve and protect the archives housed in Malérargues and make them available to a wider audience.
As part of this mission, a grant application was made to the Direction Régionale des Affaires Culturelles (the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs, a subsidiary body of the French Ministry of Culture) in the context of a call for projects. The Project is named PNV : programme de numérisation et de valorisation des contenus culturels (program for the digitization and optimization of cultural content). It applies specifically to archives. Our application was approved, providing approximately 38% of our total budget.
With the active support of the Centre Artistique International Roy Hart and the Fonds de Dotation Malérargues we hope to ensure the protection and preservation of our archival heritage through the scanning, digitization, and indexing of the paper, audio, and visual material in our possession in order to create and maintain a secure and coherent system of archives.
A dedicated website will make this heritage accessible to a wider public. At present Kevin Crawford has taken the role of coordinating this project in collaboration with Paula Molinari. Other active members of the ArcheCOM committee include João Charepe, Ivan Midderigh, Siobhán McCann, Noah Pikes, Douglas MacArthur, Ralf Peters, and Saule Ryan.
For all questions regarding ArcheCOM please contact archecom@centreroyhart.org
