On Monday 30 September 2024, the British Council will host the ‘Alumni UK salon session #4 with British Council Arts: an evening of poetry, music and conversations with Tom Pow and the Galloway Agreement‘. ‘Alumni UK salon sessions’ was launched in March 2024 with the aim of creating new value from the exchange of UK Alumni in Japan who studied in the UK. Each salon session consists of two parts: a talk featuring UK Alumni as speakers, followed by time for casual networking.
The next session on 30 September will be a special edition for UK Alumni who are either working in the arts sector or are interested in British art and art-related studies abroad. The alumni speaker will be Chika Sudo, Head of Arts, British Council Japan. In addition to sharing her own experiences about studying in the UK, she will introduce the British Council’s work in arts and culture. As special guests, we invite award-winning Scottish poet Tom Pow and two musicians from the highly respected traditional music group The Galloway Agreement - Ruth Morris and Gavin Marwick - who will present sample readings from Ghosts at Play, poems from rural Japan by Tom Pow with live musical accompaniment, and introduce their project The Village and the Road, which is being performed at the Bird Festival in Tottori, Japan. All guests are invited to join in the conversations about the work following the presentation.
In addition to members of the UK Alumni network, this session also welcomes a wide range of the British Council’s contacts in the arts and culture fields. We hope that this will be a great opportunity for UK Alumni to not only exchange information and meet with other UK Alumni but also with various professionals in the arts and culture fields from Japan and the UK.
Eligibility
- UK Alumni in Japan who studied at in the UK
- You need to have spent at least one term at a UK higher education institution enrolled on a credit-bearing course. This includes transnational or online education.
- You must be registered on the British Council Alumni UK platform to participate in this event. To register visit: https://alumniuk.britishcouncil.org/
- Participants must be over 18 years of age.
- This event is for international UK Alumni and we regret UK nationals are not eligible.
- Professionals in the arts and culture fields invited by the British Council.
Event details
Date/time: Monday 30 September 2024 / 19:00-21:00
Venue: British Council (Iidabashi, Tokyo)
Capacity: 40 (First come first served basis; registration will close when capacity is reached)
Speakers/Performers
Chika Sudo
Studied at: University College London, MA Museum Studies (2001-2002)
Currently works as a Head of Arts, British Council Japan
Tom Pow is an award-winning writer and poet whose works include the picture book Who is the World For and numerous poetry collections. In 2007, he embarked on a project that took him to Spain, France, Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Russia and Greece, with the aim of responding in poetry and prose to the social, ecological and cultural changes of dying villages in Europe. This led eventually to The Village and the Road, a personal and collective story about rural depopulation, told through storytelling, live music and theatre, and combining the depth of oral history collected by Tom with the musical talents of The Galloway Agreement, a unique quartet of musicians on traditional instruments.
The Galloway Agreement is a collaboration featuring Wendy Stewart (clarsach, vocals), Ruth Morris (alto and tenor nyckelharpa), Gavin Marwick (fiddle) and Stuart Macpherson (double bass). The band is based in Dumfries and Galloway, and performs a mixture of original compositions and favourite tunes and songs from Scotland and other European traditions.
The Village and the Road 2024 is a work of theatre combining the musical talents of the Galloway Agreement and a depth of oral history collected by Tom Pow, and dramatic vision of director Matthew Zajac. It uses lived experience and deep understanding of musical and oral history to create a voice for rural communities that speaks strongly of modern times. Performed for the first time in Japan at Bird Festival 2023, it returns to the Festival in September 2024 in a special “Tottori edition” with new material gathered from Tom’s research in Japan.
Programme
18:30 Doors open
19:00 Welcome, Alumni UK updates, today’s programme (British Council)
19:10 Alumni talk
19:20 UK Artist performance
20:00 Networking
21:00 Event ends
How to apply
Please complete your details on the online application form (URL: https://bit.ly/alumni-ss-4).
Application deadline: Monday 30 September 2024, 12:00 (noon)
- Please let us know on the application form if you have any access support/adjustment requests (e.g. sign-language interpretation, someone to accompany you to the venue from station closest to venue). If you need support, please let us know by Tuesday 24 September.
- Advance registration required.
Enquiries
British Council Japan Education team
ALUMNI@britishcouncil.or.jp