
The advisory network engages with the ‘how-to’ of a range of experts in the performing arts and related fields. Set up in the first instance to act as a sounding board for advising METIS on its operations, our ambition for the network is that it pools ideas in a way that it is of mutual benefit for its participants. Most participants are local to Cambridge, allowing a cross-fertilisation of ideas among professionals who are geographically proximate, but rarely have the opportunity to meet.
The network holds a meeting once every few months. Inspired by the dinners held at METAL in Southend, the meetings are held over lunch or high tea. Each meeting explores a particular topic, with a speaker to kickstart discussion.
The first advisory network meeting took place on the 28 June 2012, over high tea at Metis Finance Director Hilary Seaward’s house. After a brief introduction to Metis, the topic of discussion was international collaboration. Present were: Rachel Parslew, Zhao Chuan, Jonathan Goodacre, Aileen Muir, David Russell, Hilary Seaward, Zoë Svendsen, Simon Daw, and Phoebe Monk.
The speakers were:
Rachel Parslew, producer/facilitator of a wide range of arts projects in China
Zhao Chuan, alternative theatre director and cultural theorist from Shanghai
Zhao Chuan is visiting the UK on a British Council Connections Through Culture grant to discuss a new collaboration with METIS: World Factory.