Daniel Meadows
  • Home
  • About
    • Timeline
    • CV
    • Exhibitions
    • Publications
    • Podcasts
  • Photographs
  • Video
  • News
  • Home
  • About >
    • < backAbout
    • Timeline
    • CV
    • Exhibitions
    • Publications
    • Podcasts
  • Photographs
  • Video
  • News

Welfare State International 1976-1983

During my time as photographer-in-residence to the Borough of Pendle, Lancashire, one of my jobs was to record the work of Welfare State International (WSI), based in Burnley.

Innovators of community art, carnival, fire show spectaculars, lantern festivals and pioneering theatre of all kinds, Welfare State's work has been internationally acclaimed. Formed in 1968 as a collective, it took art out of the privileged spaces of theatre and gallery, to reach new audiences.

"In those days you could get free teeth and free coffins," co-founder John Fox recalled in 2013, "but you couldn't necessarily get free art."

"We wanted to engage with what I've now come to talk about as the vernacular river. Underneath I believe there's a whole area of creative activity which has really become submerged. It's a natural way of being and it's not a mode of knowledge that's particularly encouraged in this culture. It's seen as a leisure industry or it's seen as something you do up to the time you're five but it's denied and channelled away from the system because, if you could make things, then we can't sell you them, can we? So it's an indoctrination to prevent people being creative."

See video  r/t 2 min., 35 sec.

click to toggleRead more
Bodleian Libraries Links >
Mayday celebration, Burnley and Barrowford along the Leeds-Liverpool canal. 1 May 1976
Mayday celebration, Burnley and Barrowford along the Leeds-Liverpool canal. 1 May 1976
Performer John Fox playing saxophone. Mayday celebration, Burnley and Barrowford along the Leeds-Liverpool canal. 1 May 1976
“Parliament in Flames”, Burnley, Lancashire. November 1976
Brookhouse Summer Festival, Blackburn, Lancashire. August 1977
Brookhouse Summer Festival, Blackburn, Lancashire. August 1977
Brookhouse Summer Festival, Blackburn, Lancashire. August 1977
Brookhouse Summer Festival, Blackburn, Lancashire. August 1977
Performer Jamie Proud, “The Loves, Lives and Murders of Lancelot Barabbas Quail”, Burnley, Lancashire. 8 October 1977
“The Loves, Lives and Murders of Lancelot Barabbas Quail”, Burnley, Lancashire. 8 October 1977
Performer Boris Howarth, “The Loves, Lives and Murders of Lancelot Barabbas Quail”, Burnley, Lancashire. 8 October 1977
Performer John Fox, “The Loves, Lives and Murders of Lancelot Barabbas Quail”, Burnley, Lancashire. 8 October 1977
Performer Boris Howarth, “The Loves, Lives and Murders of Lancelot Barabbas Quail”. Burnley, Lancashire. 8 October 1977
“The Loves, Lives and Murders of Lancelot Barabbas Quail”, Burnley, Lancashire. 8 October 1977
Performer John Fox, “The Loves, Lives and Murders of Lancelot Barabbas Quail”, Burnley, Lancashire. 8 October 1977
Performer Boris Howarth, “The Loves, Lives and Murders of Lancelot Barabbas Quail”, Burnley, Lancashire. 8 October 1977
“The Loves, Lives and Murders of Lancelot Barabbas Quail”, Burnley, Lancashire. 8 October 1977
“The Loves, Lives and Murders of Lancelot Barabbas Quail”, Burnley, Lancashire. 8 October 1977
Naming ceremony, Yorda’s Cave, N.Yorkshire. January 1978
Hannah Fox and Boris Howarth, naming ceremony, Yorda’s Cave, N.Yorkshire. January 1978
Boris Howarth, naming ceremony, Hilltop Farm, Wennington, Lancashire. January 1978
Performer Jamie Proud as Lord Claude in “Uppendown Mooney” written by Adrian Mitchell. Hilltop Farm, Wennington, Lancashire. July 1978
Performer Maggy Howarth as Sally Ocean in “Uppendown Mooney” written by Adrian Mitchell. Hilltop Farm, Wennington, Lancashire. July 1978
Performer Jamie Proud as Lord Claude in “Uppendown Mooney” written by Adrian Mitchell. Hilltop Farm, Wennington, Lancashire. July 1978
“Parliament in Flames”, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. November 1978
Naming ceremony, Helmsley, N.Yorkshire. April 1979
Performer Sue Gill, Barn Dance, Millom, Cumbria. August 1981
Barn Dance, Millom, Cumbria. August 1981
Barn Dance. Millom, Cumbria. August 1981

 

Back to Photographs

Bodleian Libraries Links

Bodleian Libraries Archive of Daniel Meadows, photographer and social documentarist (CMD ID 12752, 17418, 17823, 18768) Meadows' photographic archive of negatives and contact sheets, 1969-1986, Nov 2014 | Negatives and contact sheets 00, Jan-Sep 1975

Also:
Negatives and contact sheets 03, Jan-May 1976

Negatives and contact sheets 04, May-Jun 1976

Negatives and contact sheets 07, Sep-Dec 1976

Negatives and contact sheets 08, Dec 1976-Jan 1977

Negatives and contact sheets 09, Jan-Apr 1977

Negatives and contact sheets 11, Jul-Aug 1977

Negatives and contact sheets 12, Sep-Dec 1977

Negatives and contact sheets 13, Dec 1977-Feb 1978

Negatives and contact sheets 16, Jun-Sep 1978

Negatives and contact sheets 17, Sep 1978-Spring 1979

Negatives and contact sheets 18, Mar-Jul 1979

Negatives and contact sheets 20, Nov 1979-Mar 1980

Negatives and contact sheets 21, Mar-Jul 1980

Negatives and contact sheets 22, Jul-Sep 1980

Negatives and contact sheets 23, Sep 1980-Apr 1981

Meadows' photographic archive of negatives and contact sheets, 1969-1986, Nov 2014 | Granada TV, Easter 1981

Negatives and contact sheets 24, May 1981-Jul 1982

Negatives and contact sheets 25, Aug 1982-Jun 1983

And:
Bodleian Libraries | Archive of Daniel Meadows, photographer and social documentarist (CMD ID 12752, 17418, 17823, 18768) | Welfare State International and IOU Theatre Company, 1975-Jan 2012, n.d.

Bodleain Libraries Blog:
Focus on photographic prints of Welfare State International, by Olivia Hersey, student intern, 15 June 2023

 

BACK TO TOP >

Contact Daniel Meadows

Email: daniel@photobus.co.uk

To acquire images

If you want to use a Daniel Meadows image in anything from merchandise or an advert, to a book, film or website, you need to apply for permission and pay a licence fee. A wide selection of images is available on Artimage where licences can also be obtained.

Artimage, a service from DACS, is the only digital image resource curated to showcase and license exceptional works of modern and contemporary art.

 

In order to obtain rights, please contact Artimage:

Email: artimage@dacs.org.uk
Phone: 020 7780 7550
Website: artimage.co.uk

© Daniel Meadows | Privacy Policy