Welfare State International Archive

Overview

Welfare State International (WSI), founded in 1968 by John Fox, Sue Gill, Roger Coleman and others, was a loose association of freelance artists, musicians, performers, sculptors, engineers, poets & pyrotechnicians.  All brought together by shared values and philosophy, they believed creativity should be part of everyone’s daily lives, and access to arts was as fundamental as access to health care; wanting to provide access to creativity on a local, intimate scale, nationally and internationally.  WSI started as radical travelling performers taking art out of theatres and galleries into the street, which was considered revolutionary at the time, and developed into embedded community artists and celebrants, working to weave art more fully into the fabric of life. They developed site-specific theatre in landscape, lantern processions, spectacular fireshows, community carnivals and participatory festivals. 

From 1999-2006, its HQ was the striking RIBA Award-winning Lanternhouse, a £2.2m conversion of the former National School which opened in Ulverston town centre, with £1.6m of funding from the National Lottery through the Arts Council of England. As artist-clients, WSI were able to drive the entire process, working collaboratively with architect Francis B Roberts. It included a theatre workshop, self-catering accommodation for four artists, a unique reference library and archive, sound technology, digital video and multimedia facilities, studios and workspaces including a warehouse/resource centre. On the 1st of April 2006, John Fox stepped down as artistic director and after 38 years of producing exceptional work, WSI closed that year. The final act of WSI was the finale of Longline, a Carnival Opera in a big top in Ulverston.

What the collection holds

The archive of the arts organisation Welfare State International (1968-2006) includes scripts & sheet music; research and publicity material; project files; magazines containing WSI articles/reviews; Lanternhouse building plans & history of Lanternhouse material; press cuttings; poster design work; photographs; posters; processional vehicle designs; WSI booklets & reports; video & audio tapes, film & audio reels - 16mm.

The online catalogue for this collection can be viewed here: WSI - Welfare State International Archive

As part of the Wellcome-funded Firestarters project to catalogue, conserve and make accessible the WSI archive, all the audiovisual material within the collection was digitised and is available to view in our reading room.  A selection of material from across the collection was digitised including the posters, photographic material and documentation, including an item from each production and in depth digitisation of more than 30 productions that highlight the breadth of WSI's work.  Any digitised material that we are able to share publicly online is available on the Theatre Collection's Digital Archive.

Selected productions digitised in detail and accessible via our Digital Archive:

Further Information

The Firestarters project to catalogue, conserve and make accessible the WSI archive was made possible thanks to a Wellcome Trust grant.  To find out more about the Firestarters project please have a look at the project blog posts that highlight the cataloguing and digitsation process.

Wellcome Logo

The Theatre Collection also holds the archive of founding members of Welfare State International, John Fox MBE & Sue Gill.

Useful websites:

Welfare State International

Dead Good Guides

Unfinished Histories

Further Reading:

  • Engineers of the Imagination: the Welfare State handbook edited by Tony Coult & Baz Kershaw (1990); 
  • Eyes on Stalks by John Fox (2002); 
  • In All My Born Days by Sue Gill (2021);
  • Tulane Drama Review March 1977; 
  • Performance Magazine April/May 1983;
  • Plays and Players 1976; 
  • New Theatre Quarterly Vol 4 No 15 1988