| Letter
from Jacques Trudeau, UNIMA new General Secretary, April
2008, Perth, Australia
Dear UNIMA members,
It is such a privilege for me to be able to communicate with
each one of you. Presently there are 6,363 members coming
from 63 countries. You're all very important for the future
of UNIMA. I wish, first of all, to congratulate you for having
elected the UNIMA councillors representing your own
country. Democracy is the only way to make our great
association alive and creative!
The Perth 20th UNIMA Congress has just finished and was a
great success. I want personally tell the Australians organizers
that they can be proud of themselves. They offered us a great
site, easy to cover with a quality program and wonderful
facilities. A wonderful occasion to gather with professionals
and puppet lovers from more than 60 countries! Perth was
no longer the most isolated city.
This Congress made history! The 103 UNIMA Councillors have
elected a President and a General Secretary coming from outside
Europe. The President is from India, the General Secretary
is from Canada. It's the first time since 1929, date of the
UNIMA's foundation that something like this happen! We
can say proudly, if we consider also the formation of the
new UNIMA Executive Committee that is quite young and rooted
in the 5 continents, so, completely representative of its
members. Let this new wind of fresh air; contaminate positively
the future of UNIMA.
The four years to come will be blooming years for UNIMA!
In 2009, we are going to celebrate the 80th anniversary year
of our foundation in Prague. Remember that our association
was an avant-garde one, being the first one to be created
in the theatre field.
Also, another motif of joy, in 2009, we should realize
a dream...finally after 30 years of work and hesitation.
L'encyclopédie mondiale des arts de la marionnette
will become a reality opening the way for its future English
and Spanish translation, not forgetting its adaptation on
the web!
In 2009, the Executive Committee will hold its second meeting
in Yekaterinburg, Russia. In 2010, you are invited to
attend to the UNIMA Council in Dordrecht, celebrating,
with a promising festival the 55th anniversary of UNIMA
Holland. Our next Congress city, in 2012, as voted by the
UNIMA Councillors in Perth, will be Chengdu in China,
site of one of the biggest shadow puppet museum in the world.
I want to tell you, dear members, that the membership fee
is now 3 Euros, a decision unanimously voted by the 2008
Councillors to establish more justice. The payment of this
fee is essential to maintain our services and develop new
projects. For those who didn't pay off their duty, please
do so as soon as possible to the UNIMA Centre of
your country.
You can count on me to defend and promote the UNIMA’s
priorities. My main objective is to work in harmony
with our President, my friend Dadi Pudumjee and the
16 members of the Executive Committee, also president of
the different Commissions. In a few months they will
present concrete projects, that we hope to be able to sponsor,
projecting UNIMA in a new phase of its development.
Feel free to send me your ideas and preoccupations! Let UNIMA
have a special place in your heart!
I would like to thank my 2 predecessors, whose accomplishments
will inspire my mandate, the regretted Jacques Félix
for his incredible vision and numerous realisations and Miguel
Arreche, who has run UNIMA'S destiny, the last 8 years, with
acuity, rigour and generosity. A very special thought goes
in Margareta Niculescu, the large injury of the puppet which
celebrates, this year, its 50 years of life and extraordinary
achievements within the UNIMA.
Let’s
contribute together to this unique big family!
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