Rupert Loydell is Senior Lecturer in the School of Writing and Journalism at Falmouth University, a contributing editor to International Times, and was the editor of Stride magazine 1982 — 2021. He is a widely published poet whose most recent poetry books are Dear Mary (Shearsman, 2017) and A Confusion of Marys (Shearsman, 2020). He has edited anthologies for Salt, Shearsman and KFS, written for academic journals such as Punk & Post-Punk (which he is on the editorial board of), New Writing, Revenant, The Journal of Visual Art PracticeTextAxonMusicology Research, Short Fiction in Theory and Practice, and contributed co-written chapters to Brian Eno. Oblique Music (Bloomsbury, 2016), Critical Essays on Twin Peaks: The Return (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) and Music in Twin Peaks: Listen to the Sounds (Routledge, 2021).

Contact: School of Writing and Journalism, Falmouth University, Falmouth Campus, Woodlane, Falmouth TR11 4RH UK. Email: rupert.loydell@falmouth.ac.uk

Proximity, Performance and Possibilities

An interview with CJ Mitchell

In ‘Proximity, Performance and Possibilities’ CJ Mitchell and Rupert Loydell look back at moments of confluence, influence, crossover and synergy between the arts — particulary music and performance— since the 1980s to the current day, as well as the nature of business and finance in relation to small presses, performance and arts funding in general. Drawing on their own friendship, shared and differing experiences, they chart a personal course through a history of alternative arts culture, the rise of the digital, and shifts and digressions in audience expectations, arts management and arts funding.

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CJ Mitchell has been General Manager of the Centre for Contemporary Arts (Glasgow); Administrative Director of the Master of Arts in Arts Administration program at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago; Company Manager of Goat Island Performance Group (Chicago); Executive Director of the Links Hall performance space (Chicago); and Co-Director at the Live Art Development Agency (London). CJ is currently a freelance producer, working in the performing arts; he manages Haranczak/Navarre Performance Projects, and the residency program at South House, a studio space in Faversham, Kent, UK.

In the 1980s, CJ edited the photocopied, 100 copies per issue, Magazing; worked one day a week at Echo Records on Byres Road in Glasgow (alongside working Mon—Fri in an accountancy firm); and worked on a Masters in Cultural Studies, including a dissertation on Spiderman. He has been a Chartered Accountant since 1987.