The British Council celebrated 70 years in Sri Lanka in this year. Representing the UK the British Council has been a continuous presence in Sri Lanka since the immediate post independence era (1949) rendering invaluable assistance to Sri Lanka in all spheres of cultural activities and building and strengthening relationships between the people of Sri Lanka and the UK . Now, in its 71st year ,the British Council is involved in the teaching of English and conducting UK examinations, running a Library Service and conducting a diverse range of cultural and other activities across the island through its offices.
‘In the Arts, we use UK expertise and models to enhance the Sri Lankan creative sector skills and opportunities and use the arts effectively for social and economic development’ says the British Council. Through their work in the Arts, the British Council hopes to develop Sri Lankan creative skills and use the Arts to combat issues like gender inequality.
There are British Councils in Colombo, Kandy and Jaffna and there is also a library at Orion City, Colombo. The British Coucil’s local partners include government institutes, private companies and Nongovernmental organisations ( NGOs) both local and overseas.
Some of the programs span all seven decades and among them are the libraries, arts programs and support for teachers of English. As part of their communications campaign in connection with their celebration of 70 years in Sri Lanka the British Coucil brought forth a series of stories from 70 individuals who have engaged with them over the years.
We feature extracts from some of these stories as part of our tribute to the British Council for 70 years of excellent service in Sri Lanka .
Prof. Yasmine Gooneratne
The British Council in Colombo entered my consciousness in the 1950s solely as a place with a library from which British classics unobtainable elsewhere could be borrowed and read.
This was not as important to me as it was to students at other Colombo schools: my parents were dedicated buyers and readers of British fiction, they encouraged my two elder sisters and myself to spend our pocket money on books that took our fancy, and the presents they gave us on birthdays and at Christmas invariably included books by Agatha Christie and P.G. Wodehouse.
It was the British Council, however, that gave me my first glimpse of Shakespeare on the stage. In accordance with its established policy, groups of British actors occasionally toured Sri Lanka and visited its schools.
I saw As You Like It performed on our school stage by a group of young British actors, and entirely understood that Orlando’s poems to Rosalind were pinned on trees. The actor’s words planted living trees in our imaginations, even though we knew that those trees were only the stage curtains.
I lost touch with the British Council when I went to University at Peradeniya .When I came back from Cambridge, I found that the British Council I had known had undergone a significant change, due to the efforts of Dr Rajiva Wijesinha, recently back from Oxford, who was on its staff and had introduced his seniors to the fact that literature existed in Sri Lanka, some of it in English.
I had just written Relative Merits, a book about my father’s family. Rajiva took an interest in this book (chiefly, I think, because it has some politicians in it) and suggested that its Colombo launch could take place on the stage at the British Council. With antique furniture borrowed from his parents’ home and mine to serve as stage sets, and the acting abilities of the late Richard de Zoysa and others, I heard the voices of my kinsfolk and ancestors for the first time as those of living people.
At that moment, there and then, my life as a creative writer began. May all writers have the good fortune that I had, which brought the British Council into my life, and has changed it forever.
Arun Welandawe -Prematilleke
My first interactions with the British Council were as a child actually. The library, my mother redesigning the library, and most formatively, coming to see interesting, fringe theatre in the little blue hall. As an adult and practitioner, when I moved back in 2013, the British Council gave funding towards my first play Paraya and I worked with my former company, Mind Adventures, as the inaugural Artists in Residence creating and performing work in the new library space for over a year. It really was one of the first spaces where I confronted theatre that asked questions and provoked its audiences, making an indelible impression on how I saw the medium, how I understood about what it could achieve.
I’ve had a great working relationship with the British Council over the years. As Artist in Residence, creating work for the Colomboscope Festival, doing workshops and now, as the winner of the Gratiaen Prize. It has always been fruitful, interesting and allowed me to create work I found engaging and also be able to be a working artist. That is the key to my relationship, without the British Council, I wouldn’t have been able to put myself in a position of being paid for my work, of supporting myself and the artists I work with.
It has always been refreshing to work with an organisation that is committed to the arts, to creating a robust art scene in the country
Anoma Wijewardene
My interaction with the British Council started as a child, with regular monthly visits to the library with my mother. Since I was, and still am, an avid reader, it was wonderful to see all those books available and waiting for me to read.
Having been a regular visitor as a child, I was away for thirty years as I left Sri Lanka to study at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London and then continued with designing, painting and lecturing in the UK. On my return, I have frequented the British Council and attended several cultural events spanning art, music, poetry, drama and dance and symposiums.
The British Council hosted the launch of my father Ray Wijewardene’s website a year after his demise, which was very special as he was also half British and studied at Cambridge University..
I have just launched in London my monograph encompassing fifty years of a life in art. My work is very closely linked to my experiences in the UK+SL and focuses on Climate Emergency. I believe that the British Council can be a stakeholder in promoting topics on diversity, inclusivity and coexistence in Sri Lanka as they are issues that encompass my work and are close to my heart.
Linda Speldewinde
It was one of the most significant points in my journey when the British Council selected me as the International Young Fashion Entrepreneur.
This partnership was exactly what I needed to tie up with the creative industries’ global hub in the UK and bring back the knowledge, and to become a catalyst in building the creative industries here.
The British Council is an organisation that really believes in creativity, and its potential, to change things up for our society and the creative sector. The relevance of the creative industries to generate economic impact for our part of the world this is massive, and the British Council has been a partner since 2009 with me in this journey.
The British Council has resonated with my work for a decade now empowering us with the knowledge and the people from the global hub for creative industries in the UK.