With the launch of Settled Culture, Wiard Sterk explores the history of European cultural influence here in the UK
The creative and cultural links between the British Isles and the European mainland have always been strong, ever since trade and warfare encouraged people to develop the tools and navigational knowledge to cross the choppy waters of the Channel and the North Sea. Tribes and nations exchanged goods; and with goods came cultural artefacts; and with cultural artefacts came language, religion and ritual. Some were driven by force and occupation, but much of these exchanges were through trade and genuine desire for the latest, best and most beautiful in creative and cultural expression the world could offer.
From the burial unearthed at Sutton Hoo, we know that even in 6th century Anglo-Saxon England trade links stretched as far as Byzantium and certainly across much of the North Sea and Baltic coasts, as well as the Mediterranean. The English language itself evolved as a cultural amalgam, absorbing words from dialects and languages from across the British Isles and, mostly, Northern Europe.
In the 17th century, the Flemish painter Antoon van Dijck was invited by King Charles I to come to his court in London, where he became known as Anthony van Dyck. He gained a knighthood, like Rubens before him, and died at his home in Blackfriars 1641, leaving a legacy of many royal and noble portraits.
He was neither the first nor the last to cross the Channel, whether by choice or forced through persecution and exile, to both enhance their own career and enrich the cultural life of Britain. Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski left his native Poland as a restless and rebellious teenager into voluntary exile in England, to become first a sailor in the British Navy and then to settle down as a writer, gaining fame under the name Joseph Conrad.
Belgian artists found shelter in the UK during WW1 (several offered hospitality by the art collectors Gwendoline and Margaret Davies at Gregynog Hall in Mid-Wales), followed by countless Jewish artists, writers and musicians seeking an escape from Nazi Germany from 1933 onwards. Most stayed and their work has enriched the cultural and creative canon we now take for granted. The Bulgarian writer Elias Canetti settled in Manchester. Mosek Josek Heman, a painter from Warsaw, chose the Welsh mining community of Ystrad Gynlais and is now better known as Josef Herman. The musician György Stern left his native Hungary for safety in Switzerland and moved to London. He became the musical director of the Covent Garden Opera Company and a British citizen and was knighted as Sir Georg Solti.
When Europe began to recover from the devastation caused by WW2, the arts were one of the first to be mobilised in the effort to rebuild the continent as a collective of nations with a shared purpose. Exchanges of artistic and creative endeavours were valued as diplomatic tools. The foundation of the British Council in 1934 was matched after the war by the setting up of the Institut Francais, the Goethe Institut, and the Mondrian Foundation, to name but a few. All shared the objective of the international exchange of culture and creative excellence; and, by default, the cross border traffic of artists, performers and creative practice.
In the second half of the last century and the first decade of the 21st, these exchanges became the norm and many artists and performers, the great and good as well as those hoping to build a reputation, came to the UK to further their careers and enrich the cultural life of the nations, this side of the North Sea. Some came for limited engagements, many stayed and made their life here.
Author Kapka Kassabova escaped with her parents from communist Bulgaria and now lives and works in Inverness. The Milan-born conductor Carlo Rizzi settled in Wales to lead the Welsh National Opera over many years, learning Welsh to help him engage better with the nations’ culture and people. Dutch-born archaeologist, songwriter and producer Tim Smit is now better known as the founder of the Eden Project in Cornwall, where he also restored the Lost Gardens of Heligan. And I haven’t even mentioned Jürgen Klopp, Mariella Frostrup and Sandi Toksvig, among many others
Whether here for just one engagement, or to be part of the creative and cultural life of the UK for longer, the exchange of ideas and creative output has always been enriching and encouraged peoples of many nations and backgrounds to come together and share a greater understanding. The emergence of the EU, and associated free movement of goods and people, greatly helped to strengthen those bonds. Brexit threatens to undermine this gain, so we must try and make every effort to safeguard and maintain the free travel of artists and their work across the borders of the nations of the EU and the UK.
