• Lionel Wendt Art Centre on supporting the arts and preserving Lionel Wendt’s work

If asked to name an icon of the arts and culture in Sri Lanka, one of the very first things that may come to the mind of many is the Lionel Wendt Centre for the Arts. Constructed in the 1950s, the centre has long stood as the stage – literal and figurative – beloved by creators, enthusiasts, and patrons of art alike, may it be visual or performing.

The namesake of the centre, Lionel Wendt, was celebrated on the scene of modern and contemporary art as a prolific photographer and musician. His further contribution to the arts manifested in the Lionel Wendt Arts Centre, which began as a plot of land Wendt himself gave over to a trust which he set up for the development of the arts and culture. Comprising a theatre and two galleries, including the Harold Peiris Gallery, the centre carries on Wendt’s legacy by housing exhibitions and performances of every form, such as plays, recitals, dramas, and dances. 

“Although we have not got heritage status for this building, in my mind anyway, and I think in the minds of a lot of people who use the place, this would be considered a heritage site even though it was actually constructed in the early 1950s,” Lionel Wendt Board of Trustees Chair Ranil Pieris told The Daily Morning Brunch.

Popularity and perseverance

Member of the not-for-profit Lionel Wendt Trust since 2006, Pieris gave us a closer look into the inner workings of such a grand name amongst the arts. He emphasised the popularity of the Lionel Wendt, and the place it takes in the hearts of its patrons, reflected in how the centre is known: “More often than not, if people are going for a theatre production or an exhibition, they refer to it as the Wendt, but the proper name really is the Lionel Wendt Centre for the Arts.”

What the Wendt’s audiences may not be aware of, however, is the cogs and gears that keep the venue running on its feet even through national crises. With a theatre housing 621 people and two art galleries, the Lionel Wendt is a large, antiquated place that requires equally great care and maintenance, which is not the easiest task when faced with nation-wide challenges. “We got a lot of work done with the funds that we had,” Pieris said, “The only problem is then Covid-19 struck us and the ‘aragalaya’ struck us, so for about two and a half, three years, hardly anybody could use the centre.”

Pieris explained how the centre and its operations are guided by seven pillars or objectives for which each member of the Board of Trustees takes charge, ranging from the pillar for the performing arts to the pillars for finance and governance. The intricacy of this structure reflects the care put into the centre’s consideration of the arts, taking into account the practicalities of managing a venue of exceptional reputation. Pieris summed this up saying: “So that is by way of assuring the public or any person who wants to sponsor or to be a benefactor that we have a well-structured trust of prominent, well-respected people.”

A shifting landscape

Another contemporary force of change adding to the centre’s dilemmas is the shifting landscape across platforms for the arts, stemming from the digitisation of entertainment.

“I would say that with the changes that have been happening in terms of social media and digitisation, accessibility of information, and entertainment now on your mobile phone, definitely there are some challenges for audiences, so we are a secondary loser out of it. But the primary loser out of that are the production directors. For them to draw audiences, their content has to be very good,” Pieris said. 

The resulting effect, as put by him, is that larger or more serious productions become less of an option for producers to present, owing to tougher audience turnout and a disproportionate expenditure of time and energy.

Nevertheless, Pieris was optimistic about the value the Lionel Wendt offers through its live productions, which cannot be found across digitised platforms: “There is nothing quite like a live performance. The thing about anything live is you never know what can happen. In a digital environment, it’s all orchestrated; you can eliminate errors. But if you have a live concert today, it will never be an exact duplicate tomorrow. There is something special about that, and there will always be a market for that kind of thing, we think.”

Pieris also had thoughts to share on the centre’s place amidst Sri Lanka’s unique multilingual society. There are perceived differences in the performances put on in each of the three languages. While productions in Tamil language are few and far between, Sinhala and English productions have their own differences. “Both have a different kind of following and the profile of the audiences is by and large quite different. I think even in the pricing of the tickets you can see there is a difference between English theatre and Sinhala theatre.”

Some of these differences boil down again to the shifts in Sri Lankan society and lifestyles. “Both sets of theatre are very good. It’s just that the Sinhala one is much more professional. In other words, it’s run more like a business as opposed to the English theatre, which is run more for the pure joy of art. So, English theatre has less of a professional approach.”

However, Peiris was quick to note that this difference didn’t lie in content. “The content is top-class and the creativity is top-class but the actors are doing it for the love of acting, not for any income. With today’s time constraints, it becomes very difficult for these people to find the time to practise to even do a more serious play as opposed to a slapstick.”

Behind-the-scenes support

“One of our ways of contributing to the arts is to make the theatre affordable,” explained Lionel Wendt Arts Centre Manager Akhry Ameer. He elaborated how this applies not only to the Wendt’s patrons, but also to its artists, so that producers of any calibre can give their work the chance to shine amongst the public. This is done through the Wendt’s theatre boasting lowest per seat cost as well as two grades of galleries with simple mounting systems.

“Our contribution can be measured by our comparative costs of other facilities,” Ameer added. What was emphasised was how investments into the centre, a notably not-for-profit entity, adds back to the arts and are projected through wide accessibility to the arts and entertainment.

The Daily Morning Brunch also had the opportunity to hear of future plans in store for furthering the cause of the Lionel Wendt. “We are trying to, every year, have a festival for the arts; one for visual art and one for the performing arts,” Pieris shared, taking inspiration from previous collaborative festivals held at the centre. In addition, the Lionel Wendt will have much to offer for the next generations of artists in Sri Lanka, explained by Pieris: “What we want to do is try and give young up-and-coming artists a chance to be able to show their works. We want to try to have a Lionel Wendt Prize for art. And we are hoping that young artists will all try to vie for that prize.”

He added: “It will obviously be something monetary but also a recognition of their work, and hopefully for them to promote their further learning of the art. What we want to try to do is give the funding.”

Moreover, building on the centre’s current reputation, there are bold ambitions set in place to transform it into a hub for creativity and togetherness. “We would like to make the Lionel Wendt Arts Centre a more live, more vibrant place,” he shared. “Maybe try and bring in a cafe, a nice sort of place where people could come, sit down, have a cup of coffee or a cup of tea. And then they can either see a play or go and visit the art galleries, maybe even have a chat with the artists. And we would like to have a permanent gallery for Lionel Wendt’s work.”

What The Daily Morning Brunch has gathered, then, is that what makes the Lionel Wendt Centre for the Arts so special is not simply its outstanding role as a platform and venue for entertainment, but also the minds that drive the centre and its productions through and past obstacles, all in the name of the arts.