ALD chair tightens association’s focus
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Town’s diverse career as a successful lighting designer contrasted against the learning struggles she faced at school inform her manifesto. Starting in the 1980s at Manchester’s Royal Exchange, where she applied for and successfully completed a two-year apprenticeship course, Town later became head of lighting at London’s Royal Court, where she remained for 17 years having lit over 50 Royal Court shows, before embarking on being a solely freelance lighting designer.
Town says of her new role that she would like “to be a springboard to bring out the best in people who have plans and ambitions, and this includes equality and diversity. As an individual who’s passionate and believes in theatre, I want to be able to reach out and help as many others as I can.”
Following a two-day strategy meeting of the ALD executive committee, where the goal of all participants was to “to help make lighting in all its practices a rewarding and fulfilling industry for everyone to work in, and to contribute to create an industry that can be sustainable for future generations of lighting practitioners”, Town announced the initiatives that would drive the ALD forward under her guidance.
The ALD’s mission statement now reads, “The ALD is a collective and inclusive voice to effect change and champion excellence in lighting and video for live performance”, whilst the overall vision has been revised, “to be a powerful and passionate voice in the industry, to improve the way members are valued, and to promote the sustainability of our careers, building a legacy for future generations”.
A new mission statement was agreed to better reflect the membership and the aims of the Association: “The ALD is a collective and inclusive voice to effect change and champion excellence in Lighting and Video for live performance”. While the overall vision is now “To be a powerful and passionate voice in the industry, to improve the way members are valued and to promote the sustainability of our careers, building a legacy for future generations”.
The association intends to help lighting professionals strengthen their practice by providing an enhanced knowledge base and practice benchmarking, while creating a more outward and campaigning association.
The ALD’s strategy will be further discussed in the afternoon session of their Annual General Meeting, which takes place on Saturday 24 March 2018, at London’s Central Bankside.
The AGM morning session features professional development sessions ranging from an introduction to temporary power through marketing for freelancers and includes a discussion about the priorities for the forthcoming discussions with Equity about national designer contracts. Further details of the day can be found here: https://ald2018agm.eventbrite.co.uk
