Cyfrwng Award 2009: Elan Closs Stephens
The recipient of the 2009 Cyfrwng Award is Professor Elan Closs Stephens, CBE, Professor of Communications and Creative Industries at Aberystwyth University's Department of Theatre Film and Television.
Professor Stephens was honoured at a ceremony and dinner as part of the Cyfrwng 2009 Conference, held on 7-8 May, which was hosted this year by BBC Cymru Wales. The award was presented in recognition of Professor Stephens's exceptional contribution in the field of promoting the media and creative industries in Wales.
Born in Tal-y-sarn, in the quarrying valley of Nantlle, Gwynedd, Professor Stephens was educated at Ysgol Dyffryn Nantlle and won an Open Scholarship to Somerville College, Oxford to read English Language and Literature. She joined the Drama Department in Aberystwyth in 1975 and since then the Department has moved from an intake of 24 graduates to its present intake of almost 1,000 undergraduates and postgraduates. Having been Head of Department during a crucial decade of reconfiguration, she returned as Professor of Communications and Creative Industries and Director of Enterprise and External Partnerships.
Professor Stephens's contribution to the promotion of media and the arts both in higher education and the industry has been exemplary. A dedicated scholar and teacher, she has been and continues to be instrumental in fostering the careers of generations of successful Welsh broadcasters, dramatists, artists and academics. A regular commentator on the arts in journals, volumes and in the press, her contribution to her chosen field was recognised in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2001 when she received a CBE for services to broadcasting and the Welsh language.
John Hefin, Chair of Cyfrwng, stated: "As a leading academic of the creative industries, Professor Elan Closs Stephens is a most worthy recipient of the Cyfrwng Award; she is a key figure in contemporary Welsh media and creative arts and has been instrumental in influencing and steering various aspects of the field in terms of higher education and the industry."
Among her principal contributions to the creative arts and media industry are two terms as Chair of the S4C Authority (1998-2006) during a time of huge change in UK Broadcasting. She chaired the Stephens Report (2006) on the financing and structure of the arts in Wales at a time of considerable tension between the Wales Assembly Government and the Arts World. The Stephens Report has since been implemented in Government.
During her career, Professor Stephens has served with distinction as a member of the Welsh Language Board, the Council of The National Library of Wales, and the Broadcasting Council for Wales, and as a Governor of the British Film Institute (2001-2007) and a Governor of the University of Glamorgan. Until 2009 she was a Global Trustee of the Board of the British Council and continues to Chair its Wales Advisory Committee. Professor Stephens is also a member of the Board of the Film Agency for Wales and of Arts and Business Wales and Arts and Business UK. She is a Non Executive Director of the Welsh Assembly Government's Strategic Delivery and Performance Board and she currently chairs the Corporate Governance for the main Board.
The presentation of the Cyfrwng Award to this richly deserving recipient was made by Gareth Price, former Director of the Thomson Foundation and a close personal friend of Elan Closs Stephens, at a dinner held at the Park Plaza Hotel, Cardiff.
