The National Review of Live Art, also known by the abbreviation NRLA, was an annual festival of live art which ran from 1979 to 2010 in the UK.

History

The festival owed its origins to a one-day event called simply the Performance Platform, which was organised by Steve Rogers at

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

's Midland Group Arts Centre in 1979. After a further Platform in 1980, the event grew into a larger, annual festival of live art which usually lasted four or five days. These were held at the Midland Group until 1987, when the NRLA, which has been under the direction of Nikki Milican since 1984, moved to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Riverside Studios Riverside Studios is an arts centre on the banks of the River Thames in Hammersmith, London, England. The venue plays host to contemporary performance, film, visual art exhibitions and television production. Having closed for redevelopment i ...

. This was the beginning of a more peripatetic existence: from 1988 - 1990 the Review took place at Glasgow's

Third Eye Centre The Third Eye Centre was a contemporary arts centre in Glasgow, founded by Scottish writer Tom McGrath in 1975. The building was at 350 Sauchiehall Street, close to the Glasgow School of Art, and was purchased by the Scottish Arts Council. The ve ...

(now the Centre for Contemporary Arts); after a two-year hiatus, it returned to London, in 1993, where it was held at the

Institute of Contemporary Arts The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch, the ICA c ...

(ICA), and in 1994 went back to Glasgow, where it was held at The Arches. In 1996 the largest ever NRLA was mounted over 11 days in Glasgow with the collaboration of The Arches, the Centre for Contemporary Arts, Tramway, the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

and

Glasgow School of Art The Glasgow School of Art (GSA; gd, Sgoil-ealain Ghlaschu) is a higher education art school based in Glasgow, Scotland, offering undergraduate degrees, post-graduate awards (both taught and research-led), and PhDs in architecture, fine art, an ...

. Platform performances (work by new artists), some invited and commissioned performances, installations and

video installation Video installation is a contemporary art form that combines video technology with installation art, making use of all aspects of the surrounding environment to affect the audience. Tracing its origins to the birth of video art in the 1970s, it has ...

s were presented at The Arches, while various performances, talks and workshops took place at the other venues. The decision was also taken then to turn the Review into a biennial event and the next one took place in Glasgow in October 1998. The final Review was in February 2010 at Tramway and The Arches in Glasgow.

External links

National Review of Live Art Vido Archive Online"The National Review of Live Art is 30 years young and celebrating by inviting back over 100 of its top alumni"
''The Scotsman'', 18 March 2010
"National Review of Live Art" (review)
''The Guardian'', 22 March 2010 Performance art festivals