Ben Gwalchmai

"Every university is formative but not all are supportive. Goldsmiths is. 

I directed my first play in my third year and it was only through Goldsmiths awards and fellow students that I was able. Since then, I've written and directed many different things but I wouldn't have were it not for the confidence, skills, and people that Goldsmiths gave me.

A focus on critical thinking gave me the skills to go on to get an MA degree and enjoy using theory in my work; an encouragement of interdisciplinary work gave me a taste for new mediums; and the encouragement of the teaching staff gave me the confidence to try new things.

I'll be honest with you: I never really left Goldsmiths. It never left me either. I was lucky enough to work for Goldsmiths a short while after graduating [and after working a long-hours, low-pay job that I swiftly lessened my hours at] and it felt like I'd never left my first university. I didn't want to either.

In the year after graduating, I was commissioned to make performances for the first ever LSE Arts Festival and Goldsmiths students helped me make them a reality.

The year after that, my bosses at Goldsmiths were kind enough to let me have some time off to ensure the opera I directed for the Grimeborn Opera Festival was good - they even came to see it! And they liked it! Or, at least, they were kind enough not to tell me they didn't.

The next year, my locality meant I could apply to be in the Deptford X Festival - I was lucky enough to be accepted but the live art I performed there, and the sculptures I had in the festival, wouldn't have been possible without those things being planted in me by Goldsmiths.

This year, I've written opera for the Welsh National Opera. Before 2009, I never thought I'd write opera but Goldsmiths challenged me to try new things and, through a combination of perseverance and luck and my boss at Goldsmiths giving me the interview day off, I was asked to work for the Welsh National Opera as a writer-in-residence.

I don't currently work at Goldsmiths. I left to write the aforementioned opera but I've still friends who work and study there; because they regularly tell me what's going on around there, I never really left. In fact, if given the opportunity to return, I would. Thanks Goldsmiths."