Identity area
Type of entity
Corporate body
Authorized form of name
Jazz Heritage Wales.
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1986-
History
The Jazz Heritage Wales Collection (Casgliad Treftadaeth Jazz Cymru) was founded in 1986 as the Women's Jazz Archive by pianist, historian and author Professor Jen Wilson. It is based at University of Wales Trinity St David, Swansea and also occupies premises in the Maritime Cultural Quarter of Swansea, adjacent to the Swansea Museum and the Dylan Thomas Theatre. At its relaunch in 2002, it was renamed Women in Jazz. The organisation became a registered charity in 1998 and has been run since then by a Board of Trustees. Its patrons include celebrated jazz and pop singer Dame Cleo Laine, Paula Gardiner, head of Jazz Studies at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff, and Huw Warren, winner of the BBC Jazz Award for Innovation. Jazz Heritage Wales (incorporating the Jazz Archive Collection) is the only multi-media resource in Britain which focuses on the contribution made by Wales to British jazz culture. In addition, emphasis is placed upon lesser known aspects of Wales' jazz heritage, such as the rôle played by women jazz musicians and the influence of African-American music within Welsh jazz. The latest in a long line of honours accorded Jazz Heritage Wales was the St David Award for Culture, bestowed by the Welsh Government in 2017.