The Art of Remembering

I've been in touch recently with The Memorial Arts Charity and has been interested to find out about the current Art & Memory Exhibition which is on from 2nd April - 1st November 2009.

The launch of the exhibition took place in April among the gardens, parkland and arboretum of West Dean Gardens, West Sussex. Over 300 people attended the Private View, many who had travelled from far afield to witness the launch exhibition for The National Collection of Contemporary Memorial Art.

The exhibition is open daily 10.30 - 5.00pm, last entry 4.30pm. Prices for tickets to the Gardens (exhibition free): Adults: £6.75 - Over 60's: £6.25 - Children: £3.25 - Family: £16.50. Concessions available. A fully illustrated catalogue is available (which includes a fold out map) from the West Dean Gardens shop for £5.00, and also from The Memorial Arts Charity for £6.50 (£5.00 plus £1.50 p&p).

Over the last two years the Charity has been commissioning fifty-five new lettered works on a memorial theme. These works bring together the traditional components of British memorial making, above all fine lettering, with the fresh interpretative vision of fifty-five different makers. The proposals range widely, from the traditional to the very contemporary. They include works in stone, slate, wood and other materials in the form of standing stones, headstones, lettered steps, sculptures, a bird bath, words cut into chalk on a hill and a fountain. The ability of such works to comfort, move and inspire the public, and the necessity for founding a permanent collection of Memorial Art, was borne out by the overwhelming response to their first exhibition, The Art of Remembering (Blickling Hall, Norfolk, 1998). Fifteen works from this first exhibition will be included in the permanent Art & Memory Collection.

After eight months the Collection will be distributed between six major public sites around the British Isles: Blair Castle in Scotland; Canterbury Cathedral Memorial Garden; Winterbourne Botanic Garden in Birmingham; the Monnow Valley Arts Centre in Monmouthshire and Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincolnshire. The Collection will enable a wide audience to discover this rewarding but under-appreciated art form – to learn about good design and fine lettering, poetry and prose and the possibilities for commissioning individual memorials.

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Michael McDermott - Wall I Must Climb.