2015 - The Guild of St George - Welcome to Ruskin's … AGM... · 2015-10-08 · AGM PAPERS 2015...

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The charity for arts, crafts and the rural economy, founded by John Ruskin in 1871.

Registered charity 231758. Limited company 12583.

www.guildofstgeorge.org.uk

From the Secretary, Dr Stuart Eagles

The Eyrie, 90 Water Road, Reading, Berks, RG30 2NN

Mobile & SMS (iPhone): +44 7921 907 279 * Email: [email protected]

AGM PAPERS 2015

Dear Companions,

Contents • the Master’s Report (Clive Wilmer) 2 • the Curator’s Report (Louise Pullen) 9 • the RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD Report (Ruth Nutter) 20 • the minutes of last year’s AGM 23

The AGM schedule, agenda and booking form can be found immediately after the minutes of the last meeting.. You MUST book for the AGM and Companions’ Dinner no later than Friday, 23rd October. Please note the front-cover invitation to the Private View of Ruskin Re-Viewed, an exhibition celebrating this year’s community heritage project, RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD. The exhibition closes at the end of the final day of our AGM Weekend, on Sunday, 8th November. On Sunday, you will have an opportunity to look at the exhibits and speak to many of RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD’s project leaders.

Please find on the inside front cover (opposite) your invitation to attend this year’s Companions’ Dinner, which will once again take place at Channing Hall. This event costs £25 per person, and includes a two-course hot and cold buffet with wine and juice, coffee and chocolates. You may make your food choices on the evening itself, and you are welcome to try a mixture of all the dishes.

Towards the back of this booklet you will find a list of our current publications, with the back cover carrying information about our latest and forthcoming books, booklets and cards. A selection of these will be available for purchase at the AGM.

We are grateful to those of you who have been generous and have donated to the Guild in recent times. For those who have not, but who nevertheless feel they might be able to make a contribution, however small, please consider taking the opportunity to donate now. As you know, the AGM Weekend is provided entirely free of charge (with the exception of the Companions’ Dinner) and this year comprises talks, a lecture, an exhibition, refreshments and a buffet lunch. We hope to see as many of you in Sheffield as possible. If you can give something to help with the cost of running this event, we would be most grateful. (SE)

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Master’s Report 2014-15

The Guild’s Annual General Meeting was held at the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield on 15 November 2014. Seven new Companions signed the roll: Dr Gray Brechin, the distinguished Californian historical geographer, who has written on Ruskin; Annie Creswick Dawson, great-granddaughter of Ruskin’s protégé Benjamin Creswick and advocate of Creswick’s work; Tim Rawson, independent Ruskin enthusiast, scholar and collector; Thelma Quayle, one of our key associates in Bewdley and connected by marriage to the Liverpool Companions who moved to the Wyre Forest in the 1880s; Jenny Robbins, also a Bewdley resident and about to take up a role on our Board as Assistant Director of Properties; and Olga Sinitsyna, former Director of the Library for Children’s Literature in Moscow and now an active freelance conservationist. They were joined the following day by Dr Naomi Lightman, a Ruskin scholar at Birkbeck College, London University. In the course of the past year the Board of Directors had elected thirteen new Companions, bringing the total number to 164. Some farewells were also made. Tribute was paid, notably in a speech by Director Janet Barnes, to Frank Constantine, the head of Sheffield City Art Galleries from 1964 to 1982, who served the Guild as a director for many years. Tributes were also paid—by former Master Anthony Harris and Companion Francis O’Gorman (both in absentia; their words were read to us respectively by Directors Chris Harris and Rachel Dickinson) and Director John Iles—to two of our longest-serving Directors who had decided to retire: a former Master, Dr James Dearden, and a former Secretary, Dr Cedric Quayle. There was consolation in the fact that the Directors had decided to set up an Advisory Board on which Jim and Cedric would serve along with another former Master and Director, Anthony Harris. In my speech, I was happy to report that the practice of making donations to the Guild had resumed, in part, I presume, in response to my speeches and letters of the previous two years. This year’s accounts record £5,135 in donations, many of those coming in the form of gift-aided standing orders. The Board wishes to express its sincere thanks for these gifts, hopes the development will continue and, recalling the Guild’s involvement in Westmill and Barmouth, also anticipates legacies in the future. After the meeting, Companions heard short talks by Companions Sue Grayson-Fordon the John Ruskin Prize, Ruth Nutter on the RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD project and Annie Creswick Dawson on her grandfather Benjamin Creswick. The 2014 Ruskin

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Lecture, ‘Necessitous men are not Free Men’: Bridging Ruskin’s Thought and the New Deal, was given by Gray Brechin. His subject was the influence of Ruskin and the University Settlements on Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt: a topic that spoke very well to our time and to the growing importance to the Guild of our North American Companions. Gray’s reminder of the impact of Ruskin on the Welfare States of the mid-twentieth century provided some consolation to those of us who had just read of the Guild’s failures with its poorer Companions in Companion Dr Mark Frost’s excellent book The Lost Companions and John Ruskin’s Guild of St George: A Revisionary History, which had appeared two months before. Gray’s talk was more in the spirit of our Secretary Dr Stuart Eagles’s book, After Ruskin: The Social and Political Legacies of a Victorian Prophet, 1870-1920. The AGM is increasingly an important social occasion in the Guild calendar and, that night, a ticketed dinner for Companions was held in Sheffield’s Channing Hall. It was attended by some 65 people, Companions and their guests. The Board’s special guest was Dame Fiona Reynolds, formerly Director-General of the National Trust and at present Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Dame Fiona was in Sheffield to speak at ‘Wealthy Sunday’, the opening event of the RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD project. The Guild continues to maintain the collection Ruskin created for his Museum. Now called the Ruskin Collection, it is housed in Sheffield’s Millennium Gallery. The Curator Louise Pullen gives talks about the Collection, occasionally shows scholars and visitors around it and displays a new selection of works in the gallery every six months. The selection currently on view was designed to follow up themes in the RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD project. Louise is also engaged, with her colleague Kirstie Hamilton, in planning the last of the three Triennial exhibitions funded by the Guild, which will open in the exhibition gallery on 23 January 2016. The exhibition will be called In the Making: Ruskin, Creativity and Craftsmanship and it will both conclude the Sheffield project and initiate the period of legacy work, which will prepare the way for the Ruskin bicentenary in 2019. (Incidentally, by the time Companions receive this report, Louise will have embarked on a period of maternity leave. Our congratulations to her and her husband.) We continue to add to the Ruskin Collection. In March 2015, for instance, at a cost of £17,000, we bought two sets of botany books owned, rearranged and annotated by Ruskin. This was in fact well below the market price, and we are grateful to the owners for their generosity and to Stuart for negotiating the purchase. The books represent a major addition to the Collection and will be studied in detail from a scholarly point of view by the distinguished plant scientist Professor David Ingram, who has this year become a Companion. Professor Ingram, now retired, was formerly Master of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, and the Director of the Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh. At the Sheffield AGM I was delighted to be able to announce that the Guild had been awarded a grant of £67,100 for the RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD project by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Congratulations for winning such an impressive sum must

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largely go to Ruth Nutter, the project Producer. On the evening of that Saturday, 15 November, the RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD project effectively began with a light show of words and images on the theme of wealth projected on to the façade of the Upper Chapel, Norfolk Street, just opposite the old Ruskin Gallery. This was the first stage of ‘Wealthy Weekend’. It was followed the next day by ‘Wealthy Sunday’: in collaboration with the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Sheffield University, Ruth presented a weekend of talks, works of art, group projects, discussions, and displays, highlighting that wealth which is not to be measured in cash but which, as Ruskin insists, is the essence of life itself. Over the year, RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD has proved to be one of the Guild’s major projects, engaging significant numbers of Sheffield people of all ages week after week in inspiring, energising and socially creative events. It has included such things as an enormously popular Pop-up Museum in Walkley, hugely well attended lectures by Dr Mark Frost and Dr Marcus Waithe, Ruskin walks and rambles, a peripatetic drama by the poet Sally Goldsmith, a series of talks on ‘Wealthy Cities’, a cabaret, a poetry walk and a competition for the best Ruskinian beard. It took its audience to Stannington for the bio-dynamic market garden run by Freeman College, to the beautiful Rivelin Valley for the rediscovery of an early twentieth-century school of (mostly) amateur and working-class landscape painters, to a farm in Totley where Ruskin was involved in the creation of a commune, to the city centre for talks and a new display in the Ruskin Collection gallery, and to Walkley again for Gerry’s Bakery, Gerry having baked a ‘Ruskin loaf’ according to the Master’s favourite recipe. This creative year will be brought to an optimistic close with an exhibition in the Millennium Gallery called ‘Ruskin Re-viewed’: ‘a journey through the past, present and future of Ruskin in Sheffield’ which will run from 31st October to 8th November, 2015. (An invitation to the Private View forms the front cover of this AGM Papers booklet.) The legacy of this project is currently under discussion and I hope that I and Director Janet Barnes, who chairs the steering committee, will be able to make some announcements before too long. This year’s Companions’ Day was tied into the Sheffield project. We met at the Pop-up Museum to see the display, lunched at Gerry’s Bakery and walked to Ruskin House to see a newly erected plaque which placed that building as the site of the original St George’s Museum when Ruskin founded it in 1875. We then walked on to the stunningly picturesque Walkley Cemetery, where a second plaque marked the grave of Henry Swan, the Museum’s first Curator. This grave had been severely damaged and lost from sight as the result of subsidence and neglect. The Guild has now paid for its restoration and made a powerful tribute to Swan and to his achievement. The two plaques are both in Cumbrian slate, the same material as the great Kindersley stone at the entrance to the Ruskin Collection in the Millennium Gallery. They were designed and cut by a local craftsman, Richard Watts, who has now become a Companion. The texts on the two plaques were written by, respectively, Marcus Waithe and Mark Frost. The energy of Ruskin-in-Sheffield is a striking example of the Guild at the present time. The other major setting for our work is the Wyre Forest near Bewdley, which

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is administered by Director John Iles and a dedicated team of enthusiasts. One of those enthusiasts, Companion Jenny Robbins, will be proposed for election as a Director at the 2015 AGM and will eventually be expected to take over the care of our properties from John when he retires. In my last report I mentioned the new Ruskin-in-the Wyre group, which John set up last year and which co-ordinates our increasingly complex involvement in the Bewdley region. The work there has been significantly moved on by the arrival of new Companions Lynne Roberts and Neil Sinden as tenants of St George’s Farm. They have recently moved from busy lives in London, looking for the peace of the forest but also hoping to use their past experience in the work of the Guild there. Lynne is newly retired as a teacher of disadvantaged children and will have a lot to contribute to the social aspects of our activity, notably the Care Farming theme. Neil has worked for environmental bodies for most of his life, especially over an extended period for the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), a body with strong Ruskinian connections. He has a particular interest in the importance for environmentalism of the written word and imaginative literature, and I am hoping he will use his literary skills to record some of the changes in the Wyre. In the meantime, Companion Tim Selman, at present Strategic Manager of the Wyre Forest Landscape Partnership (WFLP), has moved his office into St George’s Farm to work alongside Neil and Lynne. The WFLP, which brings together the Forestry Commission and Natural England with all who have an interest in the forest, including the Guild, will conclude its work at the close of 2015. Tim will then take over as Director of the Wyre Community Land Trust (WCLT), which has for several years been funded by the Guild and, under Tim’s leadership, is expected to become more closely related to it – hence his move into the farm. Developments at the farm are likely to be exciting over the next few years. We shall be installing a sawmill there fairly soon and we are looking forward to significant building development, which we hope will include workshops, some housing provision and a Ruskinian study centre. A group of architectural students at the University of Cardiff, who have been visiting the Wyre with their teacher Dr Kate Darby, are likely to become involved in the Guild’s building programme. They are studying the possibility of a place-specific architectural language, in particular exploring the links between place and local material, in this case Wyre oak. Other Guild projects and associations continue. The Master, the Secretary and one or two Directors attend the twice-yearly meetings of Ruskin To-Day, chaired by Companion David Barrie, which seeks to co-ordinate and monitor Ruskinian programmes and activities. We also maintain friendly relations with the Ruskin Society, the Friends of Brantwood, the Ruskin Foundation, and the Ruskin Library and Research Centre at Lancaster University; many of us are members of at least one of these bodies. The Campaign for Drawing, now an independent charity, was founded by the Guild in 2000. The Guild pays it an annual grant and over the last three years has funded a John Ruskin Prize for it. This is a prize for works on flat surfaces, particularly painting and drawing. Last year’s prize exhibition, Recording Britain Now, first held in Sheffield, was shown from 13-30 November 2014 at The Electrician's Shop Gallery, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London E14 0JY, where the next prize exhibition will also be displayed in 2016. The Guild has also funded 42nd Street in Ancoats, Manchester. This is a charity which aims to revive the Ruskinian

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cultural heritage of the Ancoats area for the benefit of local young people facing a range of mental health challenges. Stuart Eagles, who is an authority on the Ruskinian philanthropist Thomas Horsfall of Ancoats, volunteers as a consultant for 42nd Street. We continue to supply the Ruskin books for the May monarch and attendants at the Whitelands College May Festival at Roehampton University. The Principal there, the Revd. Dr Mark Garner, is keen to encourage the relationship and has persuaded the College to publish Companion Canon Dr David Peacock’s doctoral thesis on the May Festival. (As most of you know, David is himself a former Principal of the College.) At this year’s Festival the role I have performed for the last nine years as presenter of the Ruskin books was taken over by Director Dr Rachel Dickinson, while the second of the Whitelands Ruskin Lectures had been given three days before by Companion Dr Sara Atwood, the Co-ordinating Officer of our North American branch. Sara’s title was: ‘“An enormous difference between knowledge and education”: What Ruskin Can Teach Us.’ Like the annual Ruskin Lectures given on the day of the AGM, the Whitelands Ruskin lectures are published by the Guild as booklets. The publication list, including the greetings cards, is the responsibility of Director Peter Miller, who has wonderfully revolutionised their appearance. The Guild publishes our two annual lectures – the Ruskin Lecture and the Whitelands Ruskin Lecture – as well as the occasional booklet on a topic the Board considers of importance to Companions. Recently we have seen Dr Sara Atwood’s ‘The Earth-Veil’: Ruskin and Environment, given as a lecture at Brantwood in conjunction with the Royal Geographical Society; my own ‘A new road on which the world should travel’: John Ruskin, ‘The Nature of Gothic’ and William Morris, the William Morris Birthday Lecture for 2014, given at the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow; and Stuart Eagles’s self-designed Miss Margaret E. Knight and St George’s Field, Sheepscombe. The lectures by Sara and myself were also given, in modified form, at the Hillside Club in California, an occasion to which I shall return. We have also commissioned a booklet on Ruskin’s protégé the sculptor Benjamin Creswick by Annie Creswick Dawson and fellow (but not related) Companion Paul Dawson. This will be ready by the time of the AGM in November. (See back cover for further details.) The Companion, the Guild’s annual publication, is edited, designed and published by Stuart Eagles, who also writes and designs the Guild’s publicity material and presides over our website. Having this year risen to 64 pages and with an ISSN to boot, The Companion is no longer a ‘newsletter’, though that word continues to describe one of its functions. The Guild’s symposia on issues of current social importance have usually been arranged in collaboration with the Ruskin Library and Research Centre at Lancaster University. This year’s, exceptionally, was not. It was planned and in most respects managed by our Treasurer, Director Chris Harris, in collaboration with Companion Catherine Howarth and employees of the ethical investment charity ShareAction, which she directs. Using your Money for Good, a conference on economic issues will be held on 24th October at Mary Ward House in Tavistock Place. Like Toynbee

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Hall, the venue for last year’s symposium, Mary Ward House was one of the university settlements created largely by Ruskin’s followers and inspired by his example. Next year we hope to be holding a symposium on Craftsmanship, probably at the Art Workers’ Guild. For the last three years or so, the Master, the Secretary and the Board have been encouraging the development of a North American Branch of the Guild. Their activities are planned at present by four US Companions, Dr Gray Brechin, Tim Holton, Dr James L. Spates and their Development Officer, Dr Sara Atwood. Last year, they and other Companions were involved in symposia at the Roycroft Community Arts and Crafts Center at Roycroft in upstate New York, and at the Hillside Club in Berkeley, California. Things took an extra leap forward this year when I, as Master of the Guild, was invited to deliver the annual Ruskin Lecture at the Ruskin Art Club in Los Angeles, which has existed since 1888. I was invited by the Director Gabriel Meyer, a poet and foreign correspondent, who had himself delivered the lecture in 2001. I accepted their offer, choosing as my topic ‘Ruskin’s Language: How a Victorian Prophet Uses Words’ and agreeing to give the talk on September 3. The offer included an invitation to address students at the University of Southern California on the previous day. I was asked to engage the interests of students concerned about the Environment, so I chose to speak on ‘Human Nature and Natural Abundance: John Ruskin and the Environment’. The lecture included an account of the Guild’s work in the Wyre – today as well as in the nineteenth century. On agreeing these matters with Gabriel Meyer, I put him in touch with the North American Companions. As a result, he was swiftly visited by Jim Spates, who also flew over to Los Angeles to hear my talks and, with Gabriel, Gray Brechin and myself, to negotiate a possible bicentenary exhibition at the Huntington Library in Pasadena. Gabriel and the Society’s President Ron Austin have accepted my invitation to become Companions. Sara Atwood, busily engaged in moving house from Arizona to Oregon, was unable to attend the Californian events, though she selflessly helped with arrangements for my talks and was instrumental in setting up, with Companions Tim Holton, Gray Brechin and Jane MacKinne-Meyer, a further pair of talks in the Bay Area. I spoke to the Berkeley Colophon Club on September 8 on ‘John Ruskin, William Morris and the Revival of Craftsmanship’ and then gave a version of my talk on the Guild and environmentalism on September 10 to a small but impressively engaged audience at the Swedenborgian Church in San Francisco. I was joined on the latter occasion by Companion Aonghus Gordon, who spoke on the work of Ruskin Mill Trust, which he directs. These occasions will have consequences, and I hope to be returning to the San Francisco Bay as early as this December. I shall be speaking again in the Swedenborgian Church, one of the masterpieces of the Arts and Crafts Movement in the United States. I have spent a good deal of time abroad this year, working at things which I hope will serve the Guild in the long term. I was invited to spend the first semester of 2015 as Visiting Professor in English Literature at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice. Two Companions, Jeanne Clegg and Emma Sdegno, both Professors at Ca’ Foscari, had played a part in my invitation; while I was there I also saw something of

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Companion Paul Tucker, who is at the University of Florence, and the photographer Sara Quill, who has just been elected to Companionship. I taught Victorian literature and, in particular, gave a series of seminars on Ruskin. I had long wished to make a connection between the Guild and a city so profoundly linked with Ruskin’s name. It seems clear to me that the whole idea of the Guild was inspired by the Venetian scuole, the charitable confraternities that played such a large part in the history of the city, combining philanthropic work with a concern for the sacred power and value of great art. The Scuola di San Giorgio degli Scrovegni, which owns the Carpaccio painting of St George from which our logo is taken, was an evident inspiration. Even more so, I suspect, was the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, where Ruskin had earlier discovered the art of Tintoretto. With Emma Sdegno’s help, therefore, I pursued the possibility of collaborating with the Scuola, and we succeeded in setting up a Guild weekend in Venice. It included a meeting of the Board of Directors at the Istituto Canossiano (where directors and visiting Companions also stayed), Ruskin tours led by Emma and myself, which were open to Companions and their friends, and a Colloquy with the Scuola San Rocco in their famous building. The speakers at the latter were Franco Posocco, Guardian Grando of the Scuola, Maria Laura Forlati, Emeritus Professor of International law at the University of Padua and an authority on law relating to Cultural Heritage, Emma Sdegno (who has since been appointed a consorella of the Scuola), John Iles, Louise Pullen and myself. The occasion met with considerable success and talks are being held about the possibility of future collaborations.

Clive Wilmer

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THE GUILD OF ST GEORGE CURATOR’S ANNUAL REPORT 2014-15

Introduction This has been an unusual year for me in that I have taken on the role of Curatorial Service Manager, line-managing and co-ordinating the curatorial team and collections of Museums Sheffield. This is a short-term appointment whilst Sian Brown, who usually holds the managerial position, has been on maternity leave. Although I have continued to hold the post of Ruskin Curator, some of my work with the Ruskin Collection has had to be curtailed. Nevertheless, as this report will attest, the collection has remained well-managed and in the public eye during an exciting year of RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD events. The usual two annual display changes within the Ruskin Collection have taken place as planned, and The Illustrated Aviary exhibition, drawn almost entirely from the Ruskin Collection’s ornithological works was a runaway success. Next year is likely to be equally eventful as In the Making, the third of the Ruskin Triennial Exhibitions, sponsored by the Guild, takes place in two of our galleries from January. Much of my work over the past months has been in the curation of the exhibition, which will in turn introduce an action-packed ‘Year of Making’ within the Sheffield area. Unfortunately the financial state of Museums Sheffield remains precarious and we expect to move into a renewed series of funding cuts in the coming years. I am therefore exceptionally grateful to the Guild for continuing to sponsor my research into the Collection. In April I had three days of research in Venice which allowed me to add to the information contained in the Collection catalogue. Some of this will feed into next year’s Collection re-display. From late October, I will myself be on maternity leave for a year. Plans are in place to ensure that the cataloguing project does not get neglected in the coming months, that the baton for In the Making is successfully passed on and that at least one display change will be made to the Ruskin Collection. I know that in my absence the collection will be well cared for and maintained to a high standard.

1 Collections Management and Cataloguing Project The cataloguing project is the principal area which has progressed more slowly than usual, as a result of my additional duties as Curatorial Services Manager. Unfortunately, my new role has also meant that I have been unable to superintend the work of volunteers, meaning a further reduction in pace.

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Nevertheless, work has continued as far as possible according to the milestones we have set for our Collections Management Plan to 2018. In particular, I have been working on catalogue entries for the Eyton ornithological collection and the mineral collection, with around 300 new and extended entries on TMS (our collections database) created since October 2014. Using money budgeted for The Illustrated Aviary (see below) I was able to send five ornithological works, including three large aquatints by JJ Audubon, for conservation and I was delighted to see works conserved so that they can be publicly viewed for the first time in many years. Museums Sheffield has recently received much interest from the public in sponsoring works, or helping towards the conservation of works, and I hope that this trend will continue so that we can see some of the more fragile or damaged works restored to a displayable condition. Funding associated with our position as an Arts Council Major Partner Museum has meant that we have been able to resume digitization of the Collection. Since October 2014 around 80 works have been digitized and put online on the Museums Sheffield public catalogue: http://collections.museums-sheffield.org.uk/ In line with our Collections Management Plan, these have mostly been works from the Eyton Collection and selected pages from highly illustrated or early printed books. Another 120 works of a similar nature have been digitized or are awaiting digitization in the next few months. These too will be available online within this financial year, bringing the total number of works from the Collection online to around 1200. This figure represents around a quarter of pertinent and catalogued works (works on paper, paintings, decorative art and highly illustrated books). For ornithological works available online, I have also been researching the current scientific name for each bird species. Most 18th- and 19th-century prints use old scientific identifications and some common names have also changed. We hope that by adding the current identifications for the bird illustrations, the scientific community will be able to make better use of the collection. During my maternity leave we plan that the person providing part-time cover for my post will concentrate on the Collection catalogue and will supervise volunteers to ensure that the targets for the coming year are met, if not exceeded. We hope too that further digitization will take place in the coming financial year.

2. The Ruskin Collection The Ruskin Collection has been redisplayed twice this year, in December and July. As usual, three themes were chosen in each exhibition to reflect Ruskin’s views on art, architecture and nature.

In the December- July display, Cloud, Ray and Reflection drew together studies of natural phenomena and Ruskin’s art criticism, particularly pertinent chapters from Modern Painters. It contained a selection of works ranging from mountain views in

http://collections.museums-sheffield.org.uk/

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the Bunney Collection to mezzotints from Turner’s Liber Studiorum. A second theme concerned Venice’s Doge’s Palace. It looked at why Ruskin admired its architecture so greatly in a literal sense but also, drawing inspiration from his demand as to why Sheffield has no Doge’s Palace of its own, it considered the social functions of building. A third theme, Closer to Nature, included detailed studies of nature, drawing particularly on the amateur artists in the Collection, those in the early stages of their career or who were primarily writers rather than illustrators. These last two themes were particularly chosen to promote drawing, to highlight Ruskin’s social politics and to link to tours and other activities within the RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD project.

Our current display marks quite a change from the regular displays in the Ruskin Collection. To coincide with the activities of RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD, much more of the social history of the original Walkley museum and its displays has been highlighted in the three themes. The first of these, The Germ of a Museum, shows groups of works that Ruskin and the Museum’s first curator, Henry Swan, placed in sliding drawers or ‘compartments’ under particular headings, with some explanation of their purpose and choice. The second looks further at the Walkley Museum by using some of the remaining original frames and cases, and draws its inspiration from another of the compartment themes and photographs from the original St George’s Museum. A richly carved ‘prie dieu’ style display case seen in the photographs is also used as part of a new commission by The Poly-technic, Sheffield-based artists Kate Genever and Steve Pool. The third theme was curated in collaboration with Ruth Nutter and RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD project leaders Carole Baugh, Bill Bevan and Sally Goldsmith. who have provided outlines, draft texts and loans to reflect the history and legacy of Ruskin’s work in Sheffield. Their themes include the Walkley artisans, the St George’s Farm, Totley, Freeman College’s bio-dynamic garden in Stannington (Ruskin Mill Trust) and the Rivelin Valley.

Due to my maternity leave we expect that this display will be in place longer than usual, probably until late May 2016. As my cover will not be specialised in the Ruskin Collection, I intend to curate a new display for next year that will be put in place until I can curate a new display for early 2017. Provisional themes will include Proserpina and botany, making use of the Guild’s new acquisitions (see below, section 4), The Basilica of San Marco and Reflections on Making. The latter two themes are intended to tie into the third Ruskin Triennial exhibition, with which there will be a few weeks’ cross-over, but more particularly to the Sheffield ‘Year of Making’ (see below, section 9).

3 Exhibitions

As reported last year, I curated The Illustrated Aviary for the Millennium Gallery’s

Craft and Design Gallery (January 31—June 14). This was drawn principally from

the Eyton ornithological collection. Though Ruskin bought the collection for the

Guild en masse in 1881, The Illustrated Aviary was not a ‘Ruskin’ exhibition but

looked at the history, culture, science and techniques of bird illustration through

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watercolours, lithographs and engravings. Modern practices of ecological

conservation and endangerment were also addressed in the choice of works.

Theme titles were ‘Setting the Scene’, ‘A Passion for Collecting’, ‘British Birds’,

‘An Age of Exploration’ and ‘Crisis and Conservation’.

Artists such as Edward Lear, John and Elizabeth Gould and JJ Audubon were well

represented, and French ornithological artists including Levaillant and Pauline de

Courcelles were also included; indeed Levaillant’s opulent work on the Birds of

Paradise received particular attention. Framed works and books were

complimented by several skins and taxidermy specimens from Museums Sheffield’s

natural history collection and a new commission, Penelope, a fanciful giant

hanging bird from Leeds-based textile artist Mister Finch, received much praise.

The exhibition received about 59,300 visitors, an average of about 440 visitors per

day and around 200 more visitors per day than the Ruskin Collection routinely

receives. Unusually for exhibitions in our region The Illustrated Aviary received

considerable attention in the national press and was featured with images in the

weekend supplements of The Times, The Telegraph and The Guardian. I was also

interviewed about it for the Museums Journal.

The curation of the final Guild Triennial Exhibition on the theme of craftsmanship

is now in its final stages. In the Making; Ruskin, Creativity and Craftsmanship

opens on the 23 January 2016 running until 5 June. The exhibition will run across

our two exhibition spaces: the Special Exhibition Gallery and the Craft and Design

Gallery. The section based in the Craft and Design Gallery is also designed to stand

alone as a textiles-based exhibition. The two spaces will be linked by a new

installation from artist Harriet Popham. Created especially for In the Making, the

work will see the floor of the Millennium Gallery’s main thoroughfare covered with

a series of vibrant prints inspired by objects in the Ruskin Collection.

Rather than have separate themes or areas, the exhibition is designed to be free-

flowing with different ideas interwoven between objects. Drawing inspiration from

Ruskin’s writings and particularly from ‘The Nature of Gothic’, ideas of ‘Spirit’,

‘Material’ and ‘Service’ are shown through a range of historic and contemporary

objects and artworks. As well as including over fifty works from the Ruskin

Collection, we are delighted by the response to our loan requests, with many more

works coming from the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Arts Council Collection.

We are hugely pleased that the Ruskin Madonna by Verrocchio, a prized work in

Ruskin’s collection and once part of the Guild collection itself, will also be loaned

to us from the National Gallery of Edinburgh. There will also be several new

commissions featured in the exhibition, including a large-scale enclosure, by

Sheffield-based artist and craftsman Mir Jansen and Henk Littlewood. It was built

from an oak tree from the Guild’s land in the Wyre Forest and is decorated with

painted panels inspired by Ruskin’s work and the Ruskin Collection.

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As my maternity leave begins several months before the exhibition starts, I have

been working with my colleague Alison Morton, Exhibitions Curator, over the past

months. She will take the exhibition forward in my absence, alongside our Head of

Exhibitions and Displays, Kirstie Hamilton, with whom I have co-curated the

exhibition. Alison’s main tasks will include overseeing the commissions, the

exhibition logistics and installation and assisting with the interpretative text. All

Companions with their guests are cordially invited to the Private View (invitations

to follow).

4 Additions to the Collection The collection has benefitted from new acquisitions for the library given by institutions we have lent to, donated by Companions, or sent by writers and publishers to whom we have provided images: Late Turner; Painting set Free (Tate exhibition catalogue) Anarchy and Beauty; William Morris and His Legacy (National Portrait Gallery exhibition catalogue) Carpaccio; Vittore e Benedetto da Venezia all’Istria (Palazzo Sarcinelli, Conegliano Exhibition Catalogue) Ed. Frederique Campbell: Les Matinées a Florence (French translation of Mornings in Florence) James S Dearden: Rambling Reminiscences Ken and Jenny Jacobson: Carrying Off the Palaces; John Ruskin’s Lost Daguerreotypes Tatiana Nikitina: Neznakomyi Reskin [i.e. Unfamiliar Ruskin] (in Russian)) Sarah Quill: Ruskin’s Venice; The Stones Revisited (new, revised edition) Eds. Paul Tucker and Emma Sdegno: Guida ai principali dipinti nell’Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia (Italian translation of Ruskin’s Guide to the Accademia, Venice). We are also very grateful to the Ruskin Library, Lancaster for their continued support in sending copies of the Ruskin Review and Bulletin and other material to the Collection. As Companions will already know, the Guild has made by private purchase an acquisition of books from Ruskin’s personal library. William Baxter’s British Phaenogamous Botany; or, Figures and Descriptions of the Genera of British Flowering Plants (six volumes) and James Sowerby and James Edward Smith’s English Botany; or Coloured Figures of British Plants, with their Essential Characters, Synonyms and Places of Growth (seven volumes). The Guild has also purchased, towards my work on the mineral collection catalogue:

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Michael P Cooper, Robbing the Sparry Garniture: A 200-year History of British Mineral Dealers.

5 Loans To Others Past and Current Loans Autumn 2014—Autumn 2015 LATE TURNER: PAINTING SET FREE (Tate Britain, 10 September 2014—25 January 2015) William Parrott: Turner on Varnishing Day ANARCHY AND BEAUTY; WILLIAM MORRIS AND HIS LEGACY (National Portrait Gallery, 16 October 2014 —11 January 2015) Edward Clifford: Portrait of Octavia Hill THE ARTS AND CRAFTS HOUSE; THEN AND NOW (Compton Verney 27 June1—3 September 2015, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle October 2014 —February 2015) Eleven works in total, including two botanical books and botanical studies by

Ruskin and Charlotte Murray, four pieces of work from the Ruskin Linen industry,

an architectural design by Joseph Southall and a book printed by the Kelmscott

Press. A selection of minerals from the collection have also been loaned.

Confirmed upcoming loans Autumn 2014 —Spring 2016

THE BOTTICELLI RENAISSANCE/ BOTTICELLI RE-IMAGINED (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, 25 September 2015 —24 January 2016, Victoria and Albert Museum, 5 March 2016 —10 July 2016) Charles Fairfax Murray: Adoration of the Magi, after Botticelli ROMANTICISM; THE MELANCHOLY OF STONES (Fondacion Pierre Arnaud, Lens, Switzerland, 17 December 2015 —17 April 2016) A selection of 25 minerals, many from Switzerland, representative of Ruskin’s collecting areas RUSKIN AND STILL LIFE (Ruskin Library, Lancaster, January —Spring 2016) A selection of 23 still life drawings and watercolours, around half from the Bunney Collection

6 Enquiries and Collections Access Enquiries continue to come from Britain and overseas. The Illustrated Aviary exhibition especially encouraged a number of enquiries about the ornithological

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collections. General collections enquiries covered a number of aspects of the Collection including the manuscripts, minerals, collection history and early 20th- century collection curators, and artists and people associated with the Collection including Frank Randal and Mary Greg. The number of research visitors has been unusually low this year. Artists Mandy Payne and Mir Jansen have visited the Collection for the benefit of their art practice, several exhibition curators from Britain and overseas have visited to help with their exhibition planning and researchers have come to see the Greg Nature diaries, the De Croy book of hours and the Walkley visitor books. Students and volunteers working with RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD have also studied the Visitor Books as part of the ‘Ruskin Reach’ project. I have given two booked tours of the Ruskin Stores and library collection to a Higher Education group and a NADFAS group and have undertaken several more tours of a similar kind, including gallery tours and sessions as part of the RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD project. I also gave a presentation on the Collection and its purpose at the Guild’s colloquy in Venice, held in the Scuola di San Rocco which led to several individual enquiries regarding the Collection.

7 Schools, Learning and Events Laura Travis, Head of Visitor Experience has sent the following report:

Schools Around 4325 schoolchildren have visited the Millennium Gallery (including the Ruskin Gallery) in booked self-guided visits during the September 2014-15 period. In addition, some schools choose to attend one of our three workshops that use the Ruskin Collection Our Inventing Stories workshop encourages children to find beauty and interest in everything around them. Each child or pair of children is provided with a mysterious and unique object, and through a series of challenges they explore the Ruskin Collection to find clues to their object’s story. The story for each item is unscripted; every child interprets their object in a unique way. As they explore the Collection, great tales of dragons, castles, witches, princesses and naughty little children are born, for which the children take great delight in developing characters, settings and plotlines—all important aspects of understanding how a story is written and how fiction works. This is a new workshop that 44 children have attended since July. Our Sculpture workshops ask children to look at the world in new ways. Inspired by Ruskin’s love of nature, they are taught about and are shown different types of sculpture, then let loose in the Ruskin Collection to seek out images and objects from nature that they will combine and transform into a small sculpture. The creativity the children exhibit within this broad brief is immense, as miniature sculptures from ammonites to insects and tree stumps to church spires emerge

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from their lumps of clay. This is a great opportunity for teachers to enable their children to participate in a delightfully messy workshop away from the worries of doing it in their own classrooms —so our Ruskin-themed Sculpture workshops are sometimes the only opportunity children will have to experiment with and express themselves via this art form. 234 children have participated in this session in seven workshops since January. In the Printing and Pattern workshops children are encouraged to seek out patterns from nature in the Ruskin Collection and to notice little details that most people might ordinarily pass by. Sketches are produced from such details as individual feathers, the back leg of a beetle, a flower petal or single skein of spider silk. From their different sketches, pupils must pick just one or two to simplify and to etch onto their printing card. This is then commited to the brightly coloured printing ink as they piece together their designs to form a vivid banner for display in their school. The medium of printing appears to be a great artistic leveller, as it is often the children with less aptitude in other areas of visual arts whose work is most admired: the technique requires a simplicity of design which those more used to drawing in detail struggle to adapt to. The comments from teachers and adult helpers after this session are wonderful—they tend to be genuinely astonished that the finished work is so attractive. 289 children have participated in this workshop in 10 sessions since November. Adult and Public Programme 916 people came on booked self-guided visits to the Millennium Gallery from Higher Education, Further Education or other adult learning groups. There have been several craft sessions for families and adults taking their inspiration from the Ruskin Collection including a monoprint making session from leaves (21 children and 15 adults). Other adult craft sessions centred around The Illustrated Aviary exhibition and took inspiration from the Eyton Collection including ‘A Little Bird Told Me’ a lino-cut and wood-cut making workshop and a bird-sculpture workshop with artist Mister Finch. Both these workshops were fully booked. Louise Pullen has carried out several sessions as part of our programme including a Lunchtime Lecture on Ruskin, birds and the Eyton Collection attended by a very full audience of over 60 people and a fully-booked handling session based on ornithological books in the Collection. Events In February we celebrated The Illustrated Aviary with one of our regular ‘Live

Late’ events, when the Millennium Gallery is open for an evening of art, craft and

entertainment. ‘Love Birds Late’ saw over 300 visitors attending an evening event

which included bird-themed activities (folding 1000 origami cranes, creating

magpie poems), live music from Bird to Beast, a paper bird flying competition,

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‘Flamingo Bingo’, bird-themed talks in the exhibition space, quizzes, interactives,

a stall from the RSPB and live mural painting from Faunagraphic.

8 Visitor numbers in the Ruskin Collection Visitor numbers are captured via automatic clickers on the door. This generally provides an accurate measure, though no figures were captured due to a technical fault in the early summer period. For the remaining period 1 September 2014—31 August 2015 visitor numbers to the Ruskin Collection were a little over 87,300, an average of around 240 visitors per day. As usual, this is slightly lower than those recorded in the permanent Metalwork Gallery and considerably lower than the temporary exhibition in the Craft and Design Gallery and Special Exhibition Gallery. Visitor numbers to the Collection are also down by about 30,000 by last year’s visitor figures; this is in line with a general trend at the Millennium Gallery.

9 Exhibitions in the Millennium Gallery Main Space, Autumn 2014— Autumn 2016

Past and Current Exhibitions PICTURING SHEFFIELD 29 Nov 2014—12 Apr 2015 Picturing Sheffield journeyed through Sheffield past and present to examine the relationship between views of the city and the identity of the people who have lived and died here. From the ghosts of former landmarks to the contemporary regeneration of the city, this exhibition asked what we mean by beauty and whether it can be found in unexpected places. TAYLOR WESSING PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT PRIZE 2014 2 May1—6 August 2015 The Taylor Wessing Prize has become a prestigious annual fixture in the National Portrait Gallery’s calendar. This exhibition of 59 shortlisted photographs featured some of today’s most exciting contemporary photographers, including winner David Titlow. GOING PUBLIC: THE CATTELAIN COLLECTION 16 SEPTEMBER—12 DECEMBER 2015 Going Public: International Art Collectors in Sheffield brings together work from four leading European private collections for a series of world-class exhibitions and events across the city. Highlights from the Cattelain Collection showcases a series of immersive installations, sculpture and photography by artists Sol LeWitt, Do Ho Suh, Dan Flavin, Anthony McCall and more. Forthcoming Exhibitions IN THE MAKING: RUSKIN, CREATIVITY AND CRAFTSMANSHIP 23 January—5 June 2016

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(See above.) Ruskin believed that the act of making represents the perfect convergence of human spirit, skill and material. For Ruskin, creative effort shapes an artist or artisan just as indelibly as they in turn shape the stone they sculpt or the fabric they weave. This new exhibition curated by Museums Sheffield and sponsored by the Guild of St George will explore Ruskin’s ideas about making through a broad range of historical and contemporary art and craft. In the Making brings together work by artists including Grayson Perry, Susan Collis, Edward Coley Burne-Jones and Ruskin himself. THE YEAR OF MAKING: MADE IN SHEFFIELD (Title TBC) 23 July — 27 November 2016 The exhibition forms part of The Year of Making, a major city-wide initiative celebrating Sheffield’s international reputation for innovation and excellence in making. The exhibition will explore manufacturing within the city and will show Sheffield as a forward-looking producer with a rich history, and a name that remains an iconic brand today.

10 Exhibitions in the Craft and Design Gallery, Autumn 2014 — Autumn 2016

Past and Current Exhibitions HANDMADE FOR CHRISTMAS 31 October 2014—11 January 2015 Annual selling exhibition of craft. THE ILLUSTRATED AVIARY 31 January1—4 June 2015 (See above.) This exhibition drew together over 70 works by notable bird artists such as John James Audubon, Edward Lear and John Gould. From the weird and wonderful to familiar feathered friends, it charted their discoveries and techniques with vivid and luxurious imagery. STEEL CITY; CITY ON THE MOVE 1 July—11 October 2015 Sheffield and its twin city, Pittsburgh, USA, have both been indelibly shaped by the steel-making industry, which once employed huge numbers of local people. In this new exhibition, artist Jo Peel explored the parallels between England’s ‘Steel City’ and its American counterpart through an immersive kaleidoscope of film, mural, paintings, prints and drawings. Forthcoming Exhibitions HANDMADE FOR CHRISTMAS 30 October 2015—10 January 2016 IN THE MAKING: RUSKIN, CREATIVITY AND CRAFSMANSHIP: 23 January—5 June 2016 (See above.) In the Making continues in the Craft & Design exhibition space, exploring the work of artists and craftspeople who create by stitching, sewing,

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weaving and dyeing. The exhibition will show the diversity of makers’ approaches to textile production, from exquisite 17th-century linen and lace through to a striking contemporary piece by Tracey Emin. CERAMICS (Title TBC) SHEFFIELD YEAR OF MAKING: 18 June—9 October 2016 An exhibition exploring ceramics in Sheffield curated by local ceramicists Emilie Taylor and Penny Withers.

Louise Pullen

Curator, Ruskin Collection, September 2015

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RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD 2015 Report

Since the public launch of RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD in February this year, the interest of Sheffield people in Ruskin, combined with their commitment to their local communities, has manifested itself through a hugely popular and far-reaching programme of events. The eclectic programme of walks, talks and events over the last few months has created strong communities of interest, introduced new people to Ruskin and his ideas, and raised the profile of his legacy in this city. So far, over 20 events have attracted a total of more than 4,000 people of all ages. Public talks on Ruskin in Walkley by Dr Marcus Waithe, and on St George’s Farm and the Swans at St George’s Museum by Dr Mark Frost, laid the foundations and offered new discoveries for other project creators to draw into their own events. Bill Bevan of InHeritage worked with local historians to research the life stories of over 60 visitors to St George’s Museum. The research was turned into an exhibition, a self-guided trail leaflet, and a series of guided walks around Walkley under the title Ruskin’s Reach. Sally Goldsmith’s outdoor community play, Boots, Fresh Air and Ginger Beer, revealed a web of connections between the commune at St George’s Farm in Totley and the land access and conservation movements in the whole Sheffield area over the past century and a half. Cabaret Boom Boom’s walking performance Desperately Seeking Ruskin led audiences entertainingly through the history of St George’s Museum via the streets of Walkley, with an aerial rope act as the grand finale. The Pop-Up Ruskin Museum in Walkley, based in formerly unoccupied commercial premises, has been the beating heart of RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD for most of its duration. It has attracted interest across the city and creative participation from hundreds of local residents; it has generated a sense of local pride in the area’s Ruskinian identity. The constantly evolving displays at the Museum have included exhibits lent by visitors, exhibitions of local artwork, stories of local places of personal importance topeople, as well as displays from other RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD projects. Local poets and writers have used the museum as an inspirational base for poetry salons, readings and writing workshops. One of the highlights of the year was the Companions’ Day on 27th June, when Clive Wilmer officially unveiled the newly commissioned plaque on Ruskin House to mark the site of St George’s Museum and the commemorative stone on Henry Swan’s grave at Walkley Cemetery. Both slabs of Cumbrian slate were designed and carved by local craftsman Richard Watts. Over 100 people from Walkley and across Sheffield came to watch, listen and pay tribute. On the same day, people in

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Walkley voluntarily created their own Ruskin-themed events in celebration, including a fabric-printing workshop led by Anita Hamlin, a well-dressing at St Mary’s Church, and lunch at Gerry’s Bakery, which included the Ruskin Loaf and Mr Ruskin’s Favourite Brown Bread. Walkley adopted a Ruskinian theme for its annual Walkley Festival, with events including the celebration of links between Ruskin and the Japanese poet Kenji Miyazawa, a screening of the film Mr. Turner, an archaeological test-pit dig at Ruskin House, and a Ruskin beard competition at the annual Ruskin Park Fun Day. Ruskin’s ideas about well-being were experienced first-hand with Crafting the Land workshops at Freeman College’s biodynamic market garden at High Riggs in Stannington. Schoolchildren, an alcohol recovery group, and people who just wanted to try new skills took part. Led by expert staff at the college and outdoor creative specialists Growtheatre, participants created beautiful wooden-handled, copper-headed trowels, learnt about the history of the land, outdoor bread-making, and the food-growing cycle. RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD provided the occasions for the first public open day of the Freeman Biodynamic Garden, with over 80 people attending a Ruskin, Land and Livelihoods talk with speakers from the Guild(John Iles) and Freeman College. A further300 people turned up at this fruitful site throughout the open day to try wood-working, see black-smithing, make tiles from natural clay, and draw. A Ruskin Ramble led by Bill Bevan on the same day saw 20 people arrive at the event following a five-mile walk that began in Walkley, taking in Sheffield’s Ruskinian heritage and natural connections along the way. The Rivelin Valley, a much-loved area of interwoven industrial, natural and artistic interest in Sheffield, has been given a fresh injection of interest through events starting with a Dawn Chorus Walk, followed by an exhibition of paintings originating in an artists’ colony based there between the wars (including paintings by metal-workers) collected by Chris Baines. We then ran an Artists’ Colony for a Day, inviting people to paint the Rivelin, which resulted in the creation of almost 200 paintings and drawings. On the same day, Fay Musselwhite led a poetry walk along the Rivelin called Contra Flow, reading poems inspired by Ruskin. A collaboration with Rivelin Valley Conservation Group led to the creation of new interpretation posts along the Rivelin Valley Trail with QR codes displayed to direct smartphone users to updated heritage information online. In the city centre, our second Wealthy Cities event, Re-Thinking Sheffield’s Parks and Public Spaces, took place at the Millennium Gallery, chaired by Angie Hobbs. Speakers included Clive Wilmer, Simon Ogden (Sheffield City Council), Victoria Bradford-Keegan (National Trust) and Kate Genever (Poly-Technic artist). This was a collaboration with the first University Festival of Arts and Humanities in Sheffield. In August, Louise Pullen curated an eclectic re-display of the Ruskin Collection, the aim of which was to evoke the Museum’s original purpose and its ensuing influence

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up to and throughout the RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD project. (See Louise’s report, above.) I have supported two public engagement projects at the University of Sheffield this year: a group of students from the MA in Public Humanities explored the changing impact of the Ruskin Collection in its different locations around Sheffield; and a Masters in Architecture group participated in a studio session focused on reimagining the future of the Castlegate area of Sheffield, drawing on the thinking of Ruskin’s and Richard Sennett. This relationship with the Architecture Dept led to a visit by the Masters in Architecture group to Venice, where they were given a guided tour by Clive Wilmer. I am currently supporting another collaboration with the University, working as a client for a Live Project Masters in Architecture group, which will create a series of daily Wealthy City Walks from 24th October to 1st November, starting and ending at the Ruskin Collection. RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD has been energetically supported by the Steering Group, which comprises Guild Directors Janet Barnes (Chair), Clive Wilmer, Peter Miller, Jacqueline Yallop, and, representing Museums Sheffield, Sian Brown. I have also had the untiring support of the Guild’s Secretary, Stuart Eagles, for which I am deeply grateful, as also for that of many enthusiastic Guild Companions. I have been especially dependent on the keen collaboration of Louise Pullen and others at Museums Sheffield. We are grateful to the Heritage Lottery Fund for its award of £67,000 which has made the events possible. Maybe most importantly, we are grateful to the many volunteers who have helped curate and deliver so may engaging events. The project continues to inspire other creative responses in the city, notably with a major new poetry commission from Off the Shelf literary festival for 2015. Two poets—Tony Walsh and Rommi Smith—have been commissioned to write new poems inspired by Ruskin’s ideas. The poems and accompanying short films will be projected outdoors in the city centre on 16th October at an event called Poetry Light Night. The final celebratory exhibition, Ruskin Re-Viewed, drawing together displays and key themes from the whole course of the project, will be presented in the Arundel Room at the Millennium Gallery from 31st October to 8th November, ending on the final day of the Guild’s AGM Weekend.

Ruth Nutter

Producer, RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD

<www.ruskininsheffield.com>

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GUILD OF ST GEORGE

MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE COMPANIONS

HELD AT THE ARUNDEL ROOM, MILLENNIUM GALLERY, SHEFFIELD

AT 1045HRS ON SATURDAY, 15 NOVEMBER 2014

The Master welcomed Companions and guests to Sheffield. A special welcome was extended to overseas Companions, Olga Sinitsyna (from Russia) and Gray Brechin, who would give that year’s Ruskin Lecture (from the USA). The Master also welcomed Jill Constantine, whose father, Frank, a former Director of the Guild, had died earlier in the year.

Present: David Walker Barker, Janet Barnes CBE, Gray Brechin, Peter Burman,

Janine Christley, Annie Creswick Dawson, Paul Dawson, James S. Dearden, Rachel

Dickinson, Stuart Eagles, Catherine Edwards, Sue Grayson Ford, Mark Frost,

Aonghus Gordon, Judith Hague, Chris Harris, Howard Hull, John Iles, Helen Kippax,

Brian Lewis, Naomi Lightman, Jeanette Lock, Harry Malkin, Peter Miller, Robert

Newell, Christine Parker, Graham Parry, Michael Pye, Cedric Quayle, Thelma

Quayle, Timothy Rawson, Jenny Robbins, Tim Selman, Olga Sinitsyna, Marcus

Waithe, Clive Wilmer and Robert Wilson.

In attendance: Ruth Nutter, Producer, RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD

Louise Pullen, Curator, Ruskin Collection, Museums Sheffield

and Companions’ guests

385 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE David Alston, Dag T. Andersson, Sara Atwood, Jenny Barnes, David Barrie, George Breeze, Tony Chisholm, Mark Cleaver, Gill Cockram, Malcolm Cole, Celia de Piro, Nicholas Friend, Cynthia Gamble, Lynne Glazzard, Alexander Hamilton, Nick Hartley, Jo Harvey, Ray Haslam, Laurence Johnson, Nichola Johnson, Rita Lenney, David Lustgarten, Donald Measham, Gordon Monsen, Stephen Morris, Francis O’ Gorman, David Peacock, Jeffrey Richards, Shoji Sato, James Spates, John Steers, Robert Taylor, Suzanne Varady, Brian Walker, Peter Wardle, Michael Wheeler, Stephen Wildman, Mark Wilson, Carol Wyss, Jacqueline Yallop and Chiaki Yokoyama.

386 SIGNING OF THE ROLL The Master welcomed the following Companions, who signed the roll: Gray Brechin, Annie Creswick Dawson, Tim Rawson, Thelma Quayle, Jenny Robbins and Olga Sinitsyna. Naomi Lightman signed the roll the following day.

387 THE MINUTES OF THE AGM HELD ON 16 NOVEMBER 2013 It was agreed that the minutes were an accurate record and they were later signed by the Master.

388 MATTERS ARISING There were no matters arising.

389 MASTER’s REPORT The Master’s report had been circulated before the meeting. He summarised and added to the report at the end of the meeting, as follows.

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The Master reported another rise in donations and warmly thanked Companions for their generosity. The Master reported that the Guild had commissioned two new plaques: one on the grave (to be restored by the Guild) of Henry Swan, the first curator of St George’s Museum, Walkley, and the other on Ruskin House, the original site of the Museum. The wording of the plaques would be written by Companions Mark Frost and Marcus Waithe respectively. The Master announced the news that the Heritage Lottery Fund had awarded, a matter of days before the meeting, a grant of £67,100 to the Guild in respect of the RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD project. The Master congratulated Ruth Nutter, Producer of RinS, and thanked her for all her hard work in preparing an exciting programme of events in the year ahead. This met with general applause. He reminded Companions that the AGM would be followed by a projector display that evening on the outside of Upper Chapel, Norfolk Street, and a Companions’ Dinner at Channing Hall. On Sunday, there would be a day of talks and activities at the Millennium Gallery as part of ‘Wealthy Weekend’. The Master reminded Companions that the Ruskin Collection is comprehensively re-displayed every six months. In a year’s time, it was envisaged that the re-display would focus on themes arising from the RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD project. The Master reported that in the past year or so the structure of the Guild had been adapted in response to the charity’s expanding programme of activities and its widening ambitions. In particular, a series of smaller committees or steering groups had been established: for RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD; RUSKIN in the WYRE; and a Finance and General Purposes Committee. The Master had also become a member, with Companions Tim Selman and John Iles, of the Wyre Forest Landscape Partnership. Maureen Usowicz was now providing some bookkeeping assistance. The Master announced the sad death of Jack Bishop, the long-term tenant of St George’s Farm, Bewdley. The vacancy of the property did, however, present the Guild with new opportunities to develop the property, a matter it was now actively exploring. Companions had been given an opportunity to explore the Guild site near Bewdley during the Companions’ Weekend on 11th and 12th July. This event had also included a meal at Bewdley Museum where the Anthony Page Collection was now housed, and attendance at the private view of an exhibition there exploring the Guild’s links with the Wyre Forest. The John Ruskin Prize had proved to be another huge success, with particularly distinguished work entered by the short-listed artists exhibited at the Millennium Gallery and the Electricians’ Shop, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London. The Prize had been won by Maggie Hargreaves. One artwork, All That Remains, by Sheffield-based artist, Mandy Payne, had been purchased by the Guild for the Ruskin Collection. The Guild had given financial support to A Different Spirit, a project to re-energise the Ruskinian cultural heritage of Ancoats, Manchester, run by 42nd Street, a charity for young people under stress. The Secretary continued to serve as a consultant to the project.

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The Master reported that he continued to present books at the Whitelands College May Festival. This year, the inaugural Whitelands Ruskin Lecture had taken place, delivered by Companion Dinah Birch. Next year’s lecture would be given by Companion Sara Atwood. It was hoped that a collection of essays, and a book about the history of the May Festival by Companion David Peacock, would be published in time for the College’s 175th anniversary in 2016. Companion David Peacock had chaired a panel of judges, which included the Master and the Secretary, to select the winners of the new Brantwood Literary Prize, open to sixth formers learning in Cumbria. The Guild had undertaken to award books as prizes in future years. The symposium, Education for Education’s Sake? held at Toynbee Hall on 11th October, had been a great success, and audio recordings of the talks and discussions were now available on the Guild’s website. The next symposium, to be held in October 2015, would focus on economics, and would be organised in collaboration with ShareAction, whose Chief Executive, Catherine Howarth, was a Companion. Two major events had taken place in the course of the year in North America, one at the Hillside Club, Berkeley, CA, and one at Roycroft Campus, Aurora, NY. In September 2015, the Master had agreed to speak at the Ruskin Art Club, Los Angeles. Sara Atwood had now been appointed North American Development Officer. The Master reported that he would be spending the first half of 2015 as a visiting professor at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice. A Directors’ meeting would be held in that city in March 2015, and Companions would be invited to participate in Ruskin-inspired city tours, and a colloquy between the Guild and the Scuola San Rocco would take place. The developments in the US and Venice were part of the greater participation of overseas Companions in the Guild’s work, including those in Canada, France, Japan, Norway, Russia and Switzerland. Russian Companion, Olga Snitsyna, was present to sign the Roll of Companions. It was reported that her colleague, Companion Tatiana Nikitina, had recently written a book in Russian called Unfamiliar Ruskin. The Master drew Companions’ attention to the Guild’s growing list of publications. The Secretary edited the website and The Companion and had designed various leaflets and fliers. The growing selection of cards, lectures and pamphlets was published by Director Peter Miller who was warmly thanked and congratulated on the high quality of these publications. A book to commemorate the Triennial exhibitions was planned for publication early in 2016. The Master ended his speech by congratulating Janet Barnes, who had been awarded the CBE in the New Year’s Honours; she would pay tribute to the recently-deceased Frank Constantine following the AGM.

390 RESIGNATION OF DIRECTORS Dr Cedric Quayle and Dr James Dearden retired as Directors of the Guild after many years’ of distinguished service. The Master warmly thanked them and announced that the AGM would be followed by tributes in appreciation

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of their considerable contributions to Guild life. This met with unanimous approval.

391 RE-ELECTION OF DIRECTORS The Directors retiring by rotation were Jacqueline Yallop and Chris Harris. The re-election of Jacqueline Yallop was proposed by Peter Burman and seconded by Michael Pye and all agreed. The re-election of Chris Harris was proposed by John Iles and seconded by Cedric Quayle and all agreed.

392 ELECTION OF A NEW DIRECTOR The election of Rachel Dickinson was proposed by James Dearden and seconded by Michael Pye and all agreed. The Master welcomed Dr Dickinson, a leading Ruskin scholar, to the Board. It was announced that Jenny Robbins had been co-opted to the board at the Directors’ meeting on the previous day, and would stand for election at the AGM in 2015.

393 CURATOR’S REPORT The Curator’s Report from Louise Pullen had been circulated before the meeting and was taken as read. The Master thanked her and Kim Streets, Chief Executive of Museums Sheffield, for all their hard work and support throughout the year. Attention was drawn to Louise’s excellent work in comprehensively cataloguing and digitising the Ruskin Collection.

394 ACCOUNTS It was proposed by Robert Wilson that the accounts for the year ending 31 March 2014 be accepted. This was seconded by Janet Barnes and all agreed. The Treasurer (Chris Harris) summarised the accounts, and he expressed thanks to the Master and the Auditor for their work in preparing the statements. In turn, the Master thanked the Treasurer for his diligent work throughout the year.

382 AUDITORS

That the accountants Finnieston Berry Partnership Ltd be re-appointed auditors at a fee to be agreed by the Board of Directors was proposed by Chris Harris and seconded by John Iles, and all agreed.

383 DATE AND PLACE OF THE NEXT MEETING It was announced that the next Annual General Meeting would be held in Sheffield on Saturday, 7th November 2015.

384 ANY OTHER BUSINESS No other business was raised.

The meeting closed at approximately 1140HRS.

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Please bring these papers with you to the AGM. including the cemtre section, minus the booking form.

Published by the Guild of St George

Dr Stuart Eagles,

Secretary, Guild of St George,

The Eyrie,

90 Water Road,

Reading,

RG30 2NN.

[email protected]

Arrangements for Companions attending the AGM

to be held in the Cadman Room, Millennium Gallery,

Arundel Gate, Sheffield, S1 2PP

Saturday, 7 November, 2015

1045 hrs Coffee will be served

1115 hrs Annual General Meeting (Any Companions who have not already signed the Roll will be invited to do so as part of the meeting.)

1150 hrs Break

1200 hrs Clive Wilmer On Venice, California and Promoting the Guild

1220 hrs Tim Selman, Neil Sinden and Lynne Roberts: St George’s Farm and Ruskinland

1240 hrs Ruth Nutter RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD

There will be a short break whilst lunch is set up.

1315 hrs Buffet Lunch

1415 hrs Olga Sinitsyna An introduction from Russian Companions

1430 hrs David Lustgarten and Kay Walter An introduction from some American Companions

1450 hrs Break

1500 hrs 2015 Ruskin Lecture Ruskin and Craftsmanship Dr Marcus Waithe (Magdalene College, Cambridge)

1600 hrs Tea will be served

1630 hrs Ends

1915 hrs Companions’ Dinner (£25pp) at Channing Hall, Surrey Street.

Accommodation is available in the Novotel, next door to the Millennium Gallery (tel. no, 0114 278 1781).Companions may be accompanied by a guest.

Companions are invited to visit the RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD exhibition, Ruskin Re-Viewed, in the Arundel Room, Millennium Gallery, from 11am on Sunday, 8 November. There will be an opportunity to speak informally with many of the project leaders involved in delivering the community heritage project. Companions are reminded that the Ruskin Collection gallery will also be open to visitors.

The Annual General Meeting of the Guild of St George

to be held in the Cadman Room, Millennium Gallery,

Arundel Gate, Sheffield, S1 2PP

7th November 2015

Agenda

1. To receive apologies for absence.

2. To welcome new Companions and invite them to sign the Roll.

3. To confirm the minutes of the last AGM held on 15 November 2014.

4. To hear any matters arising.

5. To receive the Master’s Report for the period November 2014 to September 2015.

6. To elect Directors Dr Janet Barnes CBE, Mr Peter Miller and Mr John Iles who retire as Directors by rotation and offer themselves for re-election.

7. To elect as a Director Mrs Jenny Robbins.

8. To receive the Curator’s Report for the period November 2014 to September 2015.

9. To receive the Producer’s Report for RUSKIN in SHEFFIELD 2015.

10. To receive the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2015.

11. To confirm the re-appointment of the accountants Finnieston Berry Partnership Ltd.

12. To announce the date and location of the next AGM.

13. Any Other Business.

BOOKING FORM, GUILD AGM, 7 NOVEMBER 2015

For catering purposes, this form must be received no later than Friday, 23rd October. To: Dr Stuart Eagles, The Eyrie, 90 Water Road, Reading, Berks, RG30 2NN.

or email [email protected]

Name(s): ____________________________________________________________ Please write your name and also give the name of your guest if you are bringing one.

Address: _____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

Email//tel: ____________________________//_______________________

I/We* do/do not* wish to attend the Guild AGM. I/We* do/do not* wish to attend the free AGM lunch. I/We* do/do not* wish to take morning/afternoon/morning & afternoon tea at the AGM. I/We* do/do not* wish to attend the Companions’ dinner at £25pp *delete as applicable

AGM PROXY (for those who cannot attend the AGM)

Companions are entitled to appoint any person as a proxy to vote.

If you wish to appoint a proxy, please notify the Secretary in writing at least 72

hours before the AGM.

I appoint the Chairman of the meeting/___________________ (name of proxy)

to vote on my behalf at the AGM.

Name:____________________Signed:_________________________ Date: _______

HOW TO PAY

Please Note: Morning and afternoon tea and lunch at the AGM are free, but please consider making a donation to the Guild to help us cover the cost. The Companions’ Dinner is charged at £25 per person.

I enclose a combined payment/donation of £_______.

* send a cheque/check/international banking order to the address above made

payable to the ‘Guild of St George‘;

* make a money transfer online from your UK bank account (to a/c no. 90023388,

sort-code 20-98-61)—or from non-UK accounts (to IBAN

GB17BARC20986190023388

BIC/Swift: BARCGB22 using our bank address details highlighted in red below);

* donate using Paypal to [email protected] (if you categorise us a

‘friend’ and pay from your existing PayPal balance or transfer from your bank

account, we receive every penny of your donation—no fees apply).

We look forward to seeing you at this year’s AGM weekend in Sheffield.

mailto:[email protected]

COMPANIONS OF THE GUILD OF ST GEORGE

David Alston John Ames

Dag Andersson Jan Ansell

Terry Ansell Sara Atwood Linda Austin Michael Badu

David Walker Barker Emma Bartlet Janet Barnes

Jennifer Barnes Philip Barnes David Barrie Sally Beamish Graham Beck

R. Dyke Benjamin Dinah Birch

Sir Quentin Blake Caroline Blyth Emma Bogaard Gray Brechin

George Breeze Rt Hon. Lord Asa Briggs

Robert Brownell Van Akin Burd

John Burgin Peter Burman

Colin Campbell Tony Cann

Peter Carpenter Anthony Chisholm

Janine Christley Dorian Church

Jacki Clark Mark Cleaver Jeanne Clegg Gill Cockram Malcolm Cole

Annie Creswick Dawson Paul Dawson

James Dearden Pascal Debout Celia de Piro

Rachel Dickinson Natalia Dushkina

Stuart Eagles Hon. Catherine Edwards

Paul Elmhirst Shirley Elwell

Rt Hon. Frank Field Olive Forbes-Madden

Sue Grayson Ford Nicholas Friend

Mark Frost Ann Gagné

Cynthia Gamble Mark Garner

Olivier Geoffroy

Stephen Gill Jonathan Glancey Lynne Glazzard

Aonghus Gordon Kay Greenlees Martin Haber Judy Hague

Alexander Hamilton Camilla Hampshire

Anthony Harris Chris Harris

Malcolm Hardman Nick Hartley

Josephine Harvey Richard Harvey

Ray Haslam Andrew Hill

Norman Hobbs Andrew Hodgson

Tim Holton Catherine Howarth

Michael Hudson Howard Hull Derek Hyatt

John Iles Linda Iles

David Ingram Kevin Jackson

Laurence Johnson Nichola Johnson Terry Johnson

Gilly King Helen Kippax Stephen Kite

Robert Knight George Landow Diane Leonard

Rita Lenney Brian Lewis

Lady Naomi Lightman Jeanette Lock

Michelle Lovric David Lustgarten

Harry Malkin Donald Measham

William McKeown Jane McKinne-Meyer

Alison Milbank Peter Miller

Adam Mindykowski Gordon Monsen Stephen Morris

Jane Muir Christopher Newall

Robert Newell Tatiana Nikitina

Francis O’ Gorman Christine Parker Graham Parry

Christina Pascu-Tulbure David Peacock

Michael Pye Cedric Quayle Thelma Quayle

Sarah Quill Tim Rawson

Anthony Reeve Bernard Richards Jeffrey Richards Michael Riggs Jenny Robbins Lynne Roberts

Hon. Elizabeth Robins John Rosenberg

Laurence Rousillon-Constanty Richard Rundell Yvonne Rundell Andrew Russell

Shoji Sato Austen Saunders Emma Sdegno Tim Selman Neil Sinden

Olga Sinitsyna Allison Smith Julian Smith

David Sorensen Julian Spalding James Spates John Spiers Bob Steele John Steers

Robert Taylor Nellie Trevelyan Philip Trevelyan Norio Tsuyuki Paul Tucker

Suzanne Varady Marcus Waithe Brian Walker

Geoffrey Walker Kay Walter

Peter Wardle Ian Warrell

Brother Benet Watt Richard Watts Joseph Weber

Michael Wheeler Stephen Wildman

Clive Wilmer Mark Wilson

Robert Wilson Carol Wyss

Jacqueline Yallop Chiaki Yokoyama Samuel Zeveloff

'THE EARTH-VEIL': RUSKIN & ENVIRONMENT—£6 A lecture given at Brantwood in 2014 by Sara Atwood.

MISS MARGARET E. KNIGHT AND ST GEORGE'S FIELD, SHEEPSCOMBE—£6 A history of the wildflower meadow in Gloucestershire, published to celebrate the 80th anniversary of its donation to the Guild in 1936. Written and designed by Stuart Eagles.

'AN ENORMOUS DIFFERENCE BETWEEN KNOWLEDGE AND EDUCATION': WHAT RUSKIN CAN TEACH US—£6 2015 Whitelands Ruskin Lecture by Sara Atwood.

www.guildofstgeorge.org.uk/shop

Booklets—add £1.50 each postage within UK Please send cheques/postal orders, made

payable to ‘Guild of St George’ to: Peter

Miller, Guild of St George,

10 St Oswald’s Road, York, YO10 4PF.

Email [email protected]

NEW Cards & Publications 2015

Christmas Card 2015 #1 Charles Fairfax Murray, ’The Madonna and Child’ after Lippi (1876-1880).

Christmas Card 2015 #2 Henry Roderick Newman. ‘Florentine Roses’ (1881).

BENJAMIN CRESWICK by Annie Creswick Dawson with Paul Dawson—£10 (61pp+xiii with 30+ illustrations). This sumptuously illustrated biography and guide to the work of the sculptor, Benjamin Creswick, is the first dedicated publication to examine seriously the life and legacy of this artist. Creswick, who rose from Sheffield knife-grinder to head of the Department of Sculpture at the Birmingham Art School, owed much to the inspiration of St George’s Museum, Walkley, and to Ruskin’s encouragement and patronage. Based on years of detailed research, Annie Creswick Dawson tells the story of her great grandfather’s successful career working in the Arts & Crafts tradition to create carvings and terra cotta sculptures, bronzes and friezes, commercial and municipal wall decorations, metalwork and so much more.

THE RUSKIN LECTURE 2015 Marcus Waithe,

Ruskin and Craftsmanship Available 7 Nov—£tbc.

Xmas cards are C6—£1.25 each/£10 for 10 (£2p&p)/£20 for 25 (£3p&p)/£30 for 50 (£4p&p). Blank or with optional greeting inside: ‘Best Wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.’ (Please specify.)

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