Celebrating 60 Years of the Edward James Foundation
- By the collections team, Simon Coleman and Hugh Morrison
Today, 23rd November 2024, the Edward James Foundation celebrates its 60th anniversary. Created in 1964 by Edward James’s bequest of most of his West Dean Estate, the Foundation established West Dean College as an institution for teaching and preserving traditional arts and crafts. At this point in its life, the Foundation can look back on some important milestones and achievements in these 60 years.
The mission of the Foundation has always remained closely aligned with the ethos of Edward James who was a celebrated patron of the arts. After reading Aldous Huxley’s book, Ends and Means, James wrote to Huxley in 1939 to ask for advice on establishing a community to support arts and crafts. The idea finally came to fruition in 1971 when West Dean College opened its doors to students for the first time.
"James’s vision for the College was that it would embody the values of ‘craftsmanship’ as a tool for self-exploration"
The 6,350-acre Estate has for centuries played an important part in the life of West Sussex. Managed to support and maintain the College, it originally consisted of twelve farms, some run in-hand and others let to tenant farmers from long-established families on the Estate. The Foundation ceased farming-in-hand in 2014 and now lets much of the released land through tenancies and grazing licences.
In 1981 the Foundation installed a wood-fired ‘biomass’ heating system, one of the largest of its kind in the country. About 1200 tons of woodchips are sourced annually from the Estate for the biomass, enabling West Dean to be self-sufficient and environmentally sustainable in heating fuel. The heating system was replaced with an even larger one in 2016, which supplies heat and hot water to dozens of local houses as well as the entire College campus; the project went on to win a national environmental award. As a major landowner within the South Downs National Park, responsible stewardship of land is a cornerstone of the Foundation’s activities, with designated nature reserves to support biodiversity and now an ambitious sustainability project which includes planting more than 500,000 trees. The Foundation’s ‘Whole Estate Plan’ has been approved by South Downs National Park Authority. West Dean Gardens, which attract 70,000 visitors a year, have received national recognition for horticultural excellence.
West Dean College began its life by offering a range of short courses in arts and crafts. Longer duration courses in antique furniture and clock restoration were established within a few years, the first courses of this type to be offered by a higher education institution. Involvement with the Henry Moore Foundation led to the creation of a commercial tapestry workshop in 1976 which remains one of only a handful of major active studios worldwide. In the early 1980s new workshops were built and, by 1995, degree and diploma courses validated by the University of Sussex were being offered in book conservation, ceramics, musical instrument-making, antique clocks, antique
furniture, metalwork and tapestry weaving. Courses in fine art and creative writing were later introduced. Buildings across the College campus have been repurposed in a variety of ways to accommodate the expanding portfolio and student population. Those buildings also require considerable ongoing maintenance, notably during the recent major award-winning project to replace the old Victorian roof of the historic house, the main College building.
The Foundation has always encouraged wider use of the College buildings for cultural purposes. During its six decades it has hosted conferences in Surrealism, building conservation and craft and the Attingham Summer School for art historians and curators has been a long-established annual fixture. The Foundation has made significant contributions to music by annually hosting the famous Chilingirian Quartet, classical guitar festivals and concerts.
Within the last quarter of a century, the work and responsibilities of the Foundation have continued to evolve within an era of considerable educational and societal change. A new educational structure for the College was established with the creation of two schools: the School of Arts and the School of Conservation. In 2021 the College merged with the London-based KLC School of Design, adding a new School of Design to the existing two. The merged organisation, now known simply as ‘West Dean’, has two campuses, one in West Dean and another in the recently opened Dilke House in Bloomsbury, Central London.
