Harriet Frazer, the founder of Memorial by Artists – which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year – has opened a new Lettering Arts Centre at Snape, Suffolk, near her home.
It will be the new home of The Lettering & Commemorative Arts Trust, the charity previously called Memorial Arts. The change of name has come about with the expansion of the interests of the charity beyond memorialisation.
An exhibition opened in conjunction with the launch of the new Lettering Arts Centre at Snape Moultings on 24 March and will go on until 15 June (opening Thursday to Monday, 11am to 4pm, if you want to visit).
The exhibition features work by some of the leading British lettercarvers – Gary Breeze, Charlotte Howarth, Robbie Schneider and Annet Stirling among them. Several East Anglian artists will also be showing their work at the exhibition. Altogether, the Trust is associated with more than 70 makers who specialise in lettered and commemorative artwork.
The Lettering Arts Centre will be a hub of intense activity for the lettering arts. There will be lettercarving workshops, professional artists’ symposia, talks by visiting artists and advice on training opportunities in lettercarving, including the charity’s own apprenticeship and journeyman schemes that will now be based at the new Lettering Arts Centre.
For those who want to commission lettering for memorials, standing stones, commercial or private properties, there will be help and advice on hand.
Snape Moultings is a sympathetic location for the Lettering Arts Centre because it is the creative environment that is home to the world famous Aldeburgh Music Concert Hall, where a diverse range of music, including classical, jazz and country & western, is performed.
Snape Maltings also houses art galleries, shops and restaurants. It already attracts a lot of visitors and will be an ideal place for the Lettering Trust to promote and develop the art of lettercarving. There will also be a small shop, which will help to finance the charity.