In the summer of 2018 the Lettering Arts Trust in Snape staged a superb exhibition celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of Memorials by Artists. On 8 December, Harriet Frazer described to us how she came to found Memorials by Artists back in 1988.

The story begins with the loss of Harriet’s step-daughter Sophie who died peacefully by suicide in 1985. Harriet spoke most movingly and with great honesty about her family (Sophie was a twin) and about the difficulties they encountered in trying to create a fitting memorial for Sophie: something that would ‘lift the spirit and mark a unique life’.

Harriet commissioned the sculptor Simon Verity to design and carve Sophie’s beautiful headstone. But conforming with the strict rules for churchyard memorials presented huge obstacles. Out of the difficulties they encountered and overcame – Sophie’s memorial is now in place in the churchyard at Salle, Norfolk – was born in Harriet the idea to find other letter-carvers working in the British Isles and to publish an illustrated guide for people wanting a unique memorial about the use of good British stones and fine design and lettering. Memorials by Artists would be a matching service, crucially making it possible for client and artist to build a rapport so that the process of commission should be as creative as possible. That Harriet succeeded in realizing her vision was borne out by the wonderful examples of letter-carvers’ work shown in the anniversary exhibition and indeed by a member of the WISE audience, who spoke to me afterwards about how much her family valued the support they had been given by Harriet herself when they most needed it.

Harriet traced the history of Memorials by Artists in a series of images of remarkable memorials that have been created over the years. Ten years after its foundation, the first exhibition ‘The Art of Remembering’, was staged. Ten years after that, the ‘Art & Memory Collection’ was launched in the gardens of West Dean College, Sussex. Soon to join the number of memorials gracing our land is one to be sited on Orford Quay, in memory of the Boffins of Orford Ness.

Memorials by Artists is a treasure. Harriet claims that what drove her to create it was both ignorance and anger: ‘I knew nothing about lettering or the wide variety of British stones and slates. My anger was with the Church, with their insensitive and philistine rules for churchyard memorials. I suppose I had a sense of mission.’ She is modest about her achievements, but passionate about the importance of the work. Among her legacies is an educational trust, set up to ensure that the skill of letter-carving will endure through two-year apprenticeships and lettering workshops. As she said, it is crucial to have well-trained tutors to teach the young letter-carvers. We are thankful that her work will endure through Harriet’s successor, Executive Director Sarah Harrison, Lynne Alexander, the Lettering Arts Trust’s Education and Exhibitions’ Director and Mary Carter-Campbell who now runs Memorials by Artists.  (Summary: Suzy Powling)

For more information please see <http://www.letteringartstrust.co.uk