Posted Wednesday 29 May 2019
Dorich House Museum has been awarded a grant from the National Lottery to fund a new heritage project examining a lost period in the iconic building's history. The Squatter Years: Recovering Dorich House Museum's Recent Past will collate recollections from the community that lived in and visited the building during the 1980s and 90s.
The £65,000 National Lottery grant will provide vital funds to enable museum staff and volunteers to explore the transition of Dorich House from a private home to a public museum.
Acquired by the University in 1994 and located close to Kingston Hill campus, Dorich House is the 1930s former studio house of the renowned sculptor, artist and designer Dora Gordine and her husband Richard Hare, a scholar of Russian art and literature. The museum holds the largest collection of Gordine's paintings, drawings and sculpture in the world, as well as an important collection of Russian art and design.
Dorich House Museum is home to the largest collection of Dora Gordine's work in the world. Dr Fiona Fisher, curator of the museum and a researcher in design history at Kingston School of Art will lead the project working in collaboration with participation curator Natalie Kay, artist Laura Grace Ford, and film-maker Annaleena Piel Linnå. "The funding will support volunteers from Kingston University, Grey Court School, and the wider community to work together to collect interviews and produce exhibitions, publications and new creative works," she explained. "We are grateful our project has been made possible through money raised by National Lottery players. Working with our partners and volunteers, we are excited to invite the public to share their memories of Dorich House to help us bring its recent history alive for future visitors."
Following Gordine's death in 1991, the grade II listed building was renovated by Kingston University and opened as a museum in 1996. Regarded as one of London's hidden gems and a major cultural attraction within the Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames, Dorich House Museum is internationally significant as one of only a handful of public museums created by a female artist as a space to live and work.
Alongside partner venue the Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston University's gallery of contemporary art and design, Dorich House Museum works with young people from across the University to support teaching, learning and research and offer high quality volunteering and professional development opportunities. Participation programmes provide creative opportunities for local schools, charities and organisations and for students from other colleges and universities.
12 November 2024
12 November 2024
11 November 2024