Jerwood. The foundation and the founders
One of our favourite outings used to be to Witley Court in Worcestershire. Its spectacular ruins, huge fountain and extensive gardens were being restored by English Heritage, and when we visited in September 2000 the Sherwood Sculpture Park had just been opened. A dozen sculptures by the likes of Elizabeth Frink, Michael Ayrton and Antony Gormley were scattered ‘in a treasure trail of artistic elegance’. We were intrigued.
John Jerwood (1918–91), the son of a Hatton Garden jeweller, went to Japan where he made a fortune with one of the largest dealerships in cultured pearls in the world. On trips to England he would discuss with his lawyer and friend, Alan Grieve, how best he could use his money for charitable purposes. A foundation was set up in 1977, at first to provide generous benefactions to his old school, Oakham, and prizes and bursaries for young artists and musicians. Jerwood's unexpected death in 1991 forced Grieve to take over the running of the foundation, and he spent three years sorting out Jerwood's assets around the world. Jerwood. The foundation and its founders, enthusiastically written by Matthew Sturgis with the help of six scrapbooks compiled by Karen Grieve and full of stunning illustrations, is a tribute to the way in which a small private charity has become an internationally recognised foundation under an inspired (and inspiring) leader.
Grieve is one of those rare people who combine the visionary with a bent for action. His success has depended on an uncanny feeling for initiatives that are likely to succeed and an ability to spot first class professionals to help run the outfit. The number of requests for support has grown exponentially over the last two decades, and it has become necessary to split the foundation in two. Jerwood Charity continues the revenue grants and prizes with a yearly subvention of £1.4m, particularly ‘to encourage, empower and reward young talent in the arts and other disciplines’. Not only are these what might be called the usual candidates – fine art (from which has spawned the Jerwood Art Collection), crafts, dance, music, literature, education, medicine, social and environmental issues – but it has given money, for example, to script writers and stage designers, circus artists, poets, jazz musicians, and letter cutters in stone. Anything good, it seems, goes.
At least 20 major capital projects, for concert halls, theatres, especially the Royal Court, studios, rehearsal venues, libraries, museums, exhibition spaces, and even a training ship for Sea Cadets, have been funded by the rather confusingly named other half, the Jerwood Foundation. The first was the highly successful conversion of a derelict Victorian building in Southwark into the Jerwood Space, completed at a cost of £3m in 1998. It provided five rehearsal studios, art gallery, sculpture courtyard and café, and revolutionised dance facilities in the capital. More than 300 companies used the space in the first six years, so it had to be extended. In 2002 the foundation provided £2m for the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) to build the Jerwood Medical Education Centre, carefully designed to blend with the surrounding Nash architecture. This, the largest charitable sum the RCP had ever received, arose because of the friendship of Alan Grieve with Michael Tibbs, former RCP secretary, who introduced him to the then president, Sir Bill Hoffenberg. Grieve, who was already funding medical schemes, was made a fellow, and now serves on the board of trustees. Other major initiatives have been completed in Aldeburgh, Hastings, Ipswich, West Sussex and the Lake District.
In the last two decades the Jerwood Foundation has dispensed nearly £80m. Such largesse has been fired not only by financial expertise, but by a love of the humanities, a respect for education and faith in the young. Unfortunately practical matters sometimes get in the way. For instance, recipients of grants from national bodies like the Lottery Fund may have to raise a sum of money themselves before the project can be completed. Grieve recognised that this could cause difficulties in finding the money, so he immediately responded by starting a rapid response to provide money at short notice. I often wondered why the Jerwood Sculpture Park had moved to Ragley Hall in 2004. ‘English Heritage [insisted] that planning permission be applied for in respect of the siting of each individual sculptureé’ ‘There was meeting after meeting’ recalls Grieve, ‘and miles of red tape. It certainly wasn't the Jerwood way of doing things'.
- Royal College of Physicians
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