Coniston Institute & Ruskin Museum 2021 Review by Vice Chair, Jeff Carroll
As 2021 draws to a close, it caused me to look back and review what we have achieved in the past year.
The Coniston Institute Music concerts and other events have been somewhat curtailed this year by both Covid restrictions – possibly will be affected again in early 2022, who knows?! And also, weather in the late autumn when Storm Arwen caused a power cut across the whole area for over 72 hours. There is a good programme of events coming up, keep an eye on the Coniston Institute Music Venue Facebook page for details of these!
The very wet weather in October also caused us some issues with a leak which proved difficult to fix, meaning we had to call-off the Evening with the Campbells dinner and auction event.
There have been other successful events in the Institute this year, the Vintage Fair had its customary summer run and was very popular, there were weddings and other parties proving that for many, the Institute is still the go to place for celebrations and other events, and long may it continue.
There was also the successful book launch by Dr Rosalind Rawnsley about her Great Grandfather Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley, one of the instigators of the National Trust, alongside her talk on Ruskin and “Work with Joy – Rawnsley, Ruskin and the Keswick School of Industrial Arts”
2021 was the 120th anniversary of the Ruskin Museum and with a busy schedule of events, we hope we have done the original team behind the Ruskin Museum proud and Mr Collingwood would approve!
The Museum has had some successful exhibitions, building on its reputation following Laure Prouvost’s Turner Prize winning display of “Wantee”, which rather scarily is over 8 years ago now! Both Daniel Cooper’s & Keith McSherry’s exhibitions were very well received and proved to be a hit for people wanting to view and purchase works from these talented artists, and for the artists themselves.
The Museum’s focus of course throughout 2021 was on the Campbell 100 – commemorating 100 years since the birth of Donald Campbell CBE.
To mark and honour Donald’s 100th Birthday we were able to arrange an RAF Flypast by 2 Hawks from IV(AC) Sqn at RAF Valley, which coincided with Donald’s daughter, Gina Campbell QSO laying a wreath in her father’s memory. We also released a Q&A session online with Gina talking to radio & TV presenter (and Campbell fan) Andy Kershaw, which again was well-received.
In July we presented a hastily put together Regatta of radio-controlled boats, again featuring Andy Kershaw as MC. Due to the uncertainty around Covid regulations, we weren’t even sure we would be able to hold the event, but it went ahead and was very popular despite not being able to run the boats above 10 mph. We hope to repeat it in 2022 but with an exemption, so hopefully those enthusiasts with boats capable of well over the limit will come and show us what their models can really do!
September saw us with another event to mark another of Donald’s records – we had a Day with Gina complete with hog roast sandwiches and afternoon tea. The weather in Coniston was fickle – those Campbell aficionados out there will recognise this, we also had a backdrop of fuel shortages to contend with, but everyone who came had a great day, Gina gave several talks, one alongside Anthony “Robbie” Robinson which was an amazing insight into the K7 team in 1966/67. Gina even asked me to join her and her partner Brian for the last talk of the day, which was something of a privilege!
I mentioned the proposed Dinner & auction event in November which sadly had to be cancelled, the terrible weather in late October resulted in a leak which was problematical to fix, and we couldn’t take the chance that it wouldn’t be fit to accept guests from round the country, so we had to make a call early-on to allow people to make other plans or at least reclaim deposits on accommodation.
In November, members of the Museum Trustee board and staff were honoured to be invited to a commemorative afternoon Tea at The Savoy in London to mark the passing of Donald Campbell’s widow, Tonia Bern-Campbell in June.
The Museum was also able to launch some commemorative items to mark Campbell 100, pin badges, neck warmers/multi-wraps and very nice cufflinks and pin badges made using some original metal from Bluebird K7 (available from Icarus Originals)
There’s also some VERY special prints of Paul Allonby’s wonderful black & white photos from the 1966/67 Bluebird K7 World Water Speed record campaign on very modern looking mounts, as well as prints of the wonderful Tim Skett paintings, made possible by the Skett Family alongside Dave Ashton, Brian Millin and Alan Bunter of Remous Ltd, thanks all for your support!
We still have these for sale so if your Christmas money is burning a hole in your pocket, it’s well worth a look to see if there’s something you’d like for your posh days out or your man (or woman) cave!
2021 also marked the Museum trying to make progress on the vexing situation regarding Bluebird K7. Much has been written and said about the Museum’s position and I don’t propose to get into it too deeply here. Anyone with an interest is more than welcome to review the information on the Museum website and /or the Facebook page.
What I would like to do though is to thank all those who have supported the Museum throughout, and there are many. There have also been detractors, inevitable in the circumstances and to those all I can say is rest assured we have the best interests of Bluebird K7 at heart and we have the absolute backing of the Campbell Family Heritage Trust in our actions.
Hopefully 2022 will see the matter progress towards the right outcome where Bluebird K7 is in what is indisputably her spiritual home, only a few hundred yards away from her Skipper.
I’ll leave you with a little teaser though as we have some exciting news of a new exhibit which we will be unveiling on Tuesday 4th January as part of the marking of 55 years since Donald Campbell’s fatal crash on Coniston Water. It’s VERY Campbell related and should prove popular with the real Campbell connoisseurs!
Finally, from all at the Ruskin Museum and Coniston Institute, we would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year!
Jeff Carroll
Vice Chair – Coniston Institute & Ruskin Museum
