21 April 2010
Keats House launches charitable foundation
A charity which will support and promote educational work at
Keats House was launched this week (Monday 19 April).
The Keats House Foundation will be responsible for creating a
network of supporters in the UK and USA who will help to promote
educational programmes and fundraise for projects such as creative
schools partnerships with poets, writers and artists. The
Foundation will also be involved with cultural projects such as the
establishment of a Keats Poetry Prize for new writing and will
develop partnership programmes with other organisations to promote
the writing and appreciation of poetry.
Renowned Keats scholar Professor Nicholas Roe, Professor of
English at the University of St Andrews, will Chair the
Foundation.
Professor Roe said: "I first visited Keats House back in 1969.
I’ve returned many times since then, drawn by the physical presence
of this beautiful house and garden where Keats wrote so much of his
greatest poetry.
"Now wonderfully restored to appear as it did when Keats lived
here, the House is the ideal centre for visitors from around the
world to encounter, enjoy and learn about this great English
poet.
"The Keats House Foundation has planned an exciting educational
programme of talks, readings, conferences and much more, and as the
Foundation’s first Chairman I’m delighted to have this opportunity
to further Keats’ fortunes in the 21st Century."
The Foundation was launched at a Keats event organised by Poet
in the City at Kings Place, London on 19 April, where other
speakers included former poet laureate and acclaimed Keats
biographer Sir Andrew Motion.
Keats House, which is run by the City of London Corporation, has
also appointed a new Poet in Residence. Rommi Smith, who was
Parliamentary Writer in Residence, will visit the house throughout
April and May to work on writing a sequence of new poems, which
will explore the themes and forms resonant in Keats’ own work, and
how they are reflected in the 21st Century.
During her time as Poet in Residence, Rommi will also run poetry
writing workshops and help create educational resources for
visitors to use in the House to help them create their own
poems.
And Diana Bishop, poet, author and the first Poet in Residence
at Keats House in 2002, will return to the House this year as
Reader in Residence. She will be focusing on poetry as spoken word
and will train the House’s volunteer Poetry Ambassadors.
These positions will be part of a summer programme of education
events funded by the Magic Casements grant from Heritage Lottery
Fund, which paid for the recent refurbishment of the House.
Ends
Notes to editors
- Keats House is open to the public Tuesday – Sunday, 1-5pm
(until 31 October 2010). Entry charge: £5/£3 concessions. For
further information on events or background on Keats and the House,
go to www.keatshouse.cityoflondon.gov.uk
- Press enquiries:
Lesley Mair, Press Office, City of London Corporation
Tel 020 7332 3639 / Mobile 07785 528 453
Email
lesley.mair@cityoflondon.gov.uk
- About the City of London Corporation:
The City of London Corporation is a uniquely diverse organisation.
It supports and promotes the City as the world leader in
international finance and business services and provides local
services and policing for those working in, living in and visiting
the Square Mile. It also provides valued services to London and the
nation. These include the Barbican Centre and the Guildhall School
of Music & Drama; the Guildhall Library and Art Gallery, Keats
House and London Metropolitan Archive; a range of education
provision (including three City Academies); five Thames bridges
(including Tower Bridge and the Millennium Bridge); the Central
Criminal Court at Old Bailey; over 10,000 acres of open spaces
(including Hampstead Heath and Epping Forest), and three wholesale
food markets. It is also London’s Port Health Authority and runs
the Animal Reception Centre at Heathrow. It works in partnership
with neighbouring boroughs on the regeneration of surrounding areas
and the City Bridge Trust, which it oversees, donates more than
£15m to charity annually.