Digswell Arts Trust

Minutes and Agendas; Account; Correspondence; Property; Digswell Fellows; Exhibitions and Events; Advertising; Photographs; Miscellaneous

The records were received by Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies in some disarray. Many are in very poor condition. Much more work is needed to effectively sort the material. An administrator was appointed by the Trust in 1974 to deal with correspondence and raise funds for the benefit of the Trust. Sadly due to financial difficulties on the part of the Trust he left in 1982 when the chairman (then Mike Hughes) took on more of the administrator's duties.

The Digswell Arts Trust was founded in 1957 by the influence of the educational innovator Henry Morris. Digswell House, Welwyn Garden City was leased from the Commission for the New Towns and adapted into studios for artists (fellows) and their families to live and work. As an educational charity one of the Trust's main aims is to contribute directly to artistic creativity by providing facilities at the lowest possible cost to artists and craftsmen at a formative stage in their careers. The fellows are chosen for their ability by a panel of distinguished experts and are supported by the Trust in their applications for grants and other sources of funding. The Gordon Maynard Gallery, 22 Parkway, Welwyn Garden City was opened by the Trust in November 1964 (now closed) to exhibit fellows' work and bring their activities to the centre of the Garden City community. The Trust no longer occupies Digswell House but has premises at the Attimore Barn, Ridgway, Welwyn Garden City and Fairlands Valley Farm, Stevenage where studios are provided for craftsmen to work. Henry Morris (1889-1961) as the Cambridgeshire Education Officer in the 1920s planned that county's chain of Village Colleges and community schools well known today. He was also a pioneer of new standards and ideas about the design, decorating and furnishing of schools. Highly enthusiastic about the arts, his ambition was to see living arts centres take their proper place in community education. He joined the New Towns Commission in 1946 and the Digswell community of artists was the first to be established as a model for others to follow.