The exciting one-year project to catalogue the collection of sculptor Dame Elisabeth Frink, who spent the last 16 years of her life in Dorset at Woolland, near Blandford Forum, has now been running for three months. Project Archivist, David Johnston-Smith, has now designed a catalogue structure and is currently working his way through the approximately 110 boxes of material, repackaging as he goes. He is currently cataloguing the paper records, which make up nearly two thirds of the collection.
The extensive photographic material will be even more time consuming and challenging to catalogue, and in due course the Dorset History Centre will be advertising for volunteers to assist in this part of the project. It is hoped that they will be able to undertake some preliminary sorting, arranging and repackaging, thereby freeing up the Archivist to do the cataloguing itself.
An invitation event, organised by the Dorset Archives Trust, was held at the Dorset History Centre in November to raise funds for a secure case to hold some small Frink pieces that were received as part of the collection. With funding for this successfully raised, it is hoped that these will soon be on display for members of the public to enjoy, and to promote the wider archive itself.
The archive will be of great use to Frink enthusiasts and researchers, and Dorset History Centre has already received enquiries from several galleries and auction houses concerning material that is held here. Indeed, the Project Archivist, with notes from Annette Ratuszniak, retired Curator of the Frink Estate, spoke in January at an event at Christie’s, London, prior to a major auction which will include several major Frink sculptures.
It is hoped that a programme of oral history recordings of people with either personal or professional connections to Frink can be undertaken. These can then be stored in our digital repository and will add yet another important strand to this internationally significant archival collection.
The expectation is that cataloguing will be complete by early Autumn 2020, and it will be available online through the Dorset History Centre website shortly after that. Please do keep an eye on our website, Twitter feed and subsequent newsletters in order to follow progress of the project.