The Memorial Arts Charity was established in 1998, ten years after the founding of Memorials by Artists Ltd

The main objectives of The Memorial Arts Charity

To promote the arts and crafts associated with the making of memorials, particularly lettering and good design. The charity seeks to maintain and renew Britain's long tradition of letter carving in stone and wood in a way relevant to the twenty-first century, and addresses the lack of available training by running letter carving courses and an Apprenticeship Scheme.

Letter carving involves designing and drawing the letters, as well as carving them. Sensitive design of the letterforms and their layout is a crucial factor in determining the character of a piece of work. Many letter carvers undertake a wide range of work, which may include memorials, architectural lettering, public art and more experimental personal work of their own.

Current Projects:

1. Training Workshops: we organise training courses in letter carving (also referred to as lettercutting).
Further details on Training page

2. Apprenticeships: Our Apprenticeship Scheme was established in 2002 and was fully funded until the beginning of 2007 by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation. To date, four apprenticeships have been completed successfully. The Student is apprenticed to the Master for two years, after which the student might have a number of options, including being self-employed and continuing through our Journeyman scheme. We are seeking funding to allow more placements in the future. For further details, see Letter Carving Apprenticeships

3. Founding a National Collection of Contemporary Memorial Art: we are in the process of raising funds to commission fifty-five works to launch The Art & Memory National Collection. Almost all the works will be lettered and on a memorial theme and will include standing stones, headstones, lettered steps, bird baths, sculptures, an arched gate, letters in steel among trees, words cut into chalk on a hill, a fountain and a folly.
Further details please see Art & Memory Exhibition page.

4. Talks and Slide Shows: suitable for any group who may be interested in the memorial arts, eg. the clergy; monumental mason firms; cemetery officials; architects; bereavement organisations; Diocesan Advisory Committees; art schools; Public Arts forums; primary and secondary schools, etc.

'Information Packs' are available for anyone. They contain various items of information that we have collected together for anyone interested in finding out about training in letter carving and calligraphy. The pack includes flyers from several colleges and lettering associations in the UK plus information about a number of relevant books. Each pack costs £5 including p&p (£7 sterling ouside UK). Please make cheques payable to The Memorial Arts Charity.

Contacts:

For further information regarding any of the above, please use the email facility on the contacts page