The Impact of Giving

Throughout Girton’s history it has supported the arts, believing the opportunity to create, perform and experience art in all its forms to be an important part of the Collegiate University experience, both in terms of student mental health and for inspiring every student to develop creatively as an individual. The College is very grateful that a number of generous donations have enabled us to run ground-breaking creative initiatives that encourage our students to excel and which bring the arts to a wider audience in College and beyond.

The Jane Martin Poetry Prize

Girton has a strong poetic tradition, thanks to the works, amongst others, of Sarojini Naidu (Chattopâhyây, 1896, a member of the Rhymers’ Club alongside W B Yeats and Oscar Wilde, a suffragist, a campaigner for Indian Independence and the first Indian Woman President of the Indian National Congress), Kathleen Raine (1926, Founder of the Temenos Academy), Gwyneth Lewis (1978, National Poet of Wales), Adam Crothers (2002, awardwinning poet and commissioning editor of The Literateur) and Seán Hewitt (2009, academic and award-winning poet). This tradition is continued today through Girton’s Poetry Group and by the renowned Jane Martin Poetry Prize.

Established in 2010, in memory of Jane Elizabeth Martin (Classics, 1978) by her father, Professor Sir Laurence Martin, the Jane Martin Poetry Prize is a national poetry competition for young poets resident in the UK. The competition is managed with the support of the College’s English Fellowship, including the Jane Martin Fellow in English, Dr James Wade (a post also endowed by Sir Laurence).

The competition is judged by experts from across the literary world with previous judging panels including Hilary Davies, Adam Crothers, Jeremy NoelTod, Alex Huen and Holly Corfield-Carr.

Over the last ten years the reputation of the prize has grown considerably, raising the profile of Girton College in literary circles. Past winners include the academics Agnes Lehoczky, Jane Yeh and Andrew Wynn Owen, novelist Katie Hale and Sunday Times bestselling author Jen Campbell, while poems by past winner Nina Powles have been commissioned by the South Bank Centre and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.

Jane Elizabeth Martin (Classics, 1978)

This year in particular the Jane Martin Prize, and the Girton Poetry Group, have provided inspiration and solace to our students, as Harry Camp (2018) outlines below:

Girton is home to many hidden riches, not least of which is its dynamic community of poets. Four times a term, Fellows, staff and students of all disciplines come together for an evening of good humour and stimulating discussion under the auspices of the Girton Poetry Group. It is a testament to the efforts of this year’s leaders, Esther Shambira and Francesca Weekes, that we have been able to bring this warm and welcoming spirit to the virtual realm.

Harry Camp (English, 2018)

Ahead of each meeting, a specific form, theme, or series of stimulating quotations is offered to help spark ideas and invite experiment. All submissions are welcome and, characteristically for Girton, represent a dazzling variety of voices. Recent writing has startled, moved and amused us on a range of subjects, from the subtext of emails to the surface of the earth, from experiences in quarantine to cows along the A14.

The Jane Martin Poetry Prize is a cornerstone of our community. The Prize offers a unique opportunity for aspiring poets to learn from more experienced writers. You can find current undergraduate Francesca Weekes’ ‘Nightwatching’ in the Jane Martin Anthology, published last year. Carefully selected by Malcolm Guite and Grevel Lindop, there is something of Girton in each of these poems. It is a profound and enduring legacy that the Jane Martin Prize leaves for young poets, both at Girton and beyond.’

All this has been made possible by the generous support of Professor Sir Laurence Martin DL for both the Prize and our English Fellowship. We are truly grateful.

For more information on the Prize please see: www.girton.cam.ac.uk/lifegirton/arts

Professor Sir Laurence Martin

Ten Years of The Jane Martin Poetry Prize: Celebrating Prizewinning Poetry at Girton College

edited by Malcolm Guite and Grevel Lindop

This special anthology celebrates the 10th Anniversary of the Jane Martin Poetry Prize and includes a selection of poems from eminent Girtonian poets, both past and present, as well as the winning poems and new poems from the Jane Martin Poetry Prize winners. The book can be purchased from our online shop: shop.girton.cam.ac.uk/

The Artist in Residence Scheme

Supported by the Mead Foundation

Few could have envisaged the impact of having an Artist in Residence at Girton when the scheme was created in 2013, thanks to the generosity and vision of Suling Mead (Chan, 1975) and Dr Ruth Whaley (1974), with the aim of encouraging engagement between practising artists and any area of scholarship in the Collegiate University. A wide range of artists and disciplines have been supported since the scheme’s creation, with art works produced ranging from Colden Drystone’s dry stone wall in the College grounds, to Sonny Vadgama’s illumination of the outside of the Fitzwilliam Museum, to Simeon Barclay’s innovative photographic response to the social and cultural life of the College, to Yelena Popova’s tapestry celebrating the intention of Emily Davies to create a College that is ‘everything that is good for body, soul and spirit’. Each and every one of these artists has left their mark on both College and Cambridge.

But these art works are not the only legacy of the scheme. Because the appointed artist lives and works in College for an entire academic year, mingling with Fellows, staff and students on a day-to-day basis, every Artist in Residence has shaped the experiences and opportunities open to the Girton College community.

There are workshops, exhibitions, and related activities, setting the scene for a new genre of interdisciplinary artworks produced and inspired by the College setting, and allowing students, Fellows and staff, to learn new skills and to be inspired in their own creative endeavours.

This has been more important than ever during the current global pandemic, thanks to the hard work of the most recent holder of the residency, Luke Burton. Luke studied painting at Chelsea College of Art and Sculpture at the Royal College of Art, and has shown his work internationally. From Easter Term 2020 to date, when most of our students have been in College, Luke has continued to run a series of extremely popular Zoom art workshops as part of the College’s program for student wellbeing.

The impact of the workshops has been tremendous as one student explains:

It was an amazing release from work, it felt great to do something creative.

All of this would not have been possible without the generous ongoing support of Suling Mead through the Mead Foundation and we remain truly grateful to her, and to Ruth Whaley, for the amazing things this scheme has achieved.

Luke Burton

Luke Burton, Artist in Residence 2019-20

It is hard to put into words the profound impact this residency has had on my art practice and life in general. To have free accommodation and a large studio, a materials budget and a stipend have all meant I have not needed to seek external paid work during my stay. This not only takes away the fundamental precarity that being a self-employed person in the arts entails, but in turn, this new-found security allows for a bolder, more experimental and braver attitude to making, researching and collaborating. I have made more work during my residency (and work that I am pleased with) and read more books and articles than at any time in my life. I cannot overstate this—the security and sense of sanctuary the College provided me is something I will never fully repay. This alone would be enough but this is merely one facet of the residency. I have also made life-long friends at Girton, spoken to people whose intellectual and creative passions are seemingly acutely different to mine, but whose curiosity, openness and academic nimbleness have given me fresh perspectives on my own work.

By starting the Girton College Art Club and leading in person and virtual workshops, I have discovered a hive of creative endeavour. There are many staff, students, and alumni who are seriously engaged in making and thinking about art and the Club has been a useful platform to gather these interested parties. The drawing and collage workshops, very experimental in nature, were embraced by those who attended—many students found them a release from a particular kind of intellectual labour and academic pressures and enjoyed a different, more embodied, form of learning. It was also an opportunity to meet fellow artists (unbeknownst to them) and share their passions for the arts into the future.

Stimulating Dialogue Between Artists and Scientists

Supported by Dr Una Ryan (Scully, 1963)

The Crystalline Fireplace

Academic excellence in the sciences is nothing new to Girton, particularly in Physics. From Hertha Ayrton, to Helen Megaw, to Athene Donald, Girtonians have pushed the boundaries in the study of Physics. This is celebrated in our newest artist residency—the Science into Arts Programme. Formed in collaboration with the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge’s world famous department of Physics, it has been made possible by the generous donations of Dr Una Ryan OBE (Scully, 1963). Dr Ryan is a renowned scientist and entrepreneur, who has served as a former President and CEO of Diagnostics for All, Waltham Technologies and AVANT Immunotherapeutics and invests in women-led ventures.

Designed to stimulate a dialogue between excellent artists and excellent scientists, creating pioneering and innovative artistic output with visibility on an international stage, the scheme aspires to engage a non-traditional audience with limited science experience.

The first artwork celebrating this dialogue has a permanent home at College. It involved the creation of a new fire surround for the fireplace in the Porters’ Lodge. ‘The Crystalline Fireplace’ was designed by Yelena Popova (Artist in Residence at Girton College 2016–17), with the tiling created by Dave Langlois, The Victorian Tiler. Yelena’s work was inspired by the crystallography diagrams of former Vice-Mistress and Life Fellow Dr Christine McKie (Natural Sciences, 1949), and the mathematics behind Victorian tile tessellations.

We are truly grateful to Dr Una Ryan for making this exciting collaborative scheme possible.

Music at Girton

Girton is renowned for the richness and diversity of the opportunities to study, participate in and experience music, provided to students, Fellows, staff, alumni and members of the local community. Alongside Dr Martin Ennis, the Austin and Hope Pilkington Fellow in Music and Gareth Wilson, Director of Chapel Music, the College is fortunate to have Bye-Fellow Margaret Faultless, and three Musicians in Residence, Andrew Kennedy, Nicholas Mulroy and Jeremy West. Their collective talents and experience add considerably to the opportunities available to our students. In addition the College is rightly proud of our award-winning Chapel Choir.

Such unmatched provision for all those interested in music is only possible thanks to the generosity of the numerous donors who support our Music Fellowships, our music awards and our Choir. This year, for example, they have enabled the members of the Choir to have COVIDsecure individual singing lessons. In normal times donations help support the Choir on their tours. In the past these have been to countries as varied as Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Ireland, Spain, Slovakia and Switzerland. A tour to Australia enabled the Choir to sing on the set of Neighbours, while the tour to Israel and Palestine provided the opportunity to sing at an orphanage in Bethany and a refugee camp in Bethlehem. We remain very grateful to all our donors who have enabled students to have these musical opportunities.

Chapel Choir Recordings

The Choir has recorded several celebrated CDs. The most recent is MARC’ANTONIO INGEGNERI: MISSA LAUDATE PUERI DOMINUM, a pioneering recording which reveals Marc’Antonio Ingegneri (c. 1535/36–92 and perhaps best known as the teacher of Claudio Monteverdi) to have been one of the masters of his age, writing music of breathtaking richness and beauty. The recording features the Chapel Choir of Girton College, Cambridge and the Historic Brass of the Guildhall School and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

The Choir CDs can be purchased here: shop.girton.cam.ac.uk/ collections/girton-college-choir

Teaching and Research Fellowships

Thanks to the generous donations of our alumni and supporters it is with pleasure that we can announce that we have fully funded our tenth, eleventh and twelfth teaching and research Fellowships in perpetuity: the Juliet Campbell Fellowship (which has an international research theme and could be focused on any of the following related academic disciplines: Economics, History, Human, Social and Political Sciences, Geography, or Law), the Janet Harker Fellowship (for Biological Sciences) and the Bertha Jeffreys Fellowship (in Applied Mathematics).

The impact of securing a set of career positions for world-class scholars in perpetuity is considerable, not just for the College and its students, but also for the scholars themselves. Thank you.

Simone Maghenzani: Marilyn Strathern Official Fellow in History

Setting up a new online class, or writing up a new article, being the holder of the Marilyn Strathern Official Fellowship in History, one of the Girton endowed Fellowship posts, has allowed me in this complex 2020 to fully devote myself to Girton’s commitment to inclusive teaching and groundbreaking research, all underpinned by our well known ethos of care for our students. None of this would be possible without the kind generosity of our alumni who make donations.

Dr Simone Maghenzani