Dear all
At the Britten-Pears Foundation in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, we will be celebrating the centenary of the birth of composer Benjamin Britten on Friday 22nd Nov. The Foundation has undertaken numerous exciting projects this year to celebrate Britten’s centenary, including the completion of a new Archive building and permanent exhibition.
The new Archive was officially opened by Dame Janet Baker on 14 June and comprises reading room, staff offices, sorting room, audio-visual digitisation work room, and strong rooms. The two strong rooms are raised from the ground floor level to protect from flooding. The audio-visual strong room is air conditioned whereas the paper and art store has a passively controlled environment achieved through a thermally massive and well insulated structure. The building was designed by architects Stanton Williams and engineers were Max Fordham.
If you would like to find out more, as well as see some images of the building, please see Stanton Williams web site http://www.stantonwilliams.com/projects/britten-pears-archive/
an online article in the de zeen magazine http://www.dezeen.com/2013/07/07/britten-pears-archive-by-stanton-williams/
or the Europaconcorsi website http://europaconcorsi.com/projects/235794-Britten-Pears-Archive
Technical details concerning the design of the strong room block can be found here - http://www.bdonline.co.uk/britten-pears-archive-by-stanton-williams-architects/5057478.article
The Foundation has recreated Britten’s composition studio and opened a new permanent exhibition introducing Benjamin Britten and his music with objects and archives from its collections. Images can be found on the above web sites as well as the Foundation’s own website http://www.brittenpears.org/.
These projects were kindly supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund (http://www.hlf.org.uk/news/Pages/Britten-PearsArchive.aspx).
The Red House site will be open to visitors over the coming centenary weekend; details on how to visit then, as well as at other times of the year, can be found on the Foundation’s website.
Best wishes
Judith Ratcliffe
Archivist
Britten–Pears Foundation
The Red House, Golf Lane, Aldeburgh, Suffolk, IP15 5PZ
Main Office line 01728 451700
www.brittenpears.org
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