Suss-Ex Club shows early sketches
The University’s association for former staff has marked the 50th anniversary of Sussex with an exhibition of early sketches showing the construction of Falmer House.
“A number of people still remember the University's first year, 1961-62, but memories of the planning period before that are now rare indeed,” says Professor Charles Goldie, a member of the Suss-Ex Club’s steering group.
Barbara Shields, widow of the University's first Registrar, Ted Shields, arrived in 1959-60. While her husband worked from a temporary desk in Stanmer House she sketched the building of Falmer House nearby.
Barbara’s disclosure of the existence of these sketches, never before seen, provided the impetus for a small exhibition at an event on 13 April.
“Barbara remains to this day a busy and committed artist” says Charles, “and we also showed some more recent work of hers in order not to characterise her only by work of 50 years ago.”
A third strand came from some of her photographs of those days. The puzzle picture on this page turns out to be of a meeting of the University's Planning Committee in the Villa Serbelloni on Italy's Lake Como in the spring of 1968.
Historian Maurice Hutt, elegant in white shirt and cravat in the photo, recalls bringing to the meeting news of unrest in universities across Europe, and that his colleagues showed little interest.
This was despite the USA's internal quarrels over its war in Vietnam having brought Sussex its 'red paint incident' early that year (when a US diplomat visiting campus was doused in red paint by demonstrating students).
The Suss-Ex Club's anniversary event had started, courtesy of the Development and Alumni Office, with a screening of the documentary film A Golden Opportunity, which looks at Sussex after 50 years and as it was in the beginning.
All ex-staff are welcome to join the club's free mailing list: details are on its website.