Alumni and staff join with Hollywood icons to raise funds for Attenborough Centre
Alumni and staff have joined forces with Hollywood legends to raise more than £100,000 for the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts.
The Gardner Arts Centre, now known as the Attenborough Centre for Creative Arts
A campaign to pay tribute to former Chancellor Lord (Richard) Attenborough seeks funds to help restore and equip the former Gardner Arts Centre, which will re-open in 2015 as the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts.
A recent e-appeal to alumni and former staff has received an overwhelming response – generating over 35 pledges within 48 hours and bringing the total raised to more than £100,000. And it is not too late for more staff and students to become involved.
Throughout Lord Attenborough's long association with Sussex, he has been particularly interested in the welfare of the Gardner building.
Delighted with the prospect of having his name attached to the new Centre, he has set out his vision for its future: “The Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts will provide an arena in which professional artists, the academic community and audiences can cross-fertilise, offering up the thrilling possibility of a uniquely rich and original range of events of the highest quality.
"I have no doubt that the Centre will make a significant contribution to media and performing arts education and practice for generations to come.”
The names of many of Lord Attenborough’s former colleagues, friends and admirers are also to be written into a typographic oil portrait of the former Chancellor.
Those who have given their name to the tribute and donated to the Centre include: Sir Ridley Scott; Steven Spielberg; Paul Greengrass; Sir Anthony Hopkins; Denzel Washington; Debra Winger; Robert Downey Jnr; Michael Douglas; Sam Neill; Sir Kenneth Branagh; Dame Judi Dench; Sir Ben Kingsley; Dame Maggie Smith; Sir Tom Stoppard; Lord Julian Fellowes; William Goldman; William Nicholson; Universal Pictures; Sony Entertainment; Warner Bros.; Pinewood Studios; MGM Studios; BAFTA; and Chelsea FC.
Lord Attenborough’s son, the acclaimed theatre director and Sussex alumnus Michael Attenborough, is delighted by the response: “My father's father was an extremely distinguished academic, his two younger brothers graduated from Cambridge, Dad instead went to RADA.
"So when, following my admission to Sussex, he was appointed first Pro Chancellor then Chancellor of the University, he finally felt (to his immense pleasure and relief!) that his education was complete and that my grandfather would finally be looking down with genuine pride.
"His 10 years as Chancellor gave him great joy and satisfaction and I can tell you that he is hugely touched that the University's arts centre is now to be named after him - particularly as he was its very first Chairman back in 1970.
"The fact that so many of his close friends and colleagues have given so generously and added their distinguished names to his portrait is the most glorious icing on the cake. He and I are immensely grateful to each and every one of them.
"Finally, there is precious added significance to both of us that the Centre is to bear our family name; my beloved, late, younger sister Jane, who perished along with her daughter Lucy, will also be commemorated in the dedicated room within the Centre that is to bear her name.”
Campaign Manager, Mary Connolly says: “When the portrait is completed later this year, it will be placed at the heart of the new Centre, a testament to the contribution the Attenborough family has made to arts and humanities at the University and beyond, and a record for perpetuity of the respect and admiration felt for our former Chancellor Lord Richard Attenborough - legendary film maker and human rights activist.”
There are still some places left in the portrait. Any staff or students who would like to play a part in this tribute and in the establishment of the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts can contact Mary on m.connolly@sussex.ac.uk or contact the Alumni Office on 01273 878258.