Antony Penrose is gifting Farleys House and Gallery to a new charity, appointing a board of trustees to secure the Surrealists’ former home.
Farleys House and Gallery, the former home of photographer Lee Miller and Surrealist artist Roland Penrose, is to be run by a newly formed charity.
Antony Penrose, son of Miller and Penrose and co-director of Farleys, is giving the entirety of the house, galleries and wider site to the charity, Farleys House & Gallery Trust.
Farleys was bought in 1949 by Roland Penrose as a place of recuperation for Lee Miller following the Second World War. It became a place where artists including Pablo Picasso, Leonora Carrington, Joan Miró and Dorothea Tanning visited and worked. It became the headquarters of the Lee Miller Archives in 1984.
Antony Penrose said: ““Growing up at Farleys I was unaware of how exceptional my circumstances were. Little by little, I began to realise that not everybody had some of the most famous artists of the time among their family friends; it’s even more exciting in retrospect.
“The last 50 years have been an incredible journey; we’ve had huge disappointments and major triumphs. With the plateau achieved with the V&A, the film [LEE] and the Tate, our next step is to secure our heritage but to also keep moving forwards.”
The board of trustees includes Patrick Elliott, chief curator of modern and contemporary art at the National Gallery; Amanda Nevill, former chief executive of the BFI; Sarah Hopwood, a chartered accountant involved in managing Glyndebourne; Eliza Penrose, head conservator at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū; tax advisor Chris Erwood; and Farleys co-directors Antony Penrose and Ami Bouhassane.
Ami Bouhassane, co-director and granddaughter of Lee Miller, said: “In the current climate where arts funding is in crisis, this transition feels necessary. We hope that becoming a charity will encourage people to donate and share in safeguarding Farleys. Forgoing what might have been my inheritance was not a decision taken lightly but I believe in my heart it is the best way to preserve Farleys and care for the legacies of Lee Miller and Roland Penrose for the future.”
Farleys became the headquarters of the Lee Miller Archives after Antony Penrose discovered his mother’s photographs and manuscripts in the attic. The house, galleries and sculpture garden are open seasonally from April to October. The charity says it aims to secure an endowment fund and will launch a conservation campaign for items in its collection.
