Post by Pembroke College, Cambridge

We want to wish the National Heritage Memorial Fund a very happy 45th anniversary! As a funder of last resort, the Memorial Fund steps in to save heritage when it matters most and since 1980, it has saved over 1,400 iconic objects, places and landscapes throughout the UK. In 2020, the Memorial Fund generously helped Pembroke to acquire the archive of British-born, Irish-based expressionist artist and fisherman Barrie Cooke (1931-2014). The archive consists of letters, poems and other writing from his creative friendships with many poets, writers and painters, including Seamus Heaney, Pembroke alumnus Ted Hughes and John Montague, and 150 images he made in response to their work. The archive is at the heart of Living Water: Poetry, Art and the Fight for Clean Rivers, a major new public exhibition Pembroke is hosting in partnership with Cambridge University Library. It is a deep dive into this extraordinary decades-long creative relationship between Barrie Cooke and this circle of friends. It explores how water, pristine and polluted, troubled and clear, brought them together and compelled their imaginations. Image: Barrie Cooke, ‘Seamus Heaney poem’ (2005), reproduced with permission of The Estate of Barrie Cooke. #NationalHeritageMemorialFund #PembrokeCollegeCambridge #LivingWater Department for Culture, Media and Sport