Dear Friend,
In 2014 you signed the historic petition that helped us to save the Warburg Institute.
You may have seen the good news that the issues we faced have been resolved. The Warburg is secure as an independent institution within the University of London and we now have new opportunities to shape its future.
Brooke Palmieri and I have spoken and agreed that we would send this message. We both want to say how much we appreciate your support and to invite you to stay involved with the Warburg.
I am writing to introduce myself as the Institute’s Director (since 2017) and to update you on developments since the petition. I hope this message will serve as both a belated thank-you and a call to action. We’d like to invite you to sign up as a Friend of the Warburg: this will enable us to keep you informed about news and developments at the Institute. If you choose not to sign up, this will be the last email update you receive from the Warburg Institute relating to the petition due to data protection regulations.
The Petition: Preserving our Past
I was among those who signed the petition against the mounting threats to the Institute in 2014. Having since become its Director, I can tell you from the inside how important the large number of signatories was for our victory in the court case.
The judgment clarified the issues and allowed the University of London to reaffirm its commitment to the Warburg Institute, its collections, its staff and its building. I am delighted to say that the relationship between the Institute and the University of London is now as strong as it has ever been—forward-facing, collaborative and taking advantage of our shared resources to ensure that the Institute continues to flourish.
The Warburg Today: The Future of Cultural Memory
As a result, the Warburg has gone from strength to strength. Our library and photo collections are growing and our courses and publications are producing scholarship at the highest level. Even in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic we have seen the numbers of our MA programmes double for 2020/21; and as our events programme has moved online it is easier than ever to join us for lectures and conferences—wherever you are.
September also saw the opening of two historic exhibitions in Berlin, both devoted to Aby Warburg’s legendary Bilderatlas Mnemosyne. Warburg’s unfinished magnum opus set out to track motifs, myths and memories across time and space. Its 971 images, mounted on 63 cloth-covered panels, have been stored for nearly a century in the Institute’s collections: curators Roberto Ohrt and Axel Heil have worked with staff at the Warburg to reconstruct the entire Atlas, using Warburg’s original working materials, for the first time since 1929, showing it at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt [HKW] and publishing a lavish facsimile edition with Hatje Cantz. The Gemäldegalerie in Berlin has also assembled a parallel exhibition with 50 original artworks (from 10 Berlin museums) chosen by Warburg for inclusion in his Atlas.
The current restrictions on travel will prevent many people from sharing this Warburgian moment, so we have worked (thanks to the support of the Warburg Charitable Trust) to create a complete Virtual Tour that will allow you to experience both exhibitions from afar. It will be launched on the Institute’s website imminently.
The Warburg Renaissance: The Future of our Historic Building
Last year we launched the Warburg Renaissance, an intellectual and architectural project that will help us to keep creating the access to the past that we must have in order to transform the future. As Aby Warburg and his brothers knew, libraries do not build themselves. Our much-loved but long-neglected historic home on Woburn Square has not been renovated since it was built in 1957.
The Warburg Renaissance will create in London’s 21st-Century Knowledge Quarter the interdisciplinary laboratory that Aby Warburg dreamed of in early 20th-century Hamburg. We are working with Stirling Prize-winning architects Haworth Tompkins on exciting designs for the renovation of the entire building and its extension into the courtyard. The project will not only improve our spaces for collections, students and visiting fellows but will introduce a new public hub on the ground floor, with a greatly expanded lecture room and the Institute’s first gallery for physical and digital exhibitions. These developments will guarantee the Warburg’s ongoing role as a catalyst for academic and artistic partnerships and a beacon for international collaboration.
The overall budget is £14.5 million and we are extremely fortunate that as a result of the resolution of the lawsuit, the University of London has provided the core budget for the project with a contribution of £9.5 million. The Warburg community has to raise the remaining £5 million. We have secured £2.6 million of this through the support of both major foundations and individual donors, and we have the rest of this academic year to raise the remaining £2.4m.
Staying in touch and continuing your support
We would like to invite you to join the community who are writing this exciting next chapter of our illustrious institution. We founded the Friends of the Warburg to bring together the many people who value the Institute, admire its history, benefit from its resources and want to secure its future.
We hope that you will use this group to continue your interest and involvement in the Warburg. To be absolutely clear: becoming a friend is entirely free and has no obligations. We simply would like to be able to keep in touch about news and developments at the Institute and invite you to our programme of events, as well as to the courses that we offer.
We also invite you to consider becoming a Muse—by pledging a gift and joining one of our recognition circles. All donations go directly to our independent Warburg Charitable Trust, a UK registered charity with its own board of trustees, and will be used entirely to support the Institute and the Warburg Renaissance. We have ways to enable tax-efficient giving from the US and Europe as well. If you have questions, please reach out to me or to Lewis Jones who administers the Friends of the Warburg.
Together we can shape the future of cultural memory.
Bill Sherman
Director
The Warburg Institute