31 March 2010
Dear Alumni and Friends of Emerson College,
On Saturday 27 March 2010, current and former students, faculty, staff and friends of Emerson College gathered to remember and celebrate the College and to bring the impulse founded and carried by Francis and ElizabethEdmunds andtheir successors to a close. An account of the day follows below.
The day was preceded by a week that alumni would have recognized from their own experience and enjoyed: the last sessions of the Monday Night Study groups, a glowing performance of Storytelling on the theme of good and evil on Tuesday and on Thursday a varied and thought provoking exhibition of the Visual Arts students and the Installation Art of the Sculpture students. There were vivid testaments to the learning and transformation that individual students, student cohorts and their teachers undergo in the process of studying, teaching and living in the Emerson Community, and a glowing mood of achievement and gratitude for what was lived once more. Friday morning we celebrated the end of term, and the provisional graduation of the Visual Arts and Sculpture students. In the afternoon, the second year biodynamic students graduated with a National Certificate in Agriculture, and the first year students a National Award in Agriculture.
So what will happen now to the courses that were taught at Emerson College? All of the current courses plan to continue under the direct auspices of the course leaders:
The UK Biodynamic Agriculture Association (BDAA) has announced that it has takenArjen Huese’sBiodynamic Agriculture courseunder its wing, and it is therefore secured for the future, though the venue is as yet uncertain. Student numbers are growing rapidly, and in September Arjen will launch an additional accredited course in BD Horticulture. Please contact Arjen for further information on www.rachelcarson.org.uk
Rudolf Kaesbach is planning to continue to offer the Visual Arts and Sculpture training that he built up at Emerson College. For further information, please contact Rudolf directly on
The School of Storytellingwith Ashley Ramsden, Sue Hollingsworth and Roi Gal-Or will continue its work and can be reached for further information on www.schoolofstorytelling.com. All their courses will run as usual and you can book by emailing
And finally, the part-time Education course ‘Teaching As An Art’, taught by Angela Querido and Martin Hardiman, has re-launched itself as West of England Steiner Teacher Training (WESTT) with a website at www.westt.org.uk
Much of the work that was developed at Emerson College can therefore live on, for which we can all be truly grateful.
Saturday 27 March 2010
Never mind the ridicule, never mind defeat;
Up again old heart! - it seems to say,
There is victory yet for all justice...
Trust thyself; every heart vibrates to that iron string.
Accept the place the divine providence has found for you,
The society of your contemporaries, the connection of events.
The Great have always done so,
And confident themselves to the genius of their age,
Perceiving that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart,
Working through their hands, pre-dominating all their being.
And we now must accept in the highest mind
The same transcendent destiny
Obeying the Almighty effort
And advancing on the Chaos and the Dark.
from Experience and Self-Reliance
Selected Essays
by
Ralph Waldo Emerson
A group of some 150 Emerson College alumni,staff and friends gathered in Ruskin Hall to celebrate the College’s achievements, to honour all those who had worked and studied there and to release the founding impulse back to the spiritual world. The day was led by Annie Blampied who was a student and Faculty member at Emerson in the 1980s and 90s, and by Ashley Ramsden who studied here in the 1970s and subsequently founded the School of Storytelling at Emerson College. Candles were lit by John Thomson and Paul Matthews’ grand-daughter Leah, the verse quoted above wasread by Louise Coigleyand Annie and Ashley introduced the format of the day. Emilie Salvesen then presented apologies from Ann Druitt (Co-Chair of the Council of the Anthroposophical Society of Great Britain) and expressed profound thanks to the Anthoposophical Society for their consistently open dialogue and support. She spoke of the College’s biography over the 18 months that she had been at Emerson College, and of the Trustees and Finance Directors she had worked with. Marc ter Kuile followed this with an account of the events that led to the closing of the College. At the time of writing the future of the Emerson campus is still uncertain.
Georg Locher then spoke to celebrate what had been achieved at Emerson College. This achievement will never be closed, or diminished, but will always live on. Central to Francis Edmunds’ impulse was the dignity of the human being and the renewal of thinking. He was a man of the future and when he spoke, the future had already begun. He spoke to the will of his listeners, and made them feel that they could make more of their human potential. Many took up this challenge, and the flame of Francis Edmunds’ work and of Emerson College has sparked to light many other flames which now live in impulses around the world.
After the address, NaamahPinkerfeld led community singing, Roswitha Spence read out a message of accompaniment from American alumni, andwith the help of Roi Gal-Or weshared remembering in small groups and then in the large gathering. Paul Matthews brought the Campus and its dwellers past and present to life through poetry and the morning concluded with Bach, played by Georg Locher, Peter Ramm and Simon Blaxland de Lange. Wethen visited favourite locations on the campus, where we encountered Roswitha Spence in the St. John’s garden, Francesca Josephson in the Library, John Wilkes in the Healing Water Institute, the Storytellers in the Storytelling Hut, Eurythmists in the Eurythmy House, and a delicious BBQ lunch on Tablehurst Farm.
In the afternoon we gathered for a story with Ashley, more singing, and the EVOEled by Glenys Watersat the heart of the College – the space between Pixton and Ruskin. Lastly, as we stood in a large circle, as the sun came out and a small posse of children played around the glistening puddles at the centre, Annie and Ashley invited us all to take into our hearts the blessings of the College, and release them into the universe for future good. We concluded the day with the verse of Rudolf Steiner:
I was united with you.
Stay now united in me.
So shall we speak together
In the language of eternal Being.
So shall we work together
Where deeds find their fulfillment
So shall we weave in the Spirit
Where human thoughts are woven
In the Word of eternal Thought.
Themany alumni and friends whoaccompaniedus in their thoughts were stronglypresent throughout andI hope this brief account will have given you a flavour of the day’s many moments.
Emerson College is now closed and all the staff except the Bursar have left. Unless the campus is sold very quickly, or an Administrator takes over, the Visual Arts and Sculpture, the part-time education and the StorytellingSchool will rent spaces to conclude the coursesthat were planned on the campus until the end of the academic year in June, maintaining the buzz and industry that has filled the campus for so long. TheEmerson Collegewebsite will give contact details for these independentcourses: www.emerson.org.uk
Warm greetings,
Emilie Salvesen
Director
Emerson College