John Lane
We are very sorry to announce that John Lane died on Friday 17th August 2012.
John Lane was an inspirational artist and writer. He dedicated over 40 years of his life to Dartington, first at Beaford in North Devon, then as a trustee and then as Chairman of the Trust, succeeding John Pontin.
John first became involved in Dartington in 1966. At that time he was appointed to open a new arts centre as part of the Trust’s North Devon project, alongside the newly established Dartington Glass company. Contrary to the ideas of the trustees who appointed him, John decided that what a rural area needed was not centre but a hub, Beaford was set up therefore as what is now known an ‘outreach’ arts project. But it was the first of its kind in this country and John was the father of that idea. The ‘centre’ at Beaford itself was very small, but it was all that was needed to conduct an extensive arts programme involving the entire North of Devon community, over an area of some 1000 or so square miles.
In 1974 John was invited by Leonard Elmhirst’s successor as Chairman, Maurice Ash, to come to South Devon and become a trustee and become active in the work at Dartington. This he did while continuing to live in North Devon and maintaining his life and work there.
John served as a trustee between 1974 and 2000, including two years as the Chairman of Trustees; and was instrumental in the creation of Schumacher College. John also held positions as the Chairman of the Gardens Advisory Committee, Director of the Dartington Trading Company Limited and a member of the Schumacher College Foundation.
His lasting impact on our physical environment also includes the welcome that greets all visitors to the courtyard at Dartington – the Outer Courtyard. John commissioned the redesign of this space from Georgie Wolton in 1992 and today it remains largely as then.
John’s particular value on the trustee Board was as a person with his own distinct ideas of where Dartington should be aiming towards the Elmhirsts’ goal of ’the fuller life’. Maurice Ash was a philosopher, Michael Young a social engineer, John was a poet and artist. All three had points where they converged or diverged. So at times the debate among the trustee Board became a battle ground for their differing and often conflicted priorities. Their saving grace was that they frequently broke up into laughter at each other’s stubbornness, and although the conflict was real it was among friends. John was an essential part of that.
Like chairmen of the Trust before him and after him he tried to capture what Dartington was about and should be about. Like others he found it to be a task where it is not any single goal but the “journey” that matters, together with the quality of intention that must lie behind all the work of the Trust.
If there were any prizes for dedication to Dartington, John would be a strong contender. But there is no such prize. We can only remember him with enormous gratitude and love for being himself and his life of dedicated work for the Trust.
Christopher Zealley August 2012