#SaveProspectCottage : supporting the Campaign to save DEREK JARMEN's Home

The late great Derek Jarman who died in 1994 aged just 52 was so much more than a queer auteur. This remarkable Brit was a gay rights activist stage designer, diarist, artist, author. and gardener.

His enormous legacy is not just his ground-breaking films such as Sebastiane Jubilee T he Tempest Caravaggio Edward II and Blue but also his public fight for gay rights, and his personal struggle with AIDS.

As an avid and visionary gardener, Jarmen’s home in Dungeness on the Kent Coast was his pride and joy. The fairly nondescript village was dominated by an enormous Nuclear Power Station, and it’s only other claim to fame was its small light railway which could take you to the next village and back.

In 1986 when he was first diagnosed with HIV Jarmen bought Prospect Cottage one of the few Victorian fisherman’s; cottages and created in front of it a famous garden inspired by the surrounding coastal landscape of Dungeness

After Jarman purchased the cottage he turned it into a creative hub for himself and his collaborators. Prospect cottage quickly became a source of both solace and intense inspiration, a kind of sanctuary but also a place of high sociability for friends and collaborators. More than 25 years later the garden survives, and the cottage is still filled with works of art by Jarman and his friends and admirers, including Maggi Hambling, John Maybury, Gus van Sant, Richard Hamilton and others.

The cottage was facing the prospect of a private sale, following the 2018 death of Keith Collins, Jarman’s close companion in his final years, to whom he bequeathed the property. The UK’s Art Fund believes this would result in the loss of its contents — Jarman’s vast archive — and its artistic legacy so they have started a Campaign to save it for the Nation.

Oscar winning Actress TILDA SWINTON who was a regular Jarman collaborator has helped them launch their Campaign which wants to raise $4.6 million to save the legendary filmmaker’s home. It’s a place that is beautifully serene and calm and when you are there it so obvious how it both inspired Jarmen and gave him some peace and happiness in his final days.

Here’s a link to their Crowd Fund Campaign which explains in details on what exactly they need the money for, and how tio make a contribution. EVERY LITTLE HELPS.

QUEERGURU

#SaveProspectCottage : supporting the Campaign to save DEREK JARMEN’s Home