The Topolski Memoir Appeal

·         Visual record of the personalities and the social and political events of the 20^th century including WWII,  Belsen and the Nuremburg Trials, Gandhi and Martin Luther King,  Mao's China, Swinging '60's London, Elvis Presley and the Vietnam War.

·         A personal and often satirical ‘summing up’ of the great public events, the societies Feliks explored and the encounters that shaped his life.

·         The Memoir was given to the nation in 1984 and Feliks was still working on it at the time of his death in 1989.

·         The Memoir was painted and is still housed in railway arches next to Royal Festival Hall on London’s South Bank.

·         It is now in need of urgent restoration.

The Memoir Appeal is an ambitious, carefully costed plan to achieve the following aims:

• To provide unique flexible learning resource centre for artists, schools and the local community.
• To create a multi-media ‘Centre of the 20^th Century’ offering a unique experience and a personal insight into our recent history. 
• To invite guest curators of international repute to use the themes of the Memoir to tell our global story in vivid and innovative ways. 
• To improve facilities and access to the Memoir so that visitors can fully appreciate, enjoy and understand the Memoir.
• To upgrade the presentation and interpretation of the Memoir.

Conservation work has begun in 2007 and structural work in 2008 and the newly restored Memoir will open in 2009.

·         The Appeal aims to raise £3 million (£1.5 million from public sources and £1.5 million from individuals, trusts and foundations).

·         The Waterloo Project Board has provided £350,000 in support of the Memoir as a valuable local asset.  

·         A Heritage Lottery Application for £1 million was successful in March 2006 - and is matched from other sources. 

·         Publisher Felix Dennis has generously supported the costs of two curators.

·         The South Bank Centre is providing support totalling £50,000 per annum. 

·         As of May 2008, 85 per cent of the appeal has been raised with 400,000 pounds still required  

For further information, please contact: Jane Hellings, Topolski Memoir Ltd, c/o ABL Cultural Consulting, 31 St Martin’s Lane, London WC2N 4ER

The Topolski Memoir is a registered charity no 1103516