Janet Frame Eden Street Trust Annual Report 31st May 2015

It is a pleasure to report on the 10^th year’s operation of 56 Eden Street where the mission is to celebrate Janet Frame, protect her childhood home and promote the appreciation of literature.

Tour Season

The property opened daily 2-4 pm from 1^st November 2014 until 30^th April 2015. 56 Eden Street is now a firmly established draw-card in the Oamaru Tourist scene and our feedback indicates that as far as book lovers are concerned a visit to the house where a famous author once lived is the reason they tarry in Oamaru. The result is that local motels and restaurants see more visitors which is good news for the local economy.

Dunedin’s designation as a UNESCO “City of Literature” in December 2014 recognises its importance as a creative hub internationally. This will no doubt lead to increased collaboration with other UNESCO cities of literature around the world and an increased international awareness of such cultural landmarks as 56 Eden Street.

Programmed Events

1.       June 27^th 2014: Philip Temple presented a lecture on the influences which moulded his writing. Once again the Oamaru Library was packed out and we record our thanks to them for their continuing and enthusiastic support for co-hosting such events.

2.       June 28^th 2014: Creative Writing lecturer Diane Browne led a workshop in the Waitaki Girls’ High School Learning Centre. The morning session was followed by lunch and further writing at Eden Street. This combination of venues has been found to provide exactly the right mix of formal teaching (whiteboards and desks) and the ambience of writing in the creative space of Janet Frame’s old home.

3.       1^st May 2015: A Celebration was held at Burnside Homestead to mark the tenth year of the Janet Frame Eden Street Trust opening the doors of Janet Frame’s childhood home to the public. Janet’s niece Pamela Gordon gave us ideas on her aunt’s favourite supper dishes and Burnside owner, chef extraordinaire and trustee Alison Albiston shaped a supper which reflected the era of the Frames’ occupation of 56 Eden Street. We were joined by Poet Laureate Vincent O’Sullivan, Sue Wootton, Owen Marshall and Roger Hall who gave inspired performances of their work. We record our appreciation of Burnside’s generosity in providing us with a venue which in Sue Wootton’s words “ seemed like a place where the imagination dwells… so fitting for a celebration of Frame.”

4.       1^st May 2015: Award-winning Dunedin poet Sue Wootton facilitated a writing workshop for 20 High School students.

5.       2^nd May 2015: A Poetry Workshop was taken by Vincent O’Sullivan and Sue Wootton for writers in the community.

Funding and Friends

The group of volunteers who take a turn each summer to welcome visitors to the house on Sundays gives our curator Lynley a day off each week and we thank them sincerely for helping to make our operation a success.

Subscriptions from Friends of the house are used to pay for house upkeep and we acknowledge the huge help which this represents to the organisation.

Thanks to trustee Karen Ross, a Capital fund appeal was launched to mark our tenth anniversary. This dedicated fund is to be called upon if the inevitable ravages of time take a toll on the heritage property which we manage. The generosity of our Friends and of the North Otago business community was outstanding and the Trust records its gratitude.

Grants to fund the operational costs of running the Trust have been made by the Otago Community Trust, the Lion Foundation and the Christie Trust. Such grants are the lifeblood of community projects such as ours and we record our gratitude for these donations. In addition, Creative Communities NZ (Waitaki) helps to fund the event programmes which we organise, thus fulfilling our mission to promote the love of literature in the community.

Gifts from individuals this year have included papers from Emeritus Professor Roger Robinson including a copy of the letter from his Department at Victoria University to the Nobel Committee of the Swedish Academy proposing Janet Frame for the Nobel Prize in Literature in December 1984. Professor Robinson visited 56 Eden Street this year and gifted this letter for display at the house, together with a personal letter from Janet Frame to him. We record our sincere thanks to Professor Robinson for his interest and his generosity.

In December 2014, we received a typewriter from Judy Hopkins, the Canadian niece of John Money. Its case is inscribed “Judy from Janet. Happy writing.” It came complete with the NZ to Baltimore luggage tag and it will be installed safely at the house for visitors to see.

We are often given domestic items for the house, such as a 1930s chair by Paul Baker and if they fit correctly with the way the house is described by Janet Frame in her autobiography, they provide valuable additions to this little literary museum.

Sometimes gifts are in the department of ideas and I thank Roger Hall for his clever short story written to acknowledge the donors to the capital fund appeal.

I thank the Board of Trustees, Alison Albiston, Roger Hall, Karen Ross and Gordon Scott, for their ideas and their enthusiasm, to say nothing of the way they rise to the challenge of running this charitable trust for the people of New Zealand. I also record my thanks to our advisors Bill and Peggy Tramposch, Owen Marshall and Pamela Gordon for their support.

Carol Berry

Chair, Janet Frame Eden Street Trust