The transfer of the Cylinders Estate to Factum Foundation represents a significant step towards preserving and promoting Kurt Schwitters’ legacy. Working with other local charities and universities, Factum Foundation will transform the site into a dynamic cultural hub to support the learning and interaction with Schwitters’ Merz art.
Littoral Arts Trust, run by Ian Hunter (1947 – 2023) and Celia Larner, which had worked to preserve the site since 1998, contacted Factum Foundation in 2023 to request its assistance in taking the Merz Barn and Cylinders Estate forward for a new generation.
Factum’s ambition to reconstruct Schwitters’ legacy has been evident since a 2009-project to create a facsimile of the Schwittershytte, built in one half of a potato shed on the island of Hjertøya, Norway, in the summer of 1934. This facsimile is now in the Henie Onstad Art Centre near Oslo.
Facsimile of the Merz Barn Wall
Part of the Merz Barn’s wall was relocated for preservation to Hatton Gallery in Newcastle in 1966 by the artist Richard Hamilton working with Fred Brookes and others. When Hamilton removed the wall from the Merzbarn he originally wanted it to go to the Tate Gallery. The Tate accepted Hamilton’s facsimile of Duchamp’s Large Glass, but Schwitters’ Merz was declined.
In 2007-2008, Hamilton encouraged Adam Lowe, founder of Factum Foundation, to make a facsimile of the wall in the Hatton Gallery (University of Newcastle) and install it in the original Merz Barn at Cylinders. Using its experience recording and replicating artworks and cultural heritage sites, Factum Foundation proposes the reunification of Schwitters’ final installation by creating a facsimile of the missing wall section.
A centre for artists and scholars
In addition to the barn, the estate also includes a cluster of buildings that will be restored as a centre for artists and scholars passionate about Schwitters and his legacy. Factum Foundation aims to establish an annual residency programme for refugee and displaced artists, providing the kind of sanctuary that Schwitters found on the estate in the years before his death in 1948.
Since its creation in 2009, Factum Foundation’s core mission has been to preserve the past, empower the present, and inspire the future, preserving cultural heritage for future generations. Through careful conservation and thoughtful programming, the Merz Barn is poised to become a vibrant centre of artistic activity and cultural exchange, honouring Schwitters’ innovative spirit and enduring influence on contemporary art.
How you can help
As a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, Factum Foundation London is actively seeking a new model for this unique rural site. It needs local support from those who care about the Lake District and artists of singularity and originality. Success will be measured by the ability to convey the importance of the legacy Schwitters left as a refugee who contributed to a fundamental change to cultural life in England.
Factum Foundation seeks to develop a new approach to heritage management and will need support from philanthropic individuals, institutions, government agencies and artists. Littoral Trust benefited from the generosity of artists including Damian Hirst, Anthony Gormley and the Boyle Family. Many more will now be needed to make this vision of the site a reality.
Working with other local charities, including Grizedale Arts, Factum Foundation aims to transform the site into a place of tranquillity, refuge, reflection and learning in celebration of a great artist whose cultural influence is growing and is more relevant than ever.