Enfield Living Memorial: for those lost during the pandemic.
Summary
The Enfield Living Memorial project aims to mark our collective loss and bereavement of every individual living in Enfield during the pandemic. The goal is to create a living tribute with a planted glade of trees in the shape of a heart, with an emblematic fire sculpture made in the shape of a phoenix and then a permanent sculpted phoenix located at its centre.
The completed memorial will be a place of individual and collective reflection, open to the different feelings of everyone who visits the site. It aims to create a way in which the people and community of Enfield Borough might find a way to observe and acknowledge loss, and support those burdened by grief, during one of the most traumatic events of our collective generation.
Inspired by a project in Liverpool the Enfield project was raised by the Soroptimist International club of Enfield as a means of honouring their International Centenary year where clubs across the world are planting trees. It is being facilitated by the Enfield club, working with a range of partners, including Enfield Council, as well as a local artist who is also working with the original Liverpool project.
The vision
The plan is to create a heart shaped spread of trees, with surrounding flowers, as a place of solace in honour of people lost during the coronavirus pandemic. Once founded a fire sculpture of a phoenix will provide a symbolic point of letting go. The image of the phoenix offers an open idea of acceptance of loss and renewal at the same moment. The trees will then encompass a permanent phoenix artwork in the same location. This would offer the same symbol for future visitors to see as they visit the park. Together it provides a way of acknowledging our loss and a means of processing the trauma of individuals losing loved ones. Likewise for collective communities seeing hundreds of people lost during a year and more of disaster, it aims to provide a collective site of remembrance.”
Donations to the project may be made on the donation page.
Enfield Town Park
The site was chosen after months of looking through various public spaces in Enfield. Physically the park stands at the centre (the heart) of our Borough but importance was also given to nearby car parking, public facilities and easy public transport access from all parts of the Borough. There were also practical limitations being that the memorial will be well over thirty meters across when finished and needs to suit the technical and environmental issues of each space we looked at. The final choice between Firs Farm and Enfield Town was made based on the greater level of public transport and public facilities available.
Funding
This project is reliant on funding raised from the public and/or from organisations who wish to support it. We are still costing the different elements of the project; the trees, the planting, fire sculpture and permanent sculpture. We estimate the budget will be anywhere between £10,000 and £15,000 depending on what in “in kind” support we find.
Direct involvement
To help develop the project locally a small working group has been set up. Facilitated by the Enfield Soroptimist’s it consists of local partners, including the Council, as well as the artist who is delivering the creative aspects of the project.
There is a lot of interest in this project but we are limited to the degree which we can involve everyone who is interested. We recognise we could never fully engage with everyone who has been directly or indirectly affected by the pandemic but as the project develops we hope to provide some other activities such as work with schools, encouraging other tree planting, or simply visiting the memorial as it is created.
If in the short term you wish to help and be a part of the project we simply ask people to help us raise the funding needed. Every contribution whether one pound or one hundred pounds is of equal merit because every donation plays a part in creating this public memorial.
Donation Page
This project comes from the people of Enfield and is for the people of Enfield. We therefore want everyone in Enfield to be part of the provision of a living memorial for those lost during the pandemic. Please donate £1, or more if you wish, either using the bank details or via the Paypal . Please click on the Enfield Living Memorial donations page on the right hand side.
If you are an organisation that can help in more significant ways please contact us via the contact page.
100 years of the Soroptimists
Soroptimists International, a women’s organisation focused on educating, enabling and empowering women world-wide, is celebrating its centenary year in 2021. As part of the celebrations, clubs across the world are remembering the first major project in 1921, which saved a forest of giant redwoods being threatened by lumber companies. Their campaign saved a major portion of the forest as protected land, which still exists today.
The centenary activity is called “Planting Trees for a Brilliant Future” and the Soroptimist club of Enfield, building on a members’ link with a local artist, decided to follow the lead set by a tree planting project in Liverpool, with a version of the same concept for Enfield, which is now the Enfield Living Memorial.
Illustrations of the completed Enfield Living Memorial.
Tree planting has begun! Capel Manor students bring and plant the initial trees at the Enfield Living Memorial in Enfield Town Park
Enfield Parade of Lights 2021.
All proceeds were given over to the Enfield Living Memorial Fund. The cheque presentation should be taking place at the Enfield Cultural Palace in July 2022.
