The Humanitarian Aid Memorial at Gunnersbury Park

Gunnersbury Park and Museum Trust has been invited to host the world’s first dedicated Humanitarian Aid Memorial in its grounds. Internationally acclaimed artist Michael Landy, CBE, RA has been commissioned to deliver a memorial that celebrates the work and lives of humanitarians across the globe, many of whom have helped people in our own communities in Hounslow and Ealing.  

Gunnersbury is holding a consultation about the memorial until the end of July, with representatives from the Memorial Committee, including Sir John Holmes, formerly UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, and Chair of the International Rescue Committee UK, current Trustee of the British Red Cross and Chair of the Humanitarian Memorial Committee; Dame Barbara Stocking, former CEO of Oxfam GB, and former President of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, currently heading up the international effort to coordinate future pandemic preparedness; Sir Nick Young, formerly Chief Executive of Macmillan Cancer Care, and CEO of the British Red Cross; Nick Roseveare, formerly Humanitarian Director, Oxfam GB, CEO of Bond UK, and CEO Mine Action Group; Sir Brendan Gormley, formerly CEO of DEC and Dr Elaine Laycock, who founded the movement to commemorate humanitarians, on hand over the weekend of 24 and 25 June in solidarity with Refugee Week.  

Landy has developed the memorial design through collaboration with the Committee and Contemporary Art Society *Consultancy. His proposal is for a work of art that creates a space for people to walk around, through and become a part of and would be the artist’s first publicly sited work. It would be the first permanent memorial to humanitarian workers and would aim to give friends and relatives a dedicated place close to the Round Pond to gather and reflect on their loved ones’ sacrifices and celebrate their work. 

The Committee would like to gift the memorial to the local authority, who will pass over care for the work to Gunnersbury Park and Museum. The Committee has raised all of the funds necessary to make the memorial and has set aside an endowment fund to be used to pay for care and maintenance of the work.  

For more than five years, the Committee has worked with the artist and Contemporary Art Society to secure the right location for this important memorial. Previous discussions with sites managed by Historic England, the City of London and the University of Manchester have been enthusiastic, but the specific requirements of the memorial were not able to be met. 

Gunnersbury Park offers an ideal home to this much-needed memorial. Sited in easy-to-access parkland, London-based with amenities for an annual celebration and tied into the Museum’s outreach programme, plans for the memorial are welcomed by Gunnersbury’s management team, while both Hounslow and Ealing Councils are supportive of the ambitious scheme subject to planning.  

The World Humanitarian Day event held every August at Westminster Abbey would move to an annual event hosted by Gunnersbury Park, with a programme of linked events and outreach sharing the messages of humanitarian work and encouraging local people to learn more. 

A final consultation event will be held on 26 July, when Michael Landy will host a public event from 7-9pm. Landy will deliver a brief lecture on works like Breakdown, 2001, in which he catalogued and destroyed all of his possessions in a disused department store on Oxford Street and Acts of Kindness for Art on the Underground in 2011. The evening will continue with a round table discussion between Landy, Humanitarian Aid Committee members, Gunnersbury’s David Bowler and Contemporary Art Society’s Jordan Kaplan.  

The Consultation questionnaire will close on 27 July – to complete it online, click here.