Cecil Beaton: A Celebration of A Family Archive
WORDS BY TARA RICHARDS-GLADSTON
We are not shy of putting on events here in Hawarden - we do it weekly, monthly, sometimes even daily. We put on big events, tiny events, overnight events and events that might last a couple of hours. In October though, we did something a little different - we hosted a party.
Over the past year, we’ve been working to collate our collection of incredible, often previously unseen, very personal Cecil Beaton works, scrapbooks, prints, paintings, clippings and more. This has developed into an intimate, personal exhibition filled with beautiful art. The collection that we have really highlights the family-centric side of Cecil. Anyway, you can read more about the actual exhibition here.
I’m here to tell you about the party we threw!
We wanted to celebrate our Cecil Beaton exhibition with people that are truly interested in Cecil, in his work, and in Hawarden. It turns out, this is a fantastic venn diagram of people and we were thrilled with the turn out for this event. And, we really felt that the best way to celebrate Cecil was a party, and a party that involved cocktails, dressing up, great conversation and great company.
So you have a tiny bit of context, Cecil Beaton is a relative of the Gladstone family (he’s Charlie’s great uncle, Tara’s great great uncle, and so on). He spent time at Hawarden because of this, and Charlie knew him until Cecil’s death in 1980.
On a mild Thursday evening in mid-October we hosted about 60 people in Hawarden Castle for cocktails and canapés. We had journalists, writers, local enthusiasts, artists and more, and everyone came together for a fantastic evening. The party took place in the Gladstone Hellen workshop and in the Castle’s beautiful courtyard. There were incredible flowers, cocktails, great music, candles, great canapés and a group of amazing people. The dress code was “Beaton glamour” and everyone looked absolutely fantastic - fantastic hats (some of which I know were homemade), suits, shoes, dresses. I do think Cecil would have smiled at this injection of colour, life and creativity through the clothing, prints and accessories.
We listened to a conversation - in a truly packed out room - between Helen Rees Leahy, Professor of Museology/Curator/Director/Writer/Creative (polymath!) and Charlie Gladstone, who you all know. Helen helped us to put this exhibition together, wrote this fantastic essay, and we’ve worked together on projects in the past. Helen and Charlie discussed Cecil, creativity, family, and all of the threads that can tie these together.
Using our incredible backdrop by Melissa Wickham and some Cecil-heavy props, we set up a space where everyone could have a portrait done to capture the moment and to honour Cecil himself, too. If you know Cecil’s work, you’ll know that his sets were very often home-made from things like tin-foil, balloons and sheets. Arran Cross took everyone’s photos to capture the amazing atmosphere and outfits.
Anniela Weinberg took some fantastic photos, and there are more on our instagram here.
You can read more about our exhibition here, and you can come and see it too.
If you book a stay at The West End, you will be fully immersed in the exhibition as lots of it is hosted within that part of Hawarden Castle.
