Mitzi Cunliffe Centenary
Continuing our posts which highlight past projects, we are thinking back to June 2018 when we celebrated the sculptor Mitzi Cunliffe on the centenary of her birth. In a collaboration with the Twentieth Century Society North West, we installed a plaque on her former home in Didsbury, Manchester. The unveiling ceremony was followed by a talk and conversation to commemorate the centenary of the ‘Sculptor for Architecture’ with Professor Ann Sumner and Antonia Cunliffe Davis.
Although many people are not familiar with Mitzi Cunliffe by name, they will certainly know her designs which include the iconic BAFTA trophy mask, which was created by the sculptor when she lived in Manchester in the 1950s. She was also commissioned for the Festival of Britain in 1951, and her art work appears at Liverpool and Leeds Universities.
“The city of Manchester is fortunate to have a number of important works by her including Threshold at Manchester High School for Girls, the Heaton Park Pumping Station relief (Grade II listed), Man and Technics: Fire and the Wheel for Wythenshawe West Secondary Technical School (now Manchester Health Academy) and the dramatic fibreglass Cosmos I wall sculptures at Owens Park, University of Manchester.”
Image © Estate of the Artist
Image © Estate of the Artist