Edna Read (1929-2012)
Arts Pioneer who put quality art and women artists on the walls of Nottingham Hospitals. Edna Eguchi Read was an influential arts administrator who championed art for the citizens of her local town of Milton Keynes. Her Japanese father was interned during WW2 and later deported. She never saw him again. Read was resourceful, ambitious and driven, her early childhood experiences seemingly an influence, and when the New Town of Milton Keynes was being planned she was instrumental in persuading the Development Corporation to include an art provision in its budget. She helped to establish Milton Keynes gallery (AIM), now renamed the MK9 Gallery, which provides a platform for local artists to exhibit their work.
Read brought this determination and zeal to her role at Queen’s Medical Centre. Although scanty, from information that we have been able to piece together, Edna worked for the Queen’s Medical Centre employed on a ‘ retainer’, where she advised and directed the arts provision at the hospital. During the early 1980’s, Read in partnership with the East Midlands Arts Association who donated funds under the ‘Arts in Public Places’ scheme, purchased more than fifty works of art. She led on consultation with members of staff regarding the newly installed art and negotiated free prints donated to the hospital by Christie’s Art Gallery in London. We surmise that it was Edna who championed the work of women artists, unusual for the time. Commissioned art works by renowned artists such as Gillian Wise, Mary Fedden and Elizabeth Frink, are due to the efforts of Read.