Leeds heritage champion projected onto Stonehenge for her work with Jamaican community

Susan Pitter has been honoured as part of the night-time installation for her work with the Jamaica Society Leeds.

TV historian Sir Tony Robinson this week bestowed the unique honour on Susan for playing her part in keeping the UK’s heritage alive all year round, especially during the pandemic.

It is the first time the 5,000 year-old stones have been dedicated to individual members of the public.

Susan is the arts and heritage development consultant for the Chapeltown-based Jamaica Society Leeds, a charity set up to promote Jamaican culture, represent Jamaican and other communities in Leeds and to play a role in advocacy.

Susan, whose parents came from Jamaica in the early 60’s, has been noted for her work on the National Lottery-supported Eulogy Project, which commemorates the lives of the city’s first-generation Jamaicans, who made the journey from the Caribbean island.

Earlier this year, Susan curated ‘Back to Life’ – an online gallery of 40 images of residents who arrived during the 1940s to 1960s, transformed from black and white into colour.

Susan said: "The pandemic has been a really challenging time, as it has been for everybody, not least because many of the members who belong to the society are in the most vulnerable categories of people who are susceptible to Covid and that is because they are older and they ARE African Caribbean.

“Closing down Jamaica House, the place where they’d naturally come together for meetings, for socialising, for coming together, for planning, to tackle isolation and loneliness for such a long period for the first time in their 40-odd year history was really challenging.

“They had to adapt from not having that space available to going into a world of communicating digitally.

“The Back to Life gallery, which has been supported by the Arts Council, was created online and digitally.

"However, we had to ensure that we don’t leave behind people who are less digitally engaged.”

Stonehenge was lit up with the help of National Lottery funding.

Susan, whose parents met while working on the buses in Leeds, added: “National Lottery funding has enabled the Society to reach new audiences and keep connected with them - through digital platforms as well as more traditional communications channels too.

“It has also allowed the Society to look at Covid compliance, so that we can reopen Jamaica House in a safe way.”

Heritage sites across the UK are being supported by the National Lottery through Covid-19 with some of the £30m raised each week for good causes by lottery players.

Sir Tony Robinson said: “I love the fact that Stonehenge is being lit up as a tribute to some of the country’s key project workers and volunteers, letting the public know about the hard work they’ve been doing to keep our heritage accessible to everyone using National Lottery funding.

“Without the graft and tireless effort of these wonderful people, our much-loved heritage would be more at risk than ever this year.”

Ros Kerslake CBE, chief executive of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “The National Lottery is playing a crucial role in supporting heritage sites and projects during the crisis, but it’s the important role of that the thousands of amazing individuals, some of which we are celebrating and honouring today, that keep these places going and make our visits memorable.”

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