Philip Brooke Barnes
Encyclopedia
Philip Brooke Barnes was a pioneer of cultural travel who did much to foster understanding of different cultures amongst the more than 80,000 participants who signed up for his tours and the hundreds of scholars and projects he supported over five decades. In 1958 he founded the Association for Cultural Exchange (ACE Foundation
), an innovative educational trust which promoted in-depth learning about different cultures. Barnes believed that deeper understanding of cultures and societies was essential for improved international relations. A view that was informed in part from his experience in World War II and the early post-war environment.
, Essex
. In 1939 they were instructed to move to Chelmsford
due to the fear of invasion after the outbreak of the Second World War. He began work as a junior clerk, aged 16, in a firm of chartered accountants and started an economics degree at Birkbeck College, University of London
, while still working. In 1945 he was called up and served in military intelligence for more than three years, working in the Middle East and in India, where he first developed his great love of the sub-continent’s culture. On his return, Barnes finished his economics degree at the London School of Economics
, then read philosophy at Jesus College, Cambridge
. The environs of Cambridge and trips to Scandinavia were very influential not only on his personal life but also for the shaping of the ACE. His determination brooked few obstacles, including those to travel in remote places in the 1950s and 1960s, when few of the comforts that tourists now take for granted were available.
, posted to Denmark, where he was able to pursue what would become a lifelong interest in the Nordic countries.
He immersed himself in Scandinavian culture well beyond the then popular understanding of its leadership in modern design and innovations in public welfare. He became a keen student of its medieval and renaissance history, which remained an abiding interest. His understanding of Denmark’s adult education movement inspired him to devise courses in England for Scandinavian teachers to study English life, culture and language. On one of these he was to meet Inger Kragh: they married in 1962.
In 1958 Barnes founded the Association for Cultural Exchange (now called ACE Foundation
). An educational charity and non-profit company limited by guarantee. Barnes worked without pay for its first ten years, subsidising his fledgling organisation as a supply teacher and then as managing director of a publishing and printing firm that produced the Haverhill Echo and Liberal News. Tony Crowe and James Hockey of the Farnham School of Art were founding members of the organization, as well as John Davies Evans
of the Institute of Archaeology
at London University.
In the 1950s group cultural travel hardly existed, nor did overseas campuses for universities which would later proliferate. ACE was a pioneer in both at a time when severe currency restrictions hampered international travel. Conditions in university halls could be spartan, and the remodeling of colleges for the lucrative conference trade was still decades away. In ACE’s first year a summer course at Exeter College, Oxford
, for Scandinavian teachers was addressed by the former Prime Minister Clement Attlee
, and Barnes wryly noted that the food improved just on that day.
In its first three years the ACE also maintained a residential centre in the Suffolk village of Clare
, housed in two redundant pubs. But Barnes soon eschewed the challenges of maintaining such a centre in favour of peripatetic courses emphasising travel, although he continued to run summer schools at Oxford for two decades. Courses were held in the UK and in Europe specifically for Americans, in European art and architecture, and for the English in the US, in American history and civilization, notably at Ripon College
in Wisconsin, 1959-60. Courses were also arranged for the University of Pittsburgh
, as well as in Denmark and in Wales, examining the search for identity in modern democracies, and work in a free society, both well ahead of their time.
Study tours of Denmark included visits to stately and royal homes. On one occasion, a tour group was asked to be particularly punctual for a visit to the Royal Summer Palace at Sofiero, Sweden. There they were received at the door by Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden
himself, then in his 80s, who showed the visitors around personally.
His passion for India led to scores of trips, initiated long before the hippy trail and at a time when international cultural travel to the sub-continent hardly existed. He started running tours to Mexico in 1974, Iran in 1975 and Peru in 1977.
The ACE also sponsored archaeological digs, some of international importance, (notably at Oronsay in the Inner Hebrides) which have taught both amateurs and professionals; and 28 years of fellowships at UCL’s Institute of Archaeology. In recent years subsidised British archaeologists have taught the techniques of aerial archaeology to newly liberated ex-communist countries, which in previous years could not have countenanced any form of aerial surveillance. At a time when the British were still uncomfortable and ill at ease with the notion of German culture, ACE led the way in specialist tours of Baroque and Rococo Teutonic achievements.
Other early tours focused on Islamic Spain, the culture of China and the natural flora and fauna of New Zealand. He pressed on with cultural tours to Bolivia despite the revolutions and roadblocks so frequently encountered in that volatile country. Undaunted, his charity organised a cultural tour to Algeria in 2009, another first.
Music festivals internationally and at home figured largely, as did trips to the Middle East, the Horn of Africa, and the countries of South East Asia, including early visits to Cambodia when it reopened its borders to the outside world.
As well as sustaining hundreds of study courses, the association’s growing endowment fund supported scholarships for foreigners to study conservation and heritage methodology in Britain, archaeological fellowships, bursaries for overseas postgraduate students for the universities of York and Cambridge, a school in South Africa, street children in Addis Ababa and women’s village education in India.
In the early 1990s Barnes assumed a supervisory role, retiring from active tour leading, and was to hand over the role of managing director to his son Hugh. His son Paul later replaced him as charity secretary.
The statistics over the past half-century for such a small travel charity are impressive: about 85,000 participants, 4,000 tours worldwide, 90 countries visited and hundreds of lecturers engaged. Several of the charity’s keenest patrons have taken more than 100 tours. The work of the charity has also been an inspiration to many others and cultural travel and adult education has expanded exponentially in the past half century.
ACE Cultural Tours
is a wholly owned subsidiary of the ACE Foundation
and continues to provide cultural travel and study tours. The foundation supports educational projects worldwide and provides active learning courses for all ages.
Times Obituary* http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6820496.ece
Independent Obituary* http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/philip-barnes-educational-pioneer-who-founded-the-association-for-cultural-exchange-1786172.html
ACE Foundation* http://www.acefoundation.org.uk
ACE Study Tours* http://www.acestudytours.co.uk
ACE Foundation
ACE Foundation is a non-profit, educational charity based in Cambridge, England, which supports cultural and international understanding in a variety of ways. These include running courses, seminars, study tours, summer schools and lectures...
), an innovative educational trust which promoted in-depth learning about different cultures. Barnes believed that deeper understanding of cultures and societies was essential for improved international relations. A view that was informed in part from his experience in World War II and the early post-war environment.
Early life and education
Barnes’s father, George Brooke Barnes, died when he was 4, and young Philip, an only child, moved with his mother to Clacton-on-SeaClacton-on-Sea
Clacton-on-Sea is the largest town on the Tendring peninsula, in Essex, England and was founded in 1871. It is a seaside resort that attracted many tourists in the summer months between the 1950s and 1970s, but which like many other British sea-side resorts went into decline as a holiday...
, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
. In 1939 they were instructed to move to Chelmsford
Chelmsford
Chelmsford is the county town of Essex, England and the principal settlement of the borough of Chelmsford. It is located in the London commuter belt, approximately northeast of Charing Cross, London, and approximately the same distance from the once provincial Roman capital at Colchester...
due to the fear of invasion after the outbreak of the Second World War. He began work as a junior clerk, aged 16, in a firm of chartered accountants and started an economics degree at Birkbeck College, University of London
Birkbeck, University of London
Birkbeck, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It offers many Master's and Bachelor's degree programmes that can be studied either part-time or full-time, though nearly all teaching is...
, while still working. In 1945 he was called up and served in military intelligence for more than three years, working in the Middle East and in India, where he first developed his great love of the sub-continent’s culture. On his return, Barnes finished his economics degree at the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
, then read philosophy at Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The College was founded in 1496 on the site of a Benedictine nunnery by John Alcock, then Bishop of Ely...
. The environs of Cambridge and trips to Scandinavia were very influential not only on his personal life but also for the shaping of the ACE. His determination brooked few obstacles, including those to travel in remote places in the 1950s and 1960s, when few of the comforts that tourists now take for granted were available.
Career
He was already committed to worldwide horizons; unusually in the late 1940s he worked as a waiter in the US, and for a water company in Norway, long before the gap year had been invented. His first professional job after graduating was as a reporter for ReutersReuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
, posted to Denmark, where he was able to pursue what would become a lifelong interest in the Nordic countries.
He immersed himself in Scandinavian culture well beyond the then popular understanding of its leadership in modern design and innovations in public welfare. He became a keen student of its medieval and renaissance history, which remained an abiding interest. His understanding of Denmark’s adult education movement inspired him to devise courses in England for Scandinavian teachers to study English life, culture and language. On one of these he was to meet Inger Kragh: they married in 1962.
In 1958 Barnes founded the Association for Cultural Exchange (now called ACE Foundation
ACE Foundation
ACE Foundation is a non-profit, educational charity based in Cambridge, England, which supports cultural and international understanding in a variety of ways. These include running courses, seminars, study tours, summer schools and lectures...
). An educational charity and non-profit company limited by guarantee. Barnes worked without pay for its first ten years, subsidising his fledgling organisation as a supply teacher and then as managing director of a publishing and printing firm that produced the Haverhill Echo and Liberal News. Tony Crowe and James Hockey of the Farnham School of Art were founding members of the organization, as well as John Davies Evans
John Davies Evans
John Davies Evans OBE was an English archaeologist and academic, renowned for his research into the prehistory of the Mediterranean, and especially the prehistoric cultures of Malta. He was a former Director of the Institute of Archaeology in London, a position he held from 1975 until his...
of the Institute of Archaeology
Institute of Archaeology
The UCL Institute of Archaeology is an academic department of the Social & Historical Sciences Faculty of University College London , England. It is one of the largest departments of archaeology in the world, with over 80 members of academic staff and 500 students...
at London University.
In the 1950s group cultural travel hardly existed, nor did overseas campuses for universities which would later proliferate. ACE was a pioneer in both at a time when severe currency restrictions hampered international travel. Conditions in university halls could be spartan, and the remodeling of colleges for the lucrative conference trade was still decades away. In ACE’s first year a summer course at Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth oldest college of the University. The main entrance is on the east side of Turl Street...
, for Scandinavian teachers was addressed by the former Prime Minister Clement Attlee
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955...
, and Barnes wryly noted that the food improved just on that day.
In its first three years the ACE also maintained a residential centre in the Suffolk village of Clare
Clare, Suffolk
Clare is a small town on the north bank of the River Stour in Suffolk, England.Clare is from Bury St Edmunds and from Sudbury. It lies in the 'South and Heart of Suffolk' . As a cloth town, it is one of Suffolk's 'threads'. Clare is the current holder of Village of the Year and has won the...
, housed in two redundant pubs. But Barnes soon eschewed the challenges of maintaining such a centre in favour of peripatetic courses emphasising travel, although he continued to run summer schools at Oxford for two decades. Courses were held in the UK and in Europe specifically for Americans, in European art and architecture, and for the English in the US, in American history and civilization, notably at Ripon College
Ripon College (Wisconsin)
Ripon College is a liberal arts college in Ripon, Wisconsin, USA. It offers small class sizes and intensive mentoring to students. Ripon has a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa--one of the nation's most prestigious honor societies. Alumni have high rates of success in the workforce as well as acceptance...
in Wisconsin, 1959-60. Courses were also arranged for the University of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
, as well as in Denmark and in Wales, examining the search for identity in modern democracies, and work in a free society, both well ahead of their time.
Study tours of Denmark included visits to stately and royal homes. On one occasion, a tour group was asked to be particularly punctual for a visit to the Royal Summer Palace at Sofiero, Sweden. There they were received at the door by Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden
Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden
Gustaf VI Adolf - Oscar Fredrik Wilhelm Olaf Gustaf Adolf - was King of Sweden from October 29, 1950 until his death. His official title was King of Sweden, of the Goths and of the Wends. He was the eldest son of King Gustaf V and his wife Victoria of Baden...
himself, then in his 80s, who showed the visitors around personally.
His passion for India led to scores of trips, initiated long before the hippy trail and at a time when international cultural travel to the sub-continent hardly existed. He started running tours to Mexico in 1974, Iran in 1975 and Peru in 1977.
The ACE also sponsored archaeological digs, some of international importance, (notably at Oronsay in the Inner Hebrides) which have taught both amateurs and professionals; and 28 years of fellowships at UCL’s Institute of Archaeology. In recent years subsidised British archaeologists have taught the techniques of aerial archaeology to newly liberated ex-communist countries, which in previous years could not have countenanced any form of aerial surveillance. At a time when the British were still uncomfortable and ill at ease with the notion of German culture, ACE led the way in specialist tours of Baroque and Rococo Teutonic achievements.
Other early tours focused on Islamic Spain, the culture of China and the natural flora and fauna of New Zealand. He pressed on with cultural tours to Bolivia despite the revolutions and roadblocks so frequently encountered in that volatile country. Undaunted, his charity organised a cultural tour to Algeria in 2009, another first.
Music festivals internationally and at home figured largely, as did trips to the Middle East, the Horn of Africa, and the countries of South East Asia, including early visits to Cambodia when it reopened its borders to the outside world.
As well as sustaining hundreds of study courses, the association’s growing endowment fund supported scholarships for foreigners to study conservation and heritage methodology in Britain, archaeological fellowships, bursaries for overseas postgraduate students for the universities of York and Cambridge, a school in South Africa, street children in Addis Ababa and women’s village education in India.
In the early 1990s Barnes assumed a supervisory role, retiring from active tour leading, and was to hand over the role of managing director to his son Hugh. His son Paul later replaced him as charity secretary.
The statistics over the past half-century for such a small travel charity are impressive: about 85,000 participants, 4,000 tours worldwide, 90 countries visited and hundreds of lecturers engaged. Several of the charity’s keenest patrons have taken more than 100 tours. The work of the charity has also been an inspiration to many others and cultural travel and adult education has expanded exponentially in the past half century.
ACE Cultural Tours
ACE Cultural Tours
ACE Cultural Tours is an operator of educational and cultural travel tours. Specialising in small group tours with expert leaders such as Humphrey Burton, Andrew Wilson, Colin Bailey, Michael Nicholson & Julian Richards, the organisation provides tours in the UK, Europe and across the globe...
is a wholly owned subsidiary of the ACE Foundation
ACE Foundation
ACE Foundation is a non-profit, educational charity based in Cambridge, England, which supports cultural and international understanding in a variety of ways. These include running courses, seminars, study tours, summer schools and lectures...
and continues to provide cultural travel and study tours. The foundation supports educational projects worldwide and provides active learning courses for all ages.
External links
Guardian Obituary* http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2009/sep/16/philip-barnes-obituaryTimes Obituary* http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6820496.ece
Independent Obituary* http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/philip-barnes-educational-pioneer-who-founded-the-association-for-cultural-exchange-1786172.html
ACE Foundation* http://www.acefoundation.org.uk
ACE Study Tours* http://www.acestudytours.co.uk