Chichester mourns a great champion of the arts

Neil Lawson-Baker, who lived at Graingers in West Ashling, masterminded the transformation of the Chichester Open Art Competition into the National Open Art. He also devised the Chichester Street Art Festival back in 2013 which can still be enjoyed around the city nine years later. In later years Neil also developed his reputation as a children’s author. He was also a notable sculptor in his own right. His wife Grace said: “His funeral is going to be at 2pm on Saturday, November 5 at Graingers, our home. He would want to come back here one last time. His studio will be open and of course all his sculptures are around the garden.”

Stepson Mike Hoebee said: “Although Watford born, he was truly a son of Chichester. He was one of Chichester's chief cheerleaders regaling anyone who would listen with the merits of the Pallant, the Festival Theatre and Goodwood.

“Possibly the most important thing he did for the city was in bringing so much of the art world to our streets. Neil saw the Chichester Open Art Competition evolve into the National Open Art providing life-changing opportunities to young and emerging artists, as well as connecting Chichester with centres of culture across the country. Perhaps, his most striking addition to Chichester life, was the Chichester Street Art Festival back in 2013, where he brought 27 artists from across Britain and the globe to produce outstanding works that have for the most part stood the test of time. More recently Neil reinvented himself into a children's book author introducing to the world his Bowdleflodes, which tells the tale of interplanetary conservation. Not wanting to rest on his laurels Neil simultaneously founded the Bowdleflode Wildlife Project with the aim of providing art and science resources for primary schools to raise the awareness of the natural world. Neil's passions and interests were broad and eclectic but he did not flit from one thing to the next. Rather, each new thing he started had to be mastered through his great will and through the help of a vast network of friends.”

A dental surgeon and medical doctor, sculptor and artist, his interests included conservation and arts education, riding and breeding horses for competition, a jazz aficionado who played the piano, saxophone and clarinet.

In 1987 Neil the dental surgeon accidentally put a needle through his glove and gave himself hepatitis B – a misfortune which put him in bed for four months and threatened his entire medical career. But it hadn’t been for that slip of the hand, we wouldn’t have had Neil Lawson-Baker the artist.

Lady Thatcher had one of his maquettes on her desk as a paperweight when she was prime minister; Neil jointly designed the front of the 100,000-seat National Stadium in Kuala Lumpur; and he also made the sculptures for the opening of The Channel Tunnel and the entrance to The House of Commons offices at Westminster. None of it would have happened if he hadn’t accidentally jabbed himself... At the time, there were fears that Neil might become a hepatitis B carrier which would have finished his medical career. Fortunately he managed to clear the virus – but not before he had decided from his bedroom on a new parallel career in the art world: “I got the nurses to bring me wax and armature wire, and that’s how I started.”