Millionaire
Philanthropists – Coutts “Million Pound Donor Report”
Of
all Britain's private banking institutions, Coutts is among the
oldest and most distinguished.
No
better bank therefore to publish a regular Million
Pound Donor Report,
Coutts latest for 2009/10 being the forth in a series produced in
association with the Centre for Philanthropy, Humanitarian and Social
Justice at the University of Kent.
While not many perhaps in the UK are in a position to donate £1m to any cause however worthwhile, the Centre's Report includes much to interest aspiring and actual philanthropists: not least at a time when the arts are coming to depend more and more on private giving. But first the basic figures: in 2009/10 the Report has identified 174 “million pound or more donations” made by individuals, trusts and corporations in the UK, amounting in total to £1.3bn. The beneficiaries numbered 154 organisations (including trusts and foundations) those receiving multiple million pound donations being “primarily well-known universities and London-based arts & cultural organisations.” No surprises there.
While the most favoured recent cause has been International Development, Higher Education in the UK remains the most attractive beneficiary; the Report points out that this derives in part at least from a very attractive tax-efficient match-funding scheme – soon to be discontinued. However, it seems very likely the Report suggests, that arts and culture in the UK will benefit from the government's new match-funding scheme launched in July 2011.
The Centre's Report contains many doubtless satisfying as well as necessary graphs, tables, and statistics, plus some specially interesting individual case studies. Nonetheless, it is in its more general examples and conclusions that many jewels can be discovered and mined. The present UK government is a coalition which doubtless is one reason for its increasing number of positive initiatives, especially those aimed at the encouragement and public acknowledgement of philanthropic giving. In the past year the government has proposed reducing inheritance tax for those leaving at least a tenth of their estate to charity. Tax breaks are also now on offer to people who donate (to the nation) works of art and historical objects of national importance. In addition a recent Government White Paper specifically identified, in the words of this Report, “the wider benefits generated by giving at a number of levels: for those who are helped by philanthropic funding, for wider society that is strengthened by the relationships and trust that it builds, and for the givers themselves who benefit from the pleasure of making a difference.”
The Report also notes “the growing prominence of local giving” whereby donors take the opportunity to make a contribution to a community that matters to them personally. Another interesting development has been a move from distributing “funds reactively to a variety of diverse causes” to a more considered number “pro-actively chosen.” The Centre's Report also warns potential donors of the importance of remembering that “creating a philanthropic strategy is a dynamic process that needs to be refreshed on an ongoing basis.
Finally, the University of Kent's Centre for Philanthropy's Report quotes some wise words from Coutts own Philanthropy Handbook: “The more confident and informed the donor becomes, the more active and discerning they become as philanthropists, both in their support for the charities on which they choose to focus their attention and also in their advocacy among friends and colleagues of the personal value they derive from their philanthropy.”
All
of which being said, given original sin (however defined) and its
apparent human consequences, the only way for philanthropists to
guard themselves against misunderstandings and jealousy has to be
innate honesty of intention as well as shrewd transparency and, not
least, to maintain against all odds the courage of their individual
convictions.
For
advice and information:
www.coutts.com/philanthropy/
To
download the Report: www.kent.ac.uk/sspssr/cphsj/
Ten Years of Sculpture at
London's Canary Wharf
In his
Foreword to a newly published and sumptuously illustrated volume
Sculpture at Canary Wharf: A Decade of
Exhibitions George
Iacobescu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Canary Wharf
Group, writes “We have long recognized
the value of good architecture and design, together with the
important contribution that the arts and artists can make to the
creation of what has become a humane, pleasurable and ultimately
successful built environment.”
These days some 95,000 people work at Canary Wharf, a monumental yet vitally attractive 97 acre East London estate with many works of commissioned public art, design and craft, inside and without the buildings, sufficient in themselves to attract numbers of visitors, as well as an Arts and Events programme directed principally at office workers during their lunch-breaks or after hours. While focusing, as its title suggests on only one aspect of the Group's work, its quarterly and decade-old Sculpture in the Workplace exhibitions, the book's contributors between them tell the fascinating and ongoing story of the “cultural dimension” planned from the estate's inception in the 1990s.
Theresa Bergne, the Group's first Public Art Consultant, explains how they aimed “to provide moments of humour, beauty or reflection, and a means of interacting on a more intimate or human level with the surroundings.” The self-contained island site has also provoked outward and mutually advantageous collaborations with London institutions and festivals. As retail spaces became occupied, the decision was made to use the large and elegant lobby of One Canada Place (the Group's headquarters) for temporary exhibitions of sculpture – with all the challenges that such a diffusely lit and complexly configured commercial space presented, as well as the opportunities it offered for showing off three-dimensional works.
“In the workplace... it is good to surprise but not to shock.” Wise as well as experienced words from Ann Elliott who has been programme curator at Canary Wharf since 2001. Used to working directly with artists, her new challenge was to persuade them of the advantages of showing their work in a “lofty marble and steel” corporate space rather than in “the pure… surroundings of a minimalist gallery.” Not all she approached were agreeable, but of those who were “many were surprised” by this new experience and the opportunities it offered; and not only those working on a large scale, for others found the “jewel-like qualities of small sculptures” also able to compel the interest of workers and visitors. In 2003, the exhibitions were extended onto Jubilee Park, an intriguingly landscaped and much used grassy area nearby. “We have to date no formal way of measuring response. It is a matter of trust that cultural diversion may help to enrich people's lives on a daily basis, possibly only subliminally...”
“Commitment also comes with responsibilities,” asserts the the Group's current Public Art Consultant Sally Williams, in respect of the management's “critical support.” She and her professional colleagues are fully aware too of the challenges presented by a growing and developing estate as well as the need to serve the changing interests and expectations of their audience. Introducing younger artists and attracting younger audiences is another new challenge – all the while satisfying the essential ingredient of presenting the work of “exceptional artists in this new context.” (More than 130 artists are listed including Ivor Abrahams, Glenys Barton, Lynn Chadwick, Stephen Cox, Sean Henry, Nicola Hicks, Phillip King, Peter Randall-Page and Wendy Taylor.)
While the overall quality, range and variety of the
works of art to be seen at Canary Wharf has to be unreservedly
admired, so must the quiet continuum of the work directed towards
maintaining and refreshing it all: clearly in parallel with the
estate's dynamic character and civic intent. “It is an investment
of the utmost value,” concludes George Iacobescu.
Canary
Wharf Group, One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5AB.
www.canarywharf.com
Wedgwood Museum Threatened with Destruction
The existence of the world-famous Wedgwood Museum at Barlaston near Stoke-on-Trent in the English Midlands is seriously threatened. The Museum is solely devoted to the display of the finest examples of Josiah Wedgwood's own pottery as well many others from the factory he founded and which was continued for than two centuries under the leadership of his descendants. It also houses important archives including a unique collection of letters and documents ranging over 250 years, all donated by the Wedgwood family. Unexpectedly and tragically, all the contents of the museum are now threatened with dispersal.
This follows a legal ruling that everything will have to be sold to help fill a void in the value of the Wedgwood company's pension scheme – that company unconnected with the museum since 1962 and now in administration. The administrators are compelled to raise all necessary moneys from all possible sources which, by a legal quirk, will require the sale of the museum's uniquely comprehensive collections. Whatever their monetary value, these together form a literally priceless world heritage resource. For information see: www.savewedgwood.org
Pasmore's
Apollo
Pavilion
in Peterlee Protected
Victor
Pasmore (1908 - 98) was a notable and influential British artist
unusual in succeeding first as a figurative painter and later as a
maker of abstract constructions. He taught in the north east of
England, at what is now Newcastle University, and in 1955 was
appointed consulting director of urban design for Peterlee New Town
giving him the opportunity of fulfilling his ambition of introducing
abstract art to a wider public. Founded in 1948, relatively small and
set in a coal mining area, Peterlee in County Durham was one of the
new towns built in the UK in the aftermath of the Second World War
taking its name from an important and socially concerned local
politician Peter Lee (1864 – 1935) coal miner and Methodist
preacher.
In 1969, the whole world was astounded by the success of the Apollo XI mission which saw men land on the moon for the first time. In Peterlee, this amazing human and technical achievement was commemorated by The Apollo Pavilion a major new concrete structure by Victor Pasmore. As elegant as it is 'brutally' abstract, the pavilion was designed to link two sides of a housing estate. In recent years it has been miserably neglected to the extent that many wanted it demolished, but resurgent local interest and concern led to its refurbishment, thanks to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Now, Pasmore's Apollo Pavilion has received national public recognition and protection by being awarded Grade II* Listing by Heritage Minister John Penrose acting on the advice of English Heritage. This rare architectural status is shared by only five per cent of buildings in England.
Artes
Mundi 5 – the UK's most valuable Contemporary Art Prize
The
winner of the 2012 Artes Mundi Prize will receive a munificent
£40,000 as well as much professionally important international
publicity. The seven shortlisted artists are: Miriam Bäsckström
from Sweden; Tania Bruguera from Cuba; Phil Collins from England;
Sheela Gowda from India; Teresa Margolies from Mexico; Darius Mikšys
from Lithuania; and Apolonija Šušteršiĉ
from
Slovenia.
Established in 2002 and based in Wales, Artes Mundi “is an international arts organisation... committed to supporting groundbreaking contemporary visual artists from around the world whose work engages with social reality and lived experience.” Every two years nominations are sought internationally, most recently bringing 750, including 576 individual artists, from more than 90 countries – from which the selectors choose the shortlist, all of whom, other than the winner, receiving £4,000 each.
From its inception Artes Mundi which is publicly funded has been associated with Wales's National Museum in Cardiff. This year's exhibition, Artes Mundi 5, will open there on 6 October in the new National Museum of Art and will be on show for 14 weeks, with an international judging committee set to award the prize in late November. The principal sponsor of the Artes Mundi 5 Exhibition and Prize is Bank of America Merrill Lynch. www.artesmundi.org/
Capital
Grants Help English Museums
Very good news in
these financially straitened times: £4 million pounds worth of
grants have been made to 36 English museums and galleries under the
DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund. Untangling that
lengthy designation in the interests both of transparency and
understanding, this Fund distributes monies - £47 million since 1990
– in the form of capital grants. It is a joint venture by the
Department of Culture, Media and Sport and the mighty Wolfson
Foundation, itself set up in 1955, and in part dedicated to
“improving museums and galleries both large and small, across the
whole country.”
In making the announcement Culture Minister Ed Vaizey unequivocally and rightly stated that it “shines a light on the breadth and diversity of museums and galleries in England.” Here are some examples: Compton Verney in Warwickshire has received £17,400 to improve its displays of the important 20th designer Enid Marx. The Weald and Downland Museum near Chichester in Sussex has received £50,000 towards the reconstruction of a late 17th century labourer's cottage. The National Motor Museum at Beaulieu in Hampshire received £60,000 to improve its motorcycle exhibition. Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery has received £65.000 to improve its Soho House visitor centre with a new exhibition on the great entrepreneur Matthew Boulton (1728 – 1809). The Oriental Museum at the University of Durham received £87,600 towards a brand new gallery to show its collections of Japanese and Korean Art. Other beneficiaries include the Dulwich Picture Gallery, the Wallace Collection, The Armouries at the Tower of London, and Hampton Court Palace which has received £150,000 for a new permanent display of its important collections of Baroque art, furniture, state beds and wall paintings.
Even the British Museum in London is a beneficiary, in this instance receiving £100,000 towards the refurbishment of its ever-popular Late Antique and Early Medieval Gallery housing for example the Sutton Hoo Treasure. And, on the principal no doubt that whoever has most is bound to get more, the British Museum has just received also a mighty £10 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund for its new World Conservation and Exhibition Centre (WCEC). Thus this imperative project has now been more than 80% funded “through philanthropy and underwriting” with £118 million raised towards the total cost of £135 million. Aside from improved facilities for conservation and research, and indeed exhibitions, the completion of WCEC will enable the British Museum to vastly extend its important programmes of national and international loans. WCEC is due to open in the spring of 2014 with an exhibition on the Vikings supported by BP.
40:40 Crafts Council's Online Celebrations
Ever in the vanguard, the UK's Crafts Council has chosen to celebrate its fortieth birthday with an online exhibition – 40:40 comprising forty objects from its permanent collection of more than 1,400 examples of contemporary craft chosen by a number of notable fans. Each object is accompanied by “a personal response” as well as a fascinating range of related films, audio clips and/or archive material. One especially interesting section “Inspired!” is devoted to half a dozen new commissions from”creative voices” individually responding to one of the exhibition's selected objects, so confirming the Crafts Council's strongly held views that “public collections are catalysts for creativity.” This admirable new enterprise is supported by the relatively unassuming yet always venturesome Esmée Fairburn Foundation with the aim of “piloting a new approach to a dynamic online archive.” www.4040.org.uk
Downstairs
at Great Brampton House
In days of
yore Great Brampton House in Madley, Herefordshire, was a celebrated
destination for eager buyers of antiques and decorative furnishings –
all spread throughout this splendid late Georgian mansion. Now it has
become an unusual country-house hotel: Martin
Miller's Hideaway. Filled with the owner's
personal collections it is available for exclusive use and unusual
too in being open to residents only. Another attraction for those
interested in seeing work by contemporary artists, established as
well as emerging, international as well as local, is: Downstairs.
This is a large artist-run gallery space ambitiously
promising a range of exhibitions to include installation, sculpture,
performance, film, painting and drawing, some, where appropriate
spilling over into the surrounding grounds. Downstairs is open
Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons. www.downstairsgallery.co.uk
Please check opening times and days before travelling any distance.
www.artnewsletter.com
February/March
2012