Galleries outside London 'should do more to attract rich donors'
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Version 0 of 1. UK art galleries outside London should work harder to charm gifts out of rich donors, said a leading art dealer, Ivor Braka, after donating works to the Whitworth gallery in Manchester. Braka and another art dealer, Thomas Dane, are donating six contemporary works by British artists Tracey Emin, Gilbert and George, Michael Landy, Anya Gallaccio, Rebecca Warren and Paul Graham. They have been spurred by the revitalisation of the Whitworth, which reopened in February after a £15m redevelopment and won the Art Fund museum of the year prize in July. Related: Hello world: the new Whitworth Art Gallery Manchester-born Braka hopes more rich private individuals will be encouraged to follow suit. “There are so many millionaires in Cheshire and how many of them are giving at a significant level? I would say very few, and we need them.” He contrasted the UK to the US, where there is a long tradition of philanthropic giving to galleries because people want theirs to be as good as those in Washington and New York, he said. “You go to Houston and Dallas and you get a community of people determined to make their institution great and that’s what I would love to see in the UK,” Braka added. He praised the leadership of the Whitworth’s director, Maria Balshaw, who oversaw the gallery’s transformation, and said directors needed to be better at charming people who might donate. “You need museum directors who are capable of doing it and there are precious few because often they are chosen more for their academic qualifications than their ability to raise money. I know it sounds vulgar and shallow but you need directors who can be a social focus for the area, you need people with a bit of charisma.” Public subsidy is also needed, he said, and called on the government to make more effort to encourage charitable giving by individuals. Braka, who specialises in selling works by Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, was born only a couple of miles from the Whitworth. “I’m from Manchester and have very strong feelings about Manchester and I’ve always wanted to give some form of gift,” he said. The gallery’s transformation has provided the opportunity, he said. “If you went round 20 years ago it was a nice museum but it didn’t have any really sensational gallery space. Maria Balshaw has taken it to a whole new level. “More important almost than what you see is what you don’t see – the storage space is state of the art so you know if you give a work of art it is going to be well looked after.” Balshaw said the Whitworth was thrilled by the gift, which followed a tradition of important donations including Turner watercolours given in the 19th century by the founder of the Manchester Guardian, John Edward Taylor. The gallery was also the first UK institution to get a Picasso, in 1922, thanks to the historian and Leeds University vice-chancellor, Sir Michael Sadler, and more recently benefited from a gift of 90 contemporary works by Pauline Karpidas, the art collector. “Acquiring major works by contemporary artists is perhaps the biggest challenge facing UK public collections today and it is where collectors can offer the greatest help to galleries,” said Balshaw. “This support is vital to help ensure the whole of the UK is able to enjoy and learn about the greatest artists of our nation.” Braka, who is giving the Emin and Gilbert and George works, said he and Dane had tried to give pieces that had a reason behind the donation. For example, the Emin work is an appliquéd blanket called Meow, which adds to the Whitworth’s collection of textiles and reflects Manchester’s cotton industry heritage. The Gilbert and George work, Race Hate – which uses newspaper headlines to explore racial tension – plays on the gallery’s location close to Moss Side. Four of the donated works’ artists are Turner prize nominees. Warren’s work, Sylvesternacht, was an installation at the 2006 Turner prize show. |