Hey big spender: The musings of an arts super donor
Dame Vivien Duffield has donated £500m of her fortune to the arts. In a wide-ranging interview, she tells Richard Morrison her views on 'second-rate musicals' at the ENO, sexism in philanthropy, and corporate sponsorship.
No matter how grand you get in the arts world, no one turns down an invitation from Dame Vivien Duffield. And at a time when money is tight and rows over funding are escalating, Duffield has never been more popular or influential.
She is the woman who raised the money to rebuild the Royal Opera House, who spearheaded redevelopment campaigns for Oxford University and the Southbank Centre, who funded London’s big new Jewish community centre (JW3), who has bankrolled the installation of no fewer than 82 (at the last count) education centres in galleries and museums across Britain, and who founded the wonderful Eureka! children’s museum in Halifax.
In the arts world they have lost count of the number of times that she has announced her “last big project”. It’s nonsense, of course. At 78 she is still Britain’s most prolific and formidable cultural philanthropist, having made donations estimated at more than £500 million over half a century... Keep reading on The Times.
No matter how grand you get in the arts world, no one turns down an invitation from Dame Vivien Duffield. And at a time when money is tight and rows over funding are escalating, Duffield has never been more popular or influential.
She is the woman who raised the money to rebuild the Royal Opera House, who spearheaded redevelopment campaigns for Oxford University and the Southbank Centre, who funded London’s big new Jewish community centre (JW3), who has bankrolled the installation of no fewer than 82 (at the last count) education centres in galleries and museums across Britain, and who founded the wonderful Eureka! children’s museum in Halifax.
In the arts world they have lost count of the number of times that she has announced her “last big project”. It’s nonsense, of course. At 78 she is still Britain’s most prolific and formidable cultural philanthropist, having made donations estimated at more than £500 million over half a century... Keep reading on The Times.