Considering UK arts medal for philanthropy: Issue is not that the wealthy are being honored, but rather, how are they using their wealth?
"The Prince of Wales Medal for Arts Philanthropy, is designed to highlight the astonishing work undertaken by major philanthropists supporting the arts in this country. Rupert Christiansen, writing for this paper, thought that the event was 'splendid' but felt that focusing on those who have given significant sums of money was only a part of the picture. 'Where', he wrote, 'was the official pat on the back for those public-spirited citizens who sit pro bono on the boards of their local art gallery, or those who volunteer to man their theatre’s front of house'. In fact we realised this was a problem when we originally launched the Prince of Wales Medal six years ago. Our solution then was to set up a tandem programme of events across England to highlight exactly these sort of astonishing stories." -- Phillip Spedding, the Daily Telegraph
Opinion
Modern Victorians
