Who pulls the strings in the arts world ?; Politicians, entrepreneurs

In the days of the British empire, wealthy men bought their way into heaven, and high society, by building galleries, museums, libraries and other temples of culture. The empire's crumbled and the fortunes made from steel, tobacco and land are spent, but the temples remain.

With millionaire entrepreneurs a rare breed these days, and few among the aristocracy having the cash to look after their castles and collections, the common assumption is that the arts in Scotland now depend on the National Lottery and sponsorship by a few large PLCs to top up their public sector grants. It's a dangerous assumption to make.

An extensive Sunday Herald survey of the boards of Scotland's major arts organisations has found that they are still dependent on a network of well connected, often wealthy, individuals.

New research by the charity Arts And Business shows that private wealth contributed more to the arts in Scotland last financial year than any other source: (pounds) 14 million from individuals as opposed to (pounds) 11m from the National Lottery and (pounds) 8.3m from business sponsors.

The ability of the arts to attract the support of the wealthy and philanthropic is, if anything, more crucial than ever. To reel in the big game, galleries, museums, theatres, orchestras and art colleges rely on their governors and trustees, not their fund-raising departments. As one experienced arts marketer put it: "Serious fundraising starts at board level, not with someone who's paid (pounds) 20,000 a year going through Scotland's top 10 companies with a sponsorship proposal."

The problem is that the current emphasis in the Scottish arts world is on sweeping away the old boy networks of the past. The Nolan rules, introduced in 1995 to open up the process of public appointments, and the careful scrutiny of the Scottish Executive, means that meritocracy is gradually replacing the aristocracy.

By comparing arts boards in 1997 - before devolution and just as the Nolan rules were beginning to take effect - to those in place today, this gradual shift becomes apparent. The Sunday Herald's investigation to identify the main movers, patrons and serial committee-joiners provides a fascinating insight into who's who in the new Scottish establishment.

Neither the National Museums nor the National Galleries of Scotland, both of whose boards are appointed by the First Minister and the minister for culture, has a single member of the landed gentry among its trustees. The picture was quite different five years ago, when at least four of Scotland's major titled, landowning families, including Dalkeiths, Airlies, and Roseberys, were represented.

Since 1997, the boards of these two venerable institutions have begun to encompass a wider group of trustees. The new chair of the museums, Lord Wilson of Tillyorn, may have been educated at Glenalmond and Oxford, but he earned his own spurs as governor of Hong Kong, immediately preceding Chris Patten. His co-trustees include Neena Mahal, who works in the careers service at Glasgow City Council. Newly arrived on to the board is Ian Ritchie, who made his money in software and now spends his time encouraging other entrepreneurs and sitting on an endless series of committees and boards, including the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Three new appointments to the National Galleries give a taste of things to come. Newly co-opted are Ruth Wishart, the BBC broadcaster, Herald columnist and close friend of the late Donald Dewar; Marc Ellington, once a member of the folk rock collective the Fairport Convention, now a heritage activist who already sits on the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF); and Bailie Elizabeth Cameron, the convener of Glasgow's culture committee and close colleague of Bridget McConnell, head of arts and leisure at the city council and wife of the First Minister.

Those responsible for bringing in the new blood are Jack McConnell and his political ally culture minister Mike Watson - they have the last word on new appointments to the galleries and museums, as they do at the Scottish Arts Council. The SAC's newish chair, former Radio 4 controller James Boyle, is in turn responsible for giving an informal nod to board appointments at companies that the SAC funds, such as Scottish Ballet/Scottish Opera.

These days Lady Stewartby is the only member of the combined opera and ballet board with a hereditary title, but she was also the director at Bryson House, a Belfast charity, for seven years.

Her fellow board members include Morag Deyes, artistic director of Edinburgh's Dance Base and the woman whose determination made the creation of the state-of-the-art dance premises possible; and Lesley Thomson, co-founder of the PR firm Liddell Thomson, chair of the dynamic Glasgow arts and clubbing venue The Arches, member of the SAC's governing body, and governor of the Glasgow School of Art.

There are significant changes at the Edinburgh's Festival City Theatres, where Viscount Younger, the Conservative peer and former secretary of state for Scotland, has just ceded the chair to the former Aggreko chairman Chris Masters. A southerner by birth, Masters built his career in Scotland, eventually becoming chief executive of Christian Salvesen, and has already made his presence felt on the arts scene. He is a former vice-chair of Scottish Ballet and sits on the board of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

Another member of the new guard is Nick Kuenssberg, who made his name in textiles as managing director of cashmere firm Dawson International. A director of various software companies these days, Kuenssberg is vice-chair of Glasgow School of Art, a member of the British Council's Scottish committee and a board member of the Citizens Theatre.

The British Council board has always been a good indicator of who pulls the strings. Lord Wilson served as chair back in 1997, alongside Richard Calvocoressi, director of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, and Lady Cowan, who was active at the National Trust and the Highland Festival.

Sheila Murray, the British Council's international arts officer for Scotland, agrees that things are changing in her organisation. "It's no longer the case that we can afford to have the great and the good on our committees. What we're looking for is people who are extremely well networked and who have hard skills, people working in the field who know what the current issues are."

For Sir Timothy Clifford, director of the National Galleries, the disappearance of the sons and daughters of the great houses of Scotland is a cause for concern, not celebration. His collections have been built up by loans and bequests from the landed gentry. The Duke of Sutherland has 26 paintings by Rembrandt, Poussin and Titian at the Mound.

"We have no peers on our board now," said Clifford, "but that's not to say it's not sad that we haven't, because I think they've still got a very important role to play. Even when there are no hereditary peers in the House of Lords, they and their relations will still own the great pictures of Scotland and England. It's crazy to turn your back on them."

Sir Robert Smith, the merchant banker and current chair of the National Museums who describes his childhood self as "a rough wee kid running around Maryhill", says that when he was heading the fund- raising effort to build the Museum of Scotland, the Earl and Countess of Dalkeith and Lord Perth opened doors that the untitled couldn't have peeked through. This was particularly true in the USA, where they hosted a highly lucrative gala on board the Royal Yacht Britannia. "You tend not to get money from these people directly because they are asset rich and cash poor," said Smith, "however, in the days of republicanism and meritocracy, it's amazing how people will turn up for the aristocracy."

The hereditary peers aren't the only ones with pull. Though largely retired from public life, Lord Macfarlane of Bearsden is still probably king of patrons. His art collection alone, which is partly in his own possession and partly in that of the company he chaired, United Distillers, includes Scotland's most famous painting, Monarch Of The Glen.

Macfarlane has sat on almost every board of note from the National Galleries to the National Art Collections Fund and the National heritage Memorial Fund, predecessor to the HLF, and has recently come out of retirement to raise (pounds) 5m for the refurbishment of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. Smith compares his appeal to that of the Queen Mother.

Their fellow Kelvingrove fund-raisers are an interesting bunch. All hand-picked by their chair, they do not include anyone from the aristocracy, although Macfarlane says he would have had them if they'd been available. Instead, entrepreneurs such as David Moulsdale, founder of Optical Express, and Arnold Clark, the car hire tycoon - by no means regulars on the arts board circuit - have been co-opted to provide the new money networking skills, while Carol Smillie and Kirsty Wark are there to add a dash of celebrity glamour.

For Oona Ivory, wife of the National Galleries chair, former chair of Scottish Ballet, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Dance governor, and co-funder, with her husband, of the Piping Centre in Glasgow, the personal network is as important as it ever was, even when dealing with PLCs.

And for this, she says, the right board members are vital. "Professional fund-raisers are only allowed through a certain number of doors. The best approach is two-pronged. The fund-raising department speaks to the marketing department and the board member goes to the chairman. I think it has to be a meritocracy on the board, but a meritocracy with connections, people as senior in their field as you can achieve."

Brian Ivory points out that PLCs cannot be relied on to plug the gap in the way that they could in Thatcher's Britain, or even as recently as five years ago. "Five or six years ago there were 90 PLCs in Scotland, now there are about 50, and only five or six of those with a market capitalisation of over (pounds) 1 billion. And marketing departments have become more rigorous about the returns on what they are sponsoring."

Meanwhile, lottery spending on the arts in Scotland has fallen from (pounds) 19m in 1998/99 to (pounds) 4m in the last 12 months.

The support of wealthy individuals and their trusts will be increasingly needed, and as the latter don't tend to employ marketing departments, having trusted board members to make the personal contact is essential. Of course the taxpayer remains a major funder, so the ear and approval of the Executive is essential, but if those who run our temples of culture want to draw in private money, the politically correct board can't entirely replace the personal networks that still link Scotland's establishment.

The new guard Lord Wilson of Tillyorn: chair National Museums of Scotland (NMS), former chair British Council's Scottish Committee, Governor of Hong Kong 1987-1992.

Ian Ritchie: software magnate, trustee of NMS and Edinburgh Film Festival Sir Robert Smith: merchant banker, chair of BBC's Broadcasting Council for Scotland, former NMS chair, Kelvingrove fund- raiser Bailie Elizabeth Cameron: National Museums trustee, Kelvingrove fund-raiser, Scottish Arts Council (SAC) member, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall trustee Marc Ellington: former folk rocker, Heritage Lottery Fund and National Galleries trustee Jim Faulds: founder Faulds Advertising, board member of Scottish Screen and SACBrian and Oona Ivory: he is former CEO of Highland Distillers, chair of National Galleries (NG) and former SAC vice-chair; she is an RSAMD governor, former chair of Scottish Ballet and on SAC board; they founded the Piping Trust Michael Shea: The Queen's former press secretary, chair of Lyceum Theatre and of National Photography Centre steering committee, member for Scotland of Independent Television Commission Baroness Smith: widow of former Labour leader, chair of Edinburgh Fringe, was on International Festival board Chris Master: shipping and utilities, chair of Festival Theatres, Scottish Chamber Orchestra board member Lesley Thomson: co-founder of Liddell Thomson PR agency, The Arches chair, on boards of Scottish Ballet, SAC, Glasgow School of Art Seona Reid: former director SAC, principal of Glasgow School of Art, Arches board member Peter Irvine: founder of Unique Events, Film Festival, Arches and Fruitmarket Gallery board member Nick Kuenssberg: textiles, governor Glasgow School of Art, British Council and Citizens Theatre member, chair of Scotland The Brand Angus Grossart: merchant banker, Heritage Lottery Fund member, former chair NG.

Copyright 2002
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