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A gift to the AGO that keeps on giving

JAMES ADAMS

From Monday's Globe and Mail

Latest comment posted at 4:33 PM EST 27/10/08

What's makes donation special is that the naming rights it acquires are time-limited ...Read the full article

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  1. GK Cheese from Toronto, Canada writes: Real philanthropy would not attach ones name to the gift. There are many who still make sizable anonymous donations. A shrinking breed unfortunately. It has become a well-to-do pi$$ing contest of I love and appreciate art more than you. If something must be named, how about honouring someone or thing unquestionably great that the donour holds dear besides themselves?

    Virtue is tarnished if a man displays it so as to get credit for it.
    Boethius
  2. scott thomas from Canada writes: GK Cheese, it's in poor taste to criticise a donor. These are the sorts of people that Harper tried to mock during the election campaign as the self-entitled elite, while in fact their "fancy galas" are fund raisers for cultural institutions that the state fails in its meager levels of support.
  3. GK Cheese from Toronto, Canada writes: Scott
    Glorifying yourself is what I, and Boethius, would call, poor taste.
    Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.
  4. Oswaldo I from Canada writes: GK Cheese: Is it worse to have your name attached to a gift or to not give at all? Do you give all your Christmas and birthday gifts anonymously?
  5. I, Canadian from Toronto, Canada writes: Have to agree with GK. I've been involved in several big fundraisers and often a private donor's biggest concern is how big the letters in their name will be on the front of the building. Take a drive up University Ave.to see what I mean.
  6. Lillian Mountweazel from Canada writes: Philanthropic gifts in exchange for naming rights is nothing new.

    Having said that, I think the current trend of putting your full name on a building or wing, as if it were a giant 3D business card, is particularly heinous.

    Is "The Campbell Centre for Contemporary Art" not specific enough? Is there a concern that other Campbells might try to steal their thunder?
  7. GK Cheese from Toronto, Canada writes: Oswaldo I from Canada writes: GK Cheese: Is it worse to have your name attached to a gift or to not give at all? Do you give all your Christmas and birthday gifts anonymously?

    They don't know my name so why should I know theirs?
  8. GK Cheese from Toronto, Canada writes: ...and btw Oswaldo, you may have no issue of living in Pottersville. I prefer Bedford Falls.
  9. Akbar M from Regina, Canada writes: Oswaldo I from Canada writes: GK Cheese: Is it worse to have your name attached to a gift or to not give at all? Do you give all your Christmas and birthday gifts anonymously?
    ___________________________________________________________
    Not an apt comparison really. I'm sure his gifts aren't anonymous but he probably doesn't engrave his own name on the gifts before giving them.

    However, I'm not offended by this at all. What we, as the gallery-going great unwashed need is a gallery to go to. The rich and powerful have their own concerns. If their virtue is tarnished it is between them and God. Their philanthropy may be misplaced but it isn't without great value to most of us.
  10. gordon foster from Canada writes: I had no problem enjoying myself at the old AGO. $276 million better buy one heck of an improvement, and if they've gotten rid of the Group of Seven drawers of paintings I'll definitely have something to say about it. Just by the by, have any other major artists donated large bodies of work recently, as Henry Moore once did?

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