Champagne, celebs and artefacts: British Museum hosts first lavish ‘pink ball’ fundraiser
There will be champagne, of course, and dancing, fine Indian food served alongside the Parthenon marbles and cocktails mixed in front of the Renaissance treasures of the Waddesdon bequest.And everywhere – from the lights illuminating the Greek revival architecture, to the carpet on which guests arrive, to the glamorous outfits they are requested to wear – a very particular shade of pink.When the British Museum throws open its doors on Saturday evening for its first “pink ball”, it will not only be hosting an enormous and lavish party, but also inaugurating what its director, Nicholas Cullinan, has called a “flagship national event” that he hopes will become as important to his institution’s finances as it will to the London elite’s social calendar.Eight hundred invited guests have each paid £2,000 to party alongside some of the world’s most sensational artefacts and a roll call of bigwigs from the worlds of fashion, art and culture: Naomi Campbell and Alexa Chung, Miuccia Prada and Manolo Blahnik, Sir Steve McQueen and Sir Grayson Perry and Dame Kristin Scott Thomas.As well as glitz, however, there will be brass.
The event is co-chaired by Isha Ambani, a multi-hyphenate Indian “businesswoman, philanthropist and arts patron”, who also happens to be the daughter of Asia’s richest man.Mukesh Ambani’s energy and petrochemicals conglomerate, Reliance Industries, sponsored the museum’s current (pink-hued) exhibition on Ancient India.Ambani and Cullinan, a celebrated networker, have mined their contacts books: also listed as “committee members” for the event are Kumar Mangalam Birla, the billionaire chair of the Indian manufacturing conglomerate Aditya Birla Group, Rajeeb Samdani, a Bangladeshi industrialist and art collector, and the “lifestyle entrepreneur” Eiesha Bharti Pasricha, the daughter of the Indian billionaire industrialist Sunil Bharti Mittal.It is they, alongside a long list of other business people, arts patrons and investors, who organisers hope will bid heavily on auction lots including a pet portrait painted by Dame Tracey Emin, a museum trustee, or an exclusive tour of Coco Chanel’s apartment at 31 Rue Cambon in Paris.About 70% of those attending have no previous relationship with the museum, Cullinan has said; something he would surely love to change.
Where previous museum directors might have been more circumspect about the grubby business of raising dosh to keep the lights on, Cullinan has been frank that the financial needs of the museum “require you to be pretty flexible in your thinking, and pretty entrepreneurial”.It’s an acute challenge for all institutions, given the 18% plummet in core funding for arts and cultural organisations between 2010 and 2023.The funding climate is “really, really bad”, according to Leslie Ramos, a philanthropy adviser working with arts organisations.“I don’t think that a ball or a series of galas is going to be enough to solve the issue,” she said.That said, Cullinan is a “brilliant fundraiser” who has carefully staged his ball at the end of Frieze art fair, when London is teeming with arts investors, she added.
“When you are studying history of art, you don’t necessarily know that you will also need to learn fundraising skills if you want to run a museum,It’s rare to have that dual expertise, but they are now needed more than ever,”Thomas Marks, a strategy consultant who works with museums, agreed,“It’s certainly imperative these days that museum leaders and senior leadership teams embed a development mentality in their organisations,” he said,“Ultimately, the conversation about funding is one that is going to be front and centre in the day-to-day work of any museum at this point.
”Cullinan’s “flexibility of thought”, however, has inevitably attracted criticism.The museum already has a £50m, 10-year deal with its longstanding partner BP to help fund a redevelopment “masterplan”, and the campaign group Culture Unstained has criticised the association of the Ambani family, “whose wealth comes in large part from the fossil fuel and petrochemical projects of Reliance Industries”.A spokesperson for the museum said: “We are not immune to the changing conversations taking place around sponsorships and in part that is why the ball is so important, because it moves us into a different environment and makes us more dynamic and viable for our future needs.”They said funds raised by the event will be spent on international programmes, including partnerships in Ghana and Iraq and bringing the Bayeux tapestry to the museum.This time next year, the tapestry will be in place – an obvious inspiration for the theme of next year’s ball, Cullinan said, confirming the event is here to stay.
Expect more champagne, more celebs and more extremely wealthy people,
Grooming gang victim quits inquiry panel over ‘condescending language towards survivors’
Keir Starmer’s national grooming gang inquiry has suffered a blow after a prominent survivor resigned from its overseeing panel saying she disagreed with a shortlist of two possible chairs.Fiona Goddard, who was abused by an organised street gang in Bradford while living in a children’s home, stepped down on Monday from the victims survivor liaison panel, voicing concern over political interference and the “condescending and controlling language used towards survivors” during the process.Two prospective candidates to chair the inquiry, the former deputy chief constable Jim Gamble and the chair of the child safeguarding practice review panel, Annie Hudson, are due to meet the panel on Tuesday.Terms of the statutory investigation are still being discussed by the panel of stakeholders including survivors of abuse rings, four months after the prime minister bowed to pressure and set it up.In an email sent on Monday morning, Goddard wrote that she was removing herself from the liaison panel
Low participation in medical trials puts millions of young people at risk
Millions of young people risk missing out on new treatments for health conditions and having to use medicines that are unsafe, ineffective or inappropriate because so few take part in medical research, experts have warned.Data analysis by the Guardian reveals that members of gen Z – those born between the late 1990s and the early 2000s – are significantly underrepresented in clinical trials and health studies.People aged 18 to 24 make up 8% of England’s population, but only 4.4% of those taking part in medical research.Though less affected by life-threatening conditions such as cancer and heart disease, young adults still experience a significant burden of disease
‘I wish I had taken part sooner’: how a medical trial transformed a young person’s life
Millions of young people risk missing out on new treatments for health conditions and having to use medicines that are unsafe, ineffective or inappropriate because so few take part in medical research. One of those bucking the trend explains why he signed up to a study and how it transformed his life.Gulliver Waite was diagnosed with clinical depression at 19. For years, he struggled with extremely low mood, anxiety, frequent panic attacks and occasional paranoia.“I put everything I could into working because it was basically all I could do,” he says
Millions exploited by ‘menopause gold rush’ amid lack of reliable information, say UK experts
Millions of women are being exploited by a “menopause gold rush” as companies, celebrities and influencers take advantage of a “dearth” of reliable information on the issue, experts have said.Healthcare companies and content creators saw menopause as a “lucrative market” and were trying to profit from gaps in public knowledge, women’s health academics at University College London (UCL) said.Researchers called for the rollout of a national education programme after finding a significant number of women do not feel well-informed about menopause.Writing in the medical journal Post Reproductive Health, they said: “There has been a rapid expansion in unregulated private companies and individuals providing menopause information and support for profit; this has been termed the ‘menopause gold rush’.“This fragmented landscape of menopause support and education leaves people vulnerable to financial exploitation, may propagate misinformation and is likely to amplify existing menopause-related health inequities
Don’t cut London’s affordable housing quotas, Labour MPs urge ministers and mayor
Labour MPs are urging ministers and the London mayor to drop controversial plans to reduce affordable housing quotas in the capital in order to boost homebuilding.MPs have said they are concerned about the proposals being drawn up by the housing secretary, Steve Reed, and the mayor, Sadiq Khan, in response to a sudden drop in new development in the capital.Reed and Khan are considering allowing builders to qualify for fast-track planning approval while promising to build 20% affordable homes, rather than the current minimum of 35%. Labour MPs hope to use the next few weeks before the package is formally announced to persuade them not to do so.Florence Eshalomi, the Labour chair of the housing select committee, said: “Solving the housing crisis relies not just on how many new homes we build, but also on their affordability
Will affordable housing be the casualty as London tackles its building emergency?
Sadiq Khan has known for a while that he has a problem with housebuilding in London. But last week a consultancy published figures about the scale of the problem, which prompted full-scale alarm in City Hall and Whitehall.The analysis from Molior showed that new housebuilding in the capital had collapsed. Only 40,000 homes are under construction – two-thirds the normal rate – and in the first three months of the year builders started work on just 3,248 private sector units.“It is a perfect storm of economic conditions impacting housebuilding,” said one City Hall source
670 Grams, Birmingham B9: ‘A cascade of small, meaningful bowls that just ooze flavour’ – restaurant review | Grace Dent on restaurants
‘£30 for a ready meal?!’ Do Charlie Bigham’s new dishes really beat going to a restaurant?
‘It’s about weaponising opinion’: the power of Topjaw’s online foodie show
Benjamina Ebuehi’s recipe for peanut butter banana french toast | The sweet spot
Not all Argentinian red wine is malbec | Hannah Crosbie on drinks
Rachel Roddy’s recipe for baked leek and egg gratin | A kitchen in Rome