Will Waspe's Whispers
Art-dealing around Bond and Cork Streets isn't exactly a closed shop, but the magic circle is not easy to penetrate. One newcomer I fancy to make it, though, is twenty three yearold Felicity Samuel, who opens a new gallery next week in Savile Row — not exactly in Bond Street, but near enough to cause raised eye-brows and hard rethinking of traditional policies in the elitist art world, especially as the Felicity Samuel Gallery is no poky, one-room business. Few of its rivals would have the space to house its first show — Ivor Abraham's 'garden sculpture.'
Felicity has two decisive assets in her break-in attempt: connections and money. Not that she's throwing the latter around frivolously — the job of converting the premises from tailoring workrooms to art gallery was done by artidt chums "at a tenth of the cost quoted by professional builders and decorators" — but it has enabled her to build up a nice backroom stock, and it's that (not the publicised exhibitions) that makes any art gallery commercially successful.
She should also know what she's doing. As well as having two partners (Gillian Heeley and Antoinette Godkirk) who've both worked in other galleries, Felicity has been surrounded by art all her young life. Her father, Viscount Bearsted, has only lately retired as chairman of the Whitechals4„ Art Gallery, a position previouslY helci„,hobr!: her grandfathff, a great collector, Vq"was also a trustee of the Tate.
Discouraging the young At Whatever is Michael Croft up to at r Shaw Theatre, opened only the other 0: it seems, with pious dedicationto„he cause of bringing an appreciation 01,`e,.. drama to the young? Students and 110,.,uut. 21s get in for less than half-price. t;ke, rently they can see Come When YOu a North Country comedy by Joyce 17Yt; burn which is the sort of thing that useaces trundle twice-nightly round the Pr°v,,illtile between the death of music hall anu coming of bingo, and is almostgnar',31 teed to persuade young newcomers to We theatre that they'd be better off at home theatre Coronation Street. one Of course, Croft isn't presenting himself and his theatre could Pr°`13-its. use the commercial finance to add t° cit public grants. (There is usually n° a),s, of money to back Miss Rayburn's Pifor though in this case she has the Shaw to only three weeks) But if the Shawctishas become a sort of ' hall for hire,' Crc" ed : hir surely a responsibility for what it IS for.
Sin of omission Sin of omission
In case you wondered what Peter Blac; was on about in his tetchy referenCe 1st this column in a letter to the editor hatie week, I had to ponder the point for a tot, myself before I tumbled to the Black's chagrin stems from his not filide been accessed in my Consumer to Critics' back in December — an „ape of s ed Consumer's 9c s ed lsiinmeps.le charity, as he might have g"sthe if he had read more carefully betWeea
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