Tag: thomas gainsborough

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The Africa Centre Southwark London + Mary Martin London

Black History and Futures Month

A Dame in Britain. A Queen in Ghana. A Day in Atlanta. Honour in three continents. More of Mary Martin later. The flank wall of The Africa Centre in Southwark’s cultural quarter a few blocks away from the Thames is filled with a mural of Ignatius Sancho (1729 to 1780). He was the original polymath, the seminal multihyphenate. A former enslaved African, he rose through 18th century society – no mean feat – relying on grit and talent to become a celebrated British writer, composer and abolitionist. Ignatius would also become the first person of African heritage to vote in a British general election. The portrait by London based visual artist Neequaye Dreph Dsane, known as Dreph, is loosely based on a 1768 portrait by Thomas Gainsborough. Ignatius set the bar high.

In his opening address at the Honorary Doctorate Conferment Ceremony held in The Africa Centre, Dr Matthew Godwin Mario on behalf of Myles Leadership University emphasised the importance of recognising people from diverse backgrounds who have made immense contributions to global development and continue to create opportunities and spaces for the next generation of leaders. “Myles Leadership University believes that leadership is not limited to the classroom,” he stated, “but lived through service, impact and innovation. Today we honour those who exemplify these values.”

This year’s honorary doctorate recipients were Chief Light Aboetaka (Chief Executive and Founder of African Afforestation Association in Germany). Adesegun Adeosun Junior (Cofounder of Afro Nation and Founder of Smade Entertainment Group in the UK). Henrietta Uwhubetiyi Amatoritsero (Chief Executive of Casual Queen Clothing in Nigeria). Bash Amuneni (Architect, Poet and Cultural Administrator in the UK). Bilkiss Moorad (Chief Executive of LegalWise in Botswana). Ogechi Origbe (Chief Executive Mattoris Supamart in Nigeria). Dr Tonye Rex Idaminabo (Chief Executive of Reputation Poll International and Founder of African Achievers Awards in Britain). Ignatius Sancho would approve of the list.  Miss World Angola Núria Assis said, “C’est un grand privilège d’être ici pour représenter mon pays.”

Keynote speakers were Professor Akin Akinpelu (Forbes Coaches Council in Nigeria), Dr Jola Grace Emmanuel (International Speaker and Author) and Dr Anurag Saxena (International Banker). Keynote speaker Jola Grace noted, “We are all created on purpose with a purpose: nothing just happens and aligning with your purpose brings fulfilment and peace. Your purpose was created before you was, so it cannot expire. Before we were formed in our mother’s womb, God knew us and He ordained us. He gave us our assignment, our task, our purpose way before we were formed in our mother’s womb. Sometimes God doesn’t show us the whole picture but just a snippet, expecting us to trust Him all through the journey.”

The Ceremony united leaders, visionaries and changemakers under one roof to honour service, education and the spirit of global leadership. Attendees included the ultra successful businessperson Anywhere Thompson, owner of East Walls Hotel Chichester, and Jeremie Alamazani, Founder and Chief Executive of Wealth Partners Ltd. Jeremie shared, “I understood that my colour could be an issue, could be a problem with certain people but the way to minimise your colour is to increase your skill. When you get on a plane you don’t ask the colour of the pilot or his faith. You want a professional. And when you reach a certain level people are checking more your value – what you are bringing to the marketplace – more so than your colour.”

Jeremie continued, “So I knew that my colour could come as a way to explain why I was not given something, why I was slowed down in a process. Still, try to be the best you can and they will not be able to avoid you regardless of what they think of you. So I don’t expect to be loved, I don’t want to be loved. I want you to respect me because I’m good at what I do.” A Myles University Initiative discussed after the Ceremony was Project Educate 1,000. This initiative supports worldwide access to higher education for underprivileged children. Its mission is to empower five million youths by 2045. Jeremie is a Trustee of the African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust and has many community commitments in Africa including financially supporting the Mere Teresa de Calcutta Primary School in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Dame Mary Martin, Founder and Chief Executive of Mary Martin London, the international fashion house, also supports many charitable causes including teaching underprivileged children in London to sew and make clothes. At the Ceremony, Mary was recognised with a Golden Plaque for her leadership and continuing contribution to British and international fashion. Earlier this year she was made a Dame of the Knightly Order Valiant of St George. Even earlier this year Mary was crowned Diaspora Queen Mother Mama Nenyo I by the Ewe Kingdom Chiefs of Benin, Nigeria, Togo and Ghana. Last year, Atlanta City Council declared the first Saturday in December to be Mary Martin Appreciation Day. The third Monday of January every year in Atlanta is Martin Luther King Junior Day.

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Musée Jacquemart-André Paris + Giovanni Bellini

Forever Adding to the Body of Knowledge

Bellini isn’t just a tipple, y’know. An exhibition in the museum’s modern gallery on the artist Giovanni Bellini (circa 1430 to 1516) of depictions of Christ resonates with meaning on Good Friday. White faced depictions of the olive skinned Nazarene. Sainte Justine Borromée painted in around 1475, a dagger forever thrust through her heart. A cobblestoned carriageway leads from Boulevard Haussmann up and round to the entrance portico which overlooks the most private of urban gardens. Soon you are in another world of glamour and sophistication and mirrored brilliance. Even by Parisian standards, Musée Jacquemart-André is astonishingly beautiful. And it unarguably has the best porphyry columned staircase in the French capital. Or at least the most aristocratically idiosyncratic.

We’re connoisseurs of mad staircases. Mourne Park in Kilkeel, County Down: parallel flights of fancy leading each and every way, overlooked by 13 Persian cats. Lissan House in Cookstown, County Tyrone, with its estate carpenter-built stairs ascending and descending in all directions, getting in trouble for calling it “eccentric” (then owner Hazel Dolling took it as a slight about her). Musée Jacquemart-André is a new well deserved entrant into our genre. An intricate three dimensional jigsaw of galleries and suspended catwalks is visually doubled by a mirrored wall.

Museum Chairman Bruno Monnier explains, “We want visitors to feel like the honoured guests of the two art lovers that were the spouses Édouard André and Nélie Jacquemart. That is why we have done all we can to preserve the original atmosphere of this sumptuous 19th century mansion. Works from the Italian Renaissance, French painting from the 18th century, 17th century Flemish painting and an array of furniture all bear witness to the refined taste of the two founders.”

Édouard André (1833 to 1894) was the scion of a rich Protestant banking family from Nîmes. The Banque André was powerful in the economy of the Second Empire and Édouard moved in the circle of Napoléon III. A short lived political career ended with the abdication of Napoléon III and the fall of the Second Empire. In 1872 he chose to devote the remainder of his life to his true vocation, that of collector and patron of the arts. Édouard’s wife, Nélie Jacquemart (1841 to 1912), was a society painter.

In 1868 Édouard bought a plot of land along the future Boulevard Haussmann. Henri Parent (1819 to 1895), architect par excellence d’hôtels particulier, resurrected the Louis XVI style for his gleaming masterwork. Édouard and British collector Richard Wallace were both members of the Union Centrale des Arts Appliqués à l’Industrie. Richard opened his house museum in London, The Wallace Collection, in 1900. Musée Jacquemart-André would open 13 years later as bequeathed by the widow Nélie in accordance with her late husband’s wishes. Both cultural attractions still brim with the personalities of their founders.

Henri brought the best craftsmen and Nélie managed the designers, contractors and suppliers. The married pair of patrons holidayed in Italy every year, bringing back trinkets and souvenirs, not least the Staircase Hall frescoes from a villa in the Veneto. The Staircase Hall flows into a Winter Garden – the latter was all the rage in the late 19th century following the invention of central heating. It was Nélie’s idea to transform the empty rooms of the first floor into an Italian museum. The pieces are like a roll call of la crème de la crème artists down the ages and across the borders: Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Canaletto, Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun, Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds … The ‘salons de style’ filling the ground floor are made for entertaining. The double height Music Room allows for a musicians’ gallery. In contrast, the Private Apartments, bedroom suites for Édouard and Nélie, are discreetly located facing away from Boulevard Haussmann.

A Protestant people’s palace. So handy too. Musée Jacquemart-André is just five minutes from Gare du Nord (on the back of a motorbike). It’s time to sip a Bellini in the garden.