Items15The creator’s order
  1. 1Sam WanamakerSam WanamakerBorn 14 Jun 1919Founder. The American actor Sam Wanamaker set up the Shakespeare Globe Trust in 1970 and spent more than two decades raising money and fighting planning battles to rebuild Shakespeare's open-air theatre on Bankside, near its original site. He died in 1993, four years before Shakespeare's Globe…0i
  2. 2George LucasGeorge LucasFounder and funder. George Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson, paid for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which opened in Los Angeles's Exposition Park on 22 September 2026 after years of delays and a move from Chicago. Its collection, largely his own, mixes Norman Rockwell paintings, comic art…0i
  3. 3Cheech MarinCheech MarinCollector and co-founder. Cheech Marin spent decades buying Chicano art when major museums ignored it, and in June 2022 the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art and Culture opened in a former public library in Riverside, California. It is a partnership with the Riverside Art Museum, which runs it,…0i
  4. 4Laurence OlivierLaurence OlivierBorn 22 May 1907Founding director. Laurence Olivier led the National Theatre company from its first season at the Old Vic in 1963 until 1973, building the ensemble and repertoire that justified a permanent home. The South Bank building opened in 1976 with its largest auditorium named the Olivier. He was not the…0i
  5. 5Joan LittlewoodJoan LittlewoodBorn 6 Oct 1914Company founder. Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop moved into the run-down Theatre Royal Stratford East in 1953, cleaning and repairing it themselves, and turned it into the home of Oh, What a Lovely War! and A Taste of Honey. Her later Fun Palace idea of a free, open arts space for everyone still…0i
  6. 6Alan AyckbournAlan AyckbournBorn 12 Apr 1939Artistic director. Alan Ayckbourn ran Scarborough's theatre-in-the-round for decades and led its move in 1996 into a converted Odeon cinema, now the Stephen Joseph Theatre, named after his mentor. He premiered most of his more than eighty plays there before London, giving a seaside town a producing…0i
  7. 7Peggy GuggenheimPeggy GuggenheimBorn 26 Aug 1898Collector and founder. Peggy Guggenheim bought the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on Venice's Grand Canal in 1949 and soon began opening her home and its collection of Cubist, Surrealist and Abstract Expressionist art to visitors. Since her death in 1979 the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation has run it as…0i
  8. 8Damien HirstDamien HirstBorn 7 Jun 1965Founder and funder. Damien Hirst converted a row of former theatre-scenery workshops in Vauxhall into Newport Street Gallery, which opened in 2015 and charges no admission. It shows works from his own large collection of other artists' work, as well as his own, in shows that are often surprisingly…0i
  9. 9Gilbert & GeorgeGilbert & GeorgeFounders and funders. Gilbert & George opened the Gilbert & George Centre in April 2023 in a converted brewery building off Brick Lane, a few streets from the Spitalfields house where they have lived since the 1960s. Entry is free and it shows their work in rotating exhibitions. It is a modest…0i
  10. 10Tracey EminTracey EminBorn 3 Jul 1963Founder and funder. Tracey Emin opened TKE Studios in a former Victorian bathhouse in Margate, her home town, in March 2023, offering affordable studios and a free residency programme for emerging artists, which she has linked to her recovery from cancer. Public access is limited to seasonal shows,…0i