Yesterday the Australian War Memorial (AWM) held a ceremony to rename its
Aircraft Hall as the "Bradbury Aircraft Hall". The AWM has recently
received a donation from the Coles Myer Corporation of Aus$500,000 towards
the redevelopment of our galleries, and the renaming ceremony was in
recognition of this donation, which was made in memory of "Bradbury".

Whilst I am grateful for such a generous donation, I am annoyed that no-one
has bothered to tell the staff who Bradbury was, or what link he has with
military aviation or the Coles Myer group. It can get embarrasing
sometimes, when you are talking to visitors.

In this day and age sponsorship is becoming a necessity, and it is only
fair that the sponsor gets something out of it. The naming of galleries in
recognition of sponsors is well and good, and I have no personal or
professional qualms about that, but we have a finite number of galleries.
What happens when all of the galleries have been dedicated? Do we start to
dedicate individual showcases, or do we then start to rename the galleries
all over again after a suitable time has passed? For how long does a
donation entitle a donor to have their gift publicly recognised?

I'd be interested to hear other views - personal, professional or
otherwise.


George Bailey
Objects Conservator
Australian War Memorial
Treloar Centre for Conservation
4 Callan St, Mitchell, A.C.T. 2911
Australia
Phone: +61 6 241 6122
fax:   +61 6 241 7998
email: [log in to unmask]


PS:  Harry Needham, thanks for the P.R. lately. Are you sure you're not on
our payroll?