The Prime Minister selected Zewditu Gebreyohanes as one of three new Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum through the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS).
One of the three new candidates is Zewditu, a right-wing commentator. The other two are Rusty Elvidge and Rosalind Polly Blakesley.
Rosalinda, one of her colleagues, teaches Russian and European art at Cambridge University and Rusty is a managing director at Credit Suisse and advises wealthy entrepreneurs.
The UK Government selected Gebreyohanes and the other two trustees through fair and open competition, as required by the Code of Governance for public appointments.
The Art Newspaper says the Commissioner for Public Appointments is responsible for who becomes a trustee of the V&A Museum and how they get there.
Who is Zewditu Gebreyohanes? Graduated from Kings College as Trustee of the V&A Museum by the UK Government
Zewditu Gebreyohanes, half Ethiopian, half English, has been a conservative since she started school. Her English mother and Ethiopian father told her to turn her hobby into a career.
Line Correct says her commitment to traditional values and ideas brought her close to the great Sir Roger Vernon Scruton, a British philosopher and writer who focuses on promoting conservative traditionalist views.
Zewditu, formerly head of History Matters at the right-wing Policy Exchange, was inspired to pursue a career as a conservative at the Crisis of Freedoms in the West conference.
Right-wing commentator Zewditu, who worked for Policy Exchange, said Kew Gardens is not doing what the law dictates. Restore Trust recently told her online how happy they are that she is now a trustee.
Zewditu Gebreyohane’s age – How old is the V&A Museum keeper?
Wiki Data says that Zewditu Gebreyohanes is 23 years old and is part of the Anglo-Ethiopian cultural group. She was born in 1999. Her mother, Flora Eleanor Rhalou Griffin, is of British origin and her father is from Ethiopia.
She graduated in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from King’s College London in 2020. She then began working as a research intern at Policy Exchange.
Sir Scruton gave the young Anglo-Ethiopian conservative thinker the chance to work with him. Because of this, Zewditu’s books and articles have talked about things like: “Does decolonizing the botanical collections at Kew harm their primary objective?”
The anti-Wokeness activist will now work as a trustee at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. Gebreyohanes will begin his four-year term on September 5, 2022. He was elected by the Prime Minister of the British Government.
Barbara Keeley criticized her appointment, saying that a job in government shouldn’t depend on how much money you give the Conservatives, but on how well you do your job.
The National Trust defended the statement, saying it knew Zewditu Gebreyohanes had been appointed by the government to run the V&A. The Trust also said trustees are very important to the way an organization is run and value them as a close partner and colleague.
How much does Zewditu Gebreyohane make as a V&A Trustee and how much is he worth
There is no trustee payment at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Zewditu Gebreyohane will be reimbursed for his reasonable travel expenses by the V&A in accordance with their expense policy.
As the museum’s curator, she is required to have six board meetings and one day off each year. From time to time, the Board of Directors will cover Zewditu’s travel expenses.
Zewditu is at the beginning of her career and wants to become a well-known conservative figure. We think her net worth could be anywhere from $100,000 to $200,000 right now.
Gebreyohane earns most of her money as a right-wing commentator and anti-wake activist. Although she has a lot of money and a good job, she prefers to live a simple life.
Polly Blakesley is a professor
A four-year term begins September 5, 2022.
Rosalind Polly Blakesley is Professor of Russian and European Art at the University of Cambridge, Fellow at Pembroke College, Cambridge and co-founder of the Cambridge Courtauld Russian Art Centre. She has served on the boards of the National Portrait Gallery, Kettle’s Yard and the Hamilton Kerr Institute. She is General Counsel of the Fitzwilliam Museum and Trustee of the Samuel Courtauld Trust. She worked on An Imperial Collection at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC; International handicrafts at the V&A; and Russia and the Arts at the National Portrait Gallery, which was part of a groundbreaking exchange with the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. The Pushkin Medal, Art Newspaper Russia Best Book Award and Pushkin House Russian Book Prize are some of the awards she has won. She is currently working on a research project entitled Russia, Empire, and the Baltic Imagination. The Leverhulme Trust is supporting her in this project with a Major Research Fellowship.
Elvide, Rusty
A four-year term begins September 5, 2022.
Rusty has been a collector since he was at Bristol University. He used to buy antique silver and jewelry at auctions and fairs in the West Country. He has also collected Regency furniture, English watercolors and, over the last 20 years, paintings by the Bloomsbury group and modern British artists, as well as contemporary art and pottery. He lives in a house that is on the Class 1 List and that he has repaired. Rusty has always worked in finance. At Salomon Brothers he worked on the trading floor. At Credit Suisse he was responsible for the global foreign exchange business. For the last ten years he has been a financial adviser to some of the UK’s most successful private banking entrepreneurs. Rusty has worked in Japan, Switzerland and the US but lives and works full-time in the UK.
Zewditu Gebreyohanes
A four-year term begins September 5, 2022.
Zewditu Gebreyohanes is Editor-in-Chief of History Reclaimed and Director of Restore Trust. She was formerly head of Policy Exchange’s History Matters department. In 2020, Zewditu worked as an assistant to the late Professor Sir Roger Scruton, who chaired the Government Commission on Housing and Architecture entitled Building Better, Building Beautiful. In 2020 she earned a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from King’s College London.
The Compensation and Governance Code
The people in charge of the Victoria and Albert Museum are not paid. This appointment was made in accordance with the Governance Code on Public Appointments from the Cabinet Office. The Public Appointments Officer is responsible for the entire appointment process. Under the Code, an appointed employee must report any major political activity they have engaged in in the past five years. This is defined as holding public office, giving a speech, making a trackable donation, or running for office. Rusty Elvidge and Professor Blakesley did not say they were involved in politics. Zewditu Gebreyohanes said he had fought for the Conservative Party for the past five years.
A right-wing activist and commentator who has in the past called arts and heritage groups “awakened” has been given a post at the Victoria and Albert Museum by the Prime Minister. This will likely fuel claims that the government is waging a “culture war.”
Zewditu Gebreyohanes is one of three new V&A Trustees appointed by the Prime Minister through the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. He has worked for the right-wing think tank Policy Exchange and is director of a group fighting what it sees as an “awakening” at the National Trust (DCMS).
Gebreyohanes, in her work for Policy Exchange, has said that Kew Gardens is violating its legally defined purposes by pursuing a “fashionable agenda” by “decolonizing” its botanical collections. She also said institutions are following a “post-BLM trend” of “acting on a whim” when it comes to how the public views history.
Before the V&A and DCMS made any announcements, Restore Trust online congratulated her on her appointment. The National Trust (NT) has said that Restore Trust is attacking the NT with a political agenda.
Gebreyohanes graduated from King’s College London with a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 2020. He recently became a director of the Restore Trust, which was trying to win seats on the NT Governing Council at its annual general meeting last October. The group said it was made up of ordinary people opposed to the NT’s so-called “wake agenda” and said it wanted to regain confidence “back to its core purpose of protecting our heritage and our landscape”.
The appointment could be one of the last times the Nadine Dorries-led DCMS gets involved in the Kulturkampf. It comes after Labor asked the V&A earlier this year to investigate why the museum was giving a private tour as a prize at a Conservative fundraising dinner when one of its other trustees is a Tory party leader.
Ben Elliot is a Trustee of the V&A and Co-Chair of the Conservative Party. He was often asked how his concierge company Quintessentially helped Russian oligarchs.
Labor opposed the election. Barbara Keeley, the shadow secretary for arts and civil society, said: “Public appointments should be based on merit, not how much you have given to the Conservatives or whether you work in one of their think tanks.
“The constant stream of nepotism in public appointments without public oversight or accountability threatens to tarnish the reputation of many of our major UK institutions.”
In a statement, the National Trust said: “We are aware that the Government has appointed Zewditu Gebreyohanes to the V&A Board of Trustees. Trustees are an important part of any organisation, including our national museums, and have a major say in how they are run and what they stand for. We get along well with the V&A and consider them close partners and colleagues with whom we work well.”
Rosalind Polly Blakesley, Professor of Russian and European Art at the University of Cambridge, and Rusty Elvidge, Managing Director of Credit Suisse, which advises ultra high net worth entrepreneurs, are the other two chosen individuals.
Blakesley is a Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge and helped found the Cambridge Courtauld Russian Art Centre. He is also General Counsel of the Fitzwilliam Museum and Trustee of the Samuel Courtauld Trust. He has served on the boards of the National Portrait Gallery, Kettle’s Yard and the Hamilton Kerr Institute.
Elvidge has been a collector since he was at Bristol University. He used to buy antique silver and jewelry at auctions and fairs in the West Country. He has also collected Regency furniture, English watercolors and, over the past 20 years, paintings by the Bloomsbury group and other modern British artists, as well as contemporary art and pottery.
A government spokesman said: “All trustees will be selected through fair and open competition, following the Code of Governance of the Commissioner for Public Appointments at public appointments.”