Our city landmarks deserve more than a wealthy benefactor’s name slapped across them

Philanthropy is important in a world in which there is not always enough money to fund critical medical and scientific research, help rid the world of diseases, end famine, fund visual and performance arts spaces and more. But there is much to be said for the notion of quiet philanthropy.

Charles “Chuck” Feeney, the American co-founder of the international duty-free shopping empire DFS Group, who died last October, gave away almost all of his $US8 billion fortune anonymously to charities, universities and foundations right across the globe.

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Feeney, who was Irish-American, used his riches to broker a peace agreement in Northern Ireland, finance a public health system in Vietnam, and expand access to AIDS drugs in southern Africa. He bankrolled Ireland’s public university system and donated billions to American universities, never allowing his name, or that of his charitable foundation Atlantic Philanthropies, to be affixed to the more than 1000 buildings he helped pay for.

In Australia, his philanthropy extended to some $550 million, given to more than 20 medical research institutes, including the Royal Children’s Hospital and the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute. He gave more than $65 million to the University of Melbourne and $100 million to the University of Queensland.

His philosophy of “giving while living” inspired Bill and Melinda Gates to set up their charitable foundation as well as Warren Buffet’s Giving Pledge, where some of the globe’s richest people promised to give away half of their fortunes during their lifetimes.

At the NGV Contemporary, it might have been better and more impactful to name one of the major exhibition halls within the new gallery after the Fox family. Call me cynical, but a consequence of the renaming may well be that the new gallery ends up losing some of its identity. In a city that effortlessly manages to reduce the names of landmarks like the Melbourne Cricket Ground to the MCG and then abbreviates it further to “The ’G”, it may not be a stretch to shrink the name of the gallery to simply, “The Fox”. Without the colon.

Joe Rollo is an architecture writer and editor.

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