Last night was the Keeper’s Dinner, a new tradition, but a good one, whereby the patrons of the RA welcome the new generation of students to the academy with a meat feast provided by Mark Hix. As the Keeper said, the stalwart defence of the principle of free admission to postgraduate art education has produced a remarkable – and now increasingly rare – atmosphere of equality of opportunity and creative freedom.
I can certainly vouch for Blair’s fondness for Pont de la Tour (from my Design Museum days). Of course, the joke was that he was always camera-ready in full make-up. The pancake gave him an orange glow as he worked his way through a plate of moules… It was quite a sight.