In among the deluge of New Year Honours poured over Olympians (headed by Sir Bradley Wiggins, Sir Ben Ainslie, Dame Sarah Storey and Companion of Honour Lord Coe), there is a modest sprinkling over the arts world too. Roald Dahl's illustrator Quentin Blake becomes Sir Quentin, and another veteran entertainer, Jeremy Lloyd, co-writer of 'Allo 'Allo and Are You Being Served?, is made CBE.
Three other arts knighthoods go behind the scenes - John Leighton, director-general of the National Galleries of Scotland, English National Opera's former chairman Martin Smith, currently chairman of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and a prominent philanthropist and Nick Williams, principal of Leona Lewis [3]'s old school, the BRIT School for performing arts in Croydon.
Fashion designer Stella McCartney and actors Ewan McGregor [4]and Adrian Lester [5]become OBE, and violinist Nicola Benedetti [6] and actress Siobhan Redmond become MBE.
Sculptor Richard Long and the Tate's deputy director and business chief Alex Beard both become CBE. Northern Stage's chief executive Erica Whyman is awarded the OBE and Ballet Black's founder-director Cassa Pancho becomes MBE.
Arts journalism does well, with two long-serving critics made OBE, Michael Billington, the Guardian's theatre critic, and Philip French, the Observer's film man. In broadcasting, Mary Beard, the classics professor as famous for her long white hair as her scholarship on television, and Classic FM's managing director Darren Henley both become OBEs.
The cornucopia of MBEs recognise services to Scottish country dancing, church music, campanology, local music, arts for disabled people, and music hall.
Links
[1] https://theartsdesk.com/users/ismene-brown
[2] https://www.addtoany.com/share_save
[3] http://www.theartsdesk.com/new-music/cd-leona-lewis-glassheart
[4] http://www.theartsdesk.com/film/beginners
[5] http://www.theartsdesk.com/theatre/red-velvet-tricycle-theatre
[6] http://www.theartsdesk.com/classical-music/last-night-proms-benedetti-calleja-bbcso-b%C4%9Blohl%C3%A1vek
[7] http://www.theartsdesk.com/new-music/cd-kate-bush-50-words-snow
[8] http://www.theartsdesk.com/visual-arts/tracey-emin-love-what-you-want-hayward-gallery
[9] http://www.theartsdesk.com/dance/theartsdesk-debate-dances-question-time
[10] http://www.theartsdesk.com/visual-arts/mixed-media-haunch-venison
[11] http://www.theartsdesk.com/film/haywire
[12] http://www.theartsdesk.com/new-music/wonderful-world-captain-beaky-royal-albert-hall
[13] http://www.theartsdesk.com/dance/there-are-more-theatre-goers-football-goers-arts-awards-defiant
[14] http://www.theartsdesk.com/classical-music/classical-cds-weekly-nicola-benedetti-liszt-thierry-pécou
[15] http://www.theartsdesk.com/theatre/dunsinane-rschampstead-theatre
[16] https://theartsdesk.com/node/21266/view
[17] https://theartsdesk.com/node/743/view
[18] https://theartsdesk.com/node/18358/view
[19] https://theartsdesk.com/node/2521/view
[20] https://theartsdesk.com/node/3698/view
[21] https://theartsdesk.com/film
[22] https://theartsdesk.com/visual-arts
[23] https://theartsdesk.com/theatre
[24] https://theartsdesk.com/new-music
[25] https://theartsdesk.com/topics/featured-buzz
[26] https://theartsdesk.com/topics/awards
[27] https://theartsdesk.com/topics/2012