From:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...ry/TPNational/
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THOSE WHO GIVE -- AND GIVE LOTS
GAYLE MACDONALD AND VAL ROSS
THE OLD GUARD
Well-known Canadian blue bloods such as the Westons, Thomsons, Eatons et al. are still the major donors to the arts. Hilary and Galen Weston gave $10-million to the Royal Ontario Museum, and the family's W. Garfield Weston Foundation chipped in another $10-million. Billionaire Ken Thomson and his wife, Marilyn Thomson, have donated a staggering $70-million to the AGO.
Margaret and Wallace McCain are major benefactors to the Gardiner Museum, along with giving $5-million to the National Ballet School.
A $20-million donation by Four Seasons hotelier Isadore Sharp bought him naming rights to the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. The estate of Fraser Elliott, founding partner of the law firm Stikeman Elliott, gave another $10-million to the Canadian Opera Company.
THE NEW GUARD
Shan Chandrasekar donated $1-million to the Royal Conservatory of Music. From a family of broadcasters, filmmakers and music producers in India, Chandrasekar launched the first over-the-air South Asian programming on CITY-TV in 1975. In 1993, the McGill grad formed ATN - the Asian Television Network.
Michael Lee-Chin, a Jamaican immigrant who acquired the giant money management firm of AIC Ltd. in 1987, gave $30-million to the Royal Ontario Museum. The gift christened the Michael A. Lee-Chin Crystal, the Daniel Libeskind-designed addition.
Ian Ihnatowycz, president and CEO of Acuity Funds Ltd., and his optometrist wife, Dr. Marta Witer, donated $4-million to the capital campaign to rebuild the Royal Conservatory of Music, and another $1-million to finance a Piano Scholars Program.
Prem Watsa, head of Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., is a large -- but undisclosed -- donor to the ROM. The businessman, who was born Hyderabad, India, moved to London, Ont., in 1972. In the late nineties, he was dubbed the "Warren Buffett of the North."
Indian-born, Woodbridge, Ont.-based vegetarian-foods entrepreneur Shreyas Ajmera, president of Seenergy Foods, recently donated $5-million to the ROM.
Entering the donor big leagues is a youthful group including Toronto real estate developer Ken Zuckerman, president of Zinc Construction and member of the AGO's New Founders. He gave at least $50,000 to the art gallery's building fund. Likewise, famed Toronto photographer Edward Burtynsky also forked over $50,000 to the same cultural cause.