I have always been amused by those photographic competitions which offer a first prize of £1,000 worth of photographic equipment to their winners. Any prize is to be welcomed. If it is an amateur competion then the equipment may well be beyond the reach of the photographer's pocket. But hang on, the photographer must have had a camera and some pretty good equipment to take the photograph in the first place.
The same conundrum applies to museum awards. The Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter deservedly recently won the Art Fund award which was worth £100k.
Reality check: they had just completed a £24m refurbishment project - which had gone well over the original budget, causing headaches to the managers and arts administrators - and so one can imagine that they had all the gold-plated taps they needed.
What about those museums and galleries that had not had £24m and could really do with a large sum like this? Oh, of course, it was building on excellence and rewarding success.
