Artist Rachel Whiteread to be honoured at palace investiture
Turner Prize-winning artist Rachel Whiteread is among leading figures from the music, education and charity sectors who will be recognised during an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace.
Whiteread, who became the first woman to win the Turner Prize in 1993 with her life-size concrete cast of a condemned terraced house in London’s East End, will be made a dame for her services to art.
The award will be presented by the Prince of Wales at the ceremony on Thursday.
Essex-born artist Whiteread is behind a number of other public art commissions, including a Holocaust memorial in Vienna, her Fourth Plinth sculpture in Trafalgar Square – a cast of the plinth itself – and Water Tower in New York.
Lancashire-born singer and West End star Alfie Boe, who has sold millions of records, will receive an OBE for his services to music and charity.
Boe, who famously played Jean Valjean in Les Miserables, in the West End and the Broadway revival, said earlier this year that he was “honoured and thrilled” at being named in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.
In an Instagram video posted at the time, he said: “This goes for the music that I’ve sung for you and a lot of the charity stuff that I’ve done, which I’ll always continue to do.”
Composer Jonathan Dove, who has arranged operas for the England Touring Opera and the Birmingham Opera Company, will receive a CBE for his services to music.
Dove’s breakthrough opera Flight, which premiered in 1998, was well received by critics and follows the tale of passengers stuck in an airport departure lounge.
Choreographer Robert Cohan, who is the founding artistic director of the London-based dance and performance centre The Place, is to be knighted for services to choreography and dance.
Born in New York in 1925, Cohan is said to have pioneered the teaching of contemporary dance in Britain. He was made an honorary CBE in 1988 in recognition of his contribution to dance in the UK.
Cary Sawhney, director of the London Indian Film Festival, is to receive an MBE for services to film, while Target Ovarian Cancer co-founder Annwen Jones will be awarded an OBE for services to charity.
