Diary – 28 March 2018

On the gently lapping shores of the Persian Gulf, in the steely shadow of the Burj Khalifa, I bump into former chief inspector of schools Sir Michael Wilshaw: I in my dishevelled blue trunks, he in his well-fitted white T-shirt (always strong on uniforms). We are guests of the Varkey Foundation’s global summit on education and skills. Whilst I am there to explain the V&A Museum’s new programme to support design teaching in industrial communities, Sir Michael is still rightly beating the drum for strong leadership and high standards. Aged 72, he remains a model of Carlylian workfulness, mentoring headteachers in Argentina while supporting a multi-academy trust in Derby. We are both full of admiration for the Brent art teacher Andria Zafirakou, winner of the Global Teacher Prize. She tells me it was Picasso’s ‘Weeping Woman’ that first set her on the path to art education.

I take the opportunity of being back in the United Arab Emirates to revisit the Louvre Abu Dhabi. Do believe the hype: it is a spectacular endeavour. The Jean Nouvel architecture provides a mesmerising canopy, under which a dappled sun glints onto generous piazzas and encircling waterways. There are lots of spaces and places to think and ponder, made pleasant by a cooling breeze. No sign yet of da Vinci’s ‘Salvator Mundi’, but the collection is truly stellar. Best of all, the museum has revived the tradition of acquiring period rooms, the high point of which is a 1920s oak-panelled salon taken from Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann’s Paris apartment for Lord Rothermere. ‘Where are the British?’ asks one Emirati arts official, enquiring of our long connections with the Gulf. ‘It is so strange that France is now doing all this and you are not.’

The V&A’s own period room purchase continues to ignite debate.