Tracey Emin, who made that bed, is made a Dame

The YBA Tracey Emin has been made a dame for services to British art in the King’s birthday honours. “Being made a dame is, to me, something to be really happy about and celebrate because it’s another marker on my life,” she told the BBC. The honour also means she’s now “100%” part of the establishment, even though she says she hasn’t been “the best role model” (in 2012 she was appointed CBE). In 1997 we reported that the “South London Gallery mounted an exhibition of the past and the present of Emin, one of the younger generation of British artists who has gained fame for turning her life (particularly its steamier side) into art”. The Daily Mail points out that Emin “exhibited her stained bed [My Bed, 1998] and dirty underwear at the 1999 Turner Prize”. In 2020 she was diagnosed with bladder cancer and underwent major surgery (she revealed to the BBC that she has been given the four-year “all clear”).

Other honours recipients include Hannah Rothschild—the writer, filmmaker and former chair of the National Gallery in London—who was also awarded a damehood (previously CBE, Commander of the order of the British Empire). Alexander Sturgis, the director of the Ashmolean Museum, was also made a CBE along with Paul Thompson, former vice chancellor of the Royal College of Art in London. Sally MacDonald, the director of the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, was appointed OBE (Officer of the order of the British Empire). The sculptor Andrew Logan received an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire).