THE foundation established by one of Glasgow's most successful businessmen has donated nearly half a million towards the revamp of the fire-hit Glasgow School of Art.
Born in the Gorbals in 1897, Sir Isaac Wolfson made his fortune the mail order industry through the firm Great Universal Stores.
The Wolfson Foundation - a charity set up in his honour - has awarded more than £800 million to 10,000 projects across the UK that enhance the fields of science, health, education and the arts and humanities.
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It has now revealed that £450,000 will be awarded to the Glasgow School of Art Campus Appeal which aims to raise £32 m in a bid to redevelop the famous Mackintosh Building which was partially destroyed by a fire in 2014.
The Wolfson Foundation celebrated its 60th anniversary last year.
Its figurehead Sir Isaac Wolfson was awarded the Freedom of Glasgow in 1971 and died in 1991, aged 93.
He was son of a Jewish cabinet-maker who had emigrated from the Russian Pale of Settlement (Bialystok) to Scotland.
In 1926 he married Edith Specterman and in the same year he joined a mail-order company, Great Universal Stores.
He became chairman of GUS in 1946 and, at the time the Foundation was formed in the summer of 1955, there were nearly 80 companies in the group, which included clothing and furniture manufacturers, retail chains as well as mail order businesses.
In 1962, he was created a baronet, as Sir Isaac Wolfson of St Marylebone.
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Sir Isaac, his wife, and their son, Leonard, were the charity’s Founder Trustees.
The Wolfson Foundation's sizeable donation to the Glasgow School of Art appeal follows a £90,000 contribution from the WM Mann Foundation.
It is the largest made by the Wolfson Foundation to a non-science project in Scotland in the last five years.
Paul Ramsbottom, chief executive of the Wolfson Foundation, said: "The Mackintosh Building is internationally renowned as a masterpiece of 20th century architecture at the heart of the Glasgow School of Art.
"We were impressed not only by the bravery, ambition and energy with which the School has responded to the traumatic events of May 2014, but also by the sensitivity with which this restoration has been conceived – not in isolation, but as part of a wider strategic vision for the School’s future.
"We are delighted to be supporting this important regeneration project, and helping to revitalise an outstanding building in the city of our founder’s birth."
Work has begun on rebuilding the Mackintosh Building, with its notable Mackintosh Library being restored to to its original designs.
The Stow building, acquired by the art school in the summer, will open to GSA students in September next year.
Built in 1930, the former college building will be turned into multiple studios and workshops for art school students.
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The GSA will move into the building, which has two interior spaces which will be newly covered with glass roofs.
There are also plans to transform the exterior land of the building, possibly including an outdoor sculpture studio - for large works - as well as other facilities.
"We are hugely grateful to the Wolfson Foundation for this generous donation," said Professor Tom Inns, director of the Glasgow School of Art. “The donation brings to £18.5m the monies raised towards our £32m Mackintosh Campus Appeal which will enable us to deliver our ambitious development plans for the Garnethill campus."
The Mackintosh Campus Appeal is part of an overall £80m development of the GSA's campus.
The school says it will provide the space to accommodate a 25 per cent increase in student numbers by 2018.
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