Charles David Ogilvy Barrie CBE (born 1953) is a former British diplomat and arts administrator, who is now chair of the campaigning organisation Make Justice Work. He is the great great nephew of the playwright, Sir James Matthew Barrie.
David Barrie was Director of The Art Fund (formerly the National Art Collections Fund), the UK's largest independent art charity, from 1992 to 2009. In 2001, admission fees to all national museums and galleries were scrapped, after a four-year campaign by The Art Fund to persuade the government to give non-charging institutions the right to reclaim VAT {http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/5374146/David-Barrie-Art-for-all-the-people.html}. Barrie was also Executive Director of The Japan Festival 1991 - a nationwide celebration of Japanese culture which took place in 1991 - from 1989 to 1992. He served in the Diplomatic Service and Cabinet Office from 1975 to 1989. He has also served as a Council member of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council and a trustee of the charity Butterfly Conservation.
Barrie is chair of Ruskin Today and has been a trustee of the Ruskin Foundation since 1996. He edited an abridged edition of John Ruskin's Modern Painters which was published by Andre Deutsch in 1987. Barrie delivered the Arthur Batchelor Lecture at the University of East Anglia in May 2010 http://cdobarrie.wordpress.com/author/cdobarrie/, and is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Leicester.
Barrie was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours for his services to the visual arts.[1]