How To Give It this spring – a supper club for Palestine and other initiatives
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Rachel Whiteread, Tacita Dean and Paul McCartney unite for War Child
The Secret 7” auction, an online sale of seven-inch singles, raises funds for War Child, which operates all over the world – from Gaza and Ukraine to the Central African Republic – to protect and educate children living through conflict.
The initiative returns this month after a four-year hiatus with 700 records: seven artists, including Celeste, Hozier and Paul McCartney, have contributed a track for 100 records each. All have a unique cover design, and are currently on display at London’s Now Gallery. Artworks include those by Tacita Dean and Paul Smith, but identities will be revealed only once sales have been finalised. Until 17 March, peggy.com
Unreleased Robert Indiana prints raise funds for the Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Next week, Hauser & Wirth London will show 19 previously unseen works by the late American printmaker Robert Indiana. All sales will benefit the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which held the first European retrospective of Indiana’s work in 2022-23. The exhibition includes signed serigraphs featuring images of Marilyn Monroe, as well as the colourful typographic experiments for which Indiana is best known. 21 March to 20 April, hauserwirth.com
Bella Freud T-shirts to empower young women
Fashion designer Bella Freud has long used simple, graphic tees to raise awareness for causes from bee conservation to the refugee crisis, and her latest effort is a cotton T-shirt emblazoned with “She” in block capitals.
“She is our mother, our sister, our daughter, our life pulse,” explains Freud. For the month of March, 20 per cent of profits from the pastel-yellow T-shirt (£95) will go to The Prince’s Trust’s #ChangeAGirlsLife campaign, which helps women in the UK access work, education and training. bellafreud.com
Asian contemporary art supporting children with SEN
The anonymous exhibition at Art Central, Hong Kong, brings together more than 80 alumni of the Sovereign Asian Art Prize. Each artist – including Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, Debbie Han and Chui Pui Chee – has created a square artwork, some painted, others with sculptural elements, to be sold for HK$2,500 (around £250). Buyers will discover the creator of their chosen work once the sale is complete. All proceeds will be donated to the Sovereign Art Foundation’s expressive arts programmes, including the flagship Make It Better, which provides art therapy and mental health support for children with special educational needs and their carers. 28-31 March, artcentralhongkong.com
A supper club in aid of Palestine
Last year, chef Fadi Kattan opened Akub, serving seasonal, modern Palestinian cuisine in a west London townhouse. Now he’s upping the ante with a series of charitable supper clubs donating 30 per cent of profits to Medical Aid Palestine, Anera and Amos Trust’s work providing humanitarian relief in Gaza.
This month kicked off with an homage to mousakhan, a spiced roast chicken dish with caramelised onion bread. A collaboration with Galilee-based Ashkar Winery is also in the works. 15 April, £120pp; akub-restaurant.com
Isaac Julien, Caroline Wong and Rene Matić join Whitechapel Gallery in supporting access to art for young people
Artist and filmmaker Isaac Julien is the winner of this year’s Art Icon award, given by London’s Whitechapel Gallery to creatives whose work has influenced a new generation of artists. (Previous winners include Tracey Emin, Peter Doig and Yinka Shonibare.)
Alongside the award ceremony, where Mica Paris will be singing, is an online auction of contemporary works, including Julien’s Black Apollo Diptych (Once Again... Statues Never Die) – which places a Black figure at the centre of a classical painting class – as well as works by Rene Matić and Caroline Wong. All proceeds will support the gallery’s education programme, designed to improve access to the arts for young people. 12-19 March, phillips.com
Knepp and Fine Cell Work’s nature-inspired cushions
Isabella Tree’s 3,500-acre rewilding project at the Knepp Estate in West Sussex has joined forces with Fine Cell Work, the charity founded by her mother, Lady Anne Tree, that runs rehabilitation projects in prisons. A range of cotton cushions and lavender bags features white storks, beavers and turtle doves – species crucial to Knepp’s revitalised ecosystem – hand-embellished by inmates. A new cushion featuring blue Exmoor ponies (£150), the most challenging embroidery pattern to date, celebrates World Rewilding Day on 20 March. All profits from online sales go to Fine Cell Work. finecellwork.co.uk
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