This year Arts Emergency were offered the opportunity to be the official charity partner of the Affordable Art Fair's Battersea Edition, which took place between the 18th and 22nd of October. The fair offered us the opportunity to engage new audiences in person, as well as an opportunity to fundraise for our programmes. As charity partners we were given a stand on the fair floor, plus the opportunity to solicit donations through the fair's ticket sales, and were also invited to speak on two panels about the need to support the next generations of artists.
We met some generous and interesting individuals from all walks of life, who cared passionately about the future of the arts and creative industries, and for whom our message of doing what you can, sharing what privileges you have, and making the future fairer seemed to resonate. It was really heartening to have so many great conversations and introduce hundreds of new people to the work we do.
We want to thank the following Network members, who generously donated artwork for us to hang on the walls of our stand: Tony Anderson, Claire Chandler, Paul Chisholm, Nicholas Ferguson, Anna Grayson, Hada, Melanie King, Maggie Learmonth, Joe Lycett, Victoria Helena Mihatovic, Andrew Reeve, and Sara Sherwood, and extra thanks to Robin Tarbet who not only donated work but extra-generously helped us install the first round of work in time for the Private View! Additionally, thank you to everyone who offered to donate work that we didn't end up taking with us - we were so grateful for your response to our call.
We raised over £5000 in total, from artwork sales, ticket add-ons, on-stand donations and Private View ticket sales - so thank you so much to everyone who shared, gave, attended, and bought work! The funding will go directly to our programmes, which now support over 2000 young people all dreaming of lives in which they can develop their creativity and curiosity to its full potential.
As part of the fair our CEO Neil also took part in a conversation with Peckham Platform director Nephertiti Oboshie Schandorf and Affordable Art Fair Director Hugo Barclay about the necessity of supporting the next generation of artists in today's challenging and increasingly precarious world. You can listen to the discussion here and find out more about Peckham Platform here.