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ART vs Covid: Online Auction & Exhibition for Charity – Waltham Forest College

Waltham Forest College

Waltham Forest College (@WFCTweets) Creative Arts Lecturer and Graffiti Artist, David Warburton, teams up with over 23 graffiti, street and contemporary artists to deliver ART vs Covid, an online auction and exhibition to raise funds for the NHS and a number of other frontline charities around the world.

Former Sheffield graffiti artist and collector, now college lecturer, Dee Warburton watched as people in the UK rallied to support the NHS.

He wanted to help and set about forming ā€˜ART vs Covidā€™, an online art auction which he hopes will raise at least Ā£100,000 for the NHS and several other charities, with support from the College and a number of famous artist friends in lockdown around the world.

The pieces listed for the auction have been produced by a combination of the world’s highly respected and up-coming artists with many pieces being an original 1 of 1. The artists have agreed to part with valuable graffiti and street art pieces from their collections, or create new art using the coronavirus and lockdown as their theme. Named among them are: 

Mode2, Temper, Daim, Tasso, Bg183, HolyMoly, Hombre, Cheeky and Trik09.

David said: ā€œI messaged contacts from New York to New Zealand and virtually all of them said it was a brilliant idea and wanted to get involved.

ā€œBanksy was approached but was unable to commit. However, he has wished the project all the best.ā€

Hugo Smith, Film Director/Producer of the Graffiti Wars documentary said:

ā€œDavid Warburton was a significant and central contributor for the “Graffiti Wars” film that was celebrated when it was released in 1999 and has proved influential on a subsequent generation of graffiti artists in the UK.

Martin Jones, from Hip Hop Heritage Charitable Association, commented:

ā€œI applaud the vision of Dee Warburton in bringing together some of the finest artists in Graffiti Art for this global charity fundraising project that supports the NHS and a number of charities due to Covid-19.ā€

Waltham Forest College is supporting the project with an exhibition featuring the ā€˜ART vs Covidā€™ pieces and Art and Design students are working on Street and Graffiti Art over their summer break with pieces already submitted by studentsā€™.  

Currently, the most expensive piece up for auction is a prestigious Ā£50,000 canvas painted by world-renowned English Graffiti Artist ā€˜Temperā€™ with profits from the sale of this exclusive piece depicting some of Great Britainā€™s most loved black celebrities such as Ian Wright MBE, Dame Kelly Holmes and Goldie MBE going to the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust. 

The auction will be live up until the end of October to help celebrate Black History Month UK. Profits from the auction will mainly be going to NHS Charities Together, Shelter Homeless Charity plus other charities around the world chosen by the artists.


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