The Royal Academy of Arts’ ever-versatile Tim Marlow showcased his considerable talents as an auctioneer as he whipped up bids and invented imaginative new lots on the hoof to help raise over £85,000 at last week’s benefit dinner for Open School East (OSE). Though Michael Craig-Martin was seen to blanch when Mr Marlow jokily proposed that he share a sauna with a lucky bidder…
Open School East was founded in 2013 by a visionary group including the Glasgow International director Sarah McCrory and Sam Thorne, now the director of Nottingham Contemporary. The school offers an open-to-all study programme for emerging artists, charges no tuition fees, sets no age limit and embeds itself in directly in the local community. Given the grim developments in art education—and education in general—it is more necessary now than ever. The crowd of art luminaries who last Friday (4 November) crowded into its current home—a shabby 1970s former-library in Hackney—to raise funds for its future, was testament to the support that his mould-breaking organisation has attracted in such a short time.
Along with Craig-Martin were fellow artists Ryan Gander, Pablo Bronstein and the Otolith Group’s Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun. Also in attendance were Pauline Daley from Sadie Coles, Herald St’s Nicky Verber and the gallerists Maureen Paley and Karsten Schubert. Frieze’s Matthew Slotover and the curator Emily King were also pledging up a storm. But the hero of the evening was Brian Boylan, chairman of Wolff Olins and patron extraordinaire, who not only gave generously but also provided a highly entertaining double act with Mr Marlow.
Throughout, as works by the likes of Turner Prize nominee Helen Marten and former winner Martin Boyce were swiftly snapped up, spirits were greatly nourished by lashings of wine donated by Jamie Oliver and a magnificent feast of bouillabaisse and roast duck courtesy of legendary US chef, author and activist Alice Waters. “If we don’t have art, if we don’t have beauty, then we are lost,” Waters said in an impassioned speech. All funds raised will greatly assist OSE’s relocation to Margate, Kent, next year, before it settles into the impressive Old Railway Station building in Woolwich, which will be its ultimate home, while also maintaining its south coast base. So here’s to the continuing success of Open Schools South, East, and maybe also North and West!