Art patrons came out in force to support the Design Trust Charity Auction
The arts may have suffered during the coronavirus pandemic, but that doesn’t mean that the community that supports them has had its resolve shaken. Patrons of the creative industries gathered on July 4 for a first look at the works of art and design included in the Design Trust Charity Auction, a fundraiser hosted for the Hong Kongbased nonprofit by auction house Phillips on July 9. The sale included 14 pieces donated by artists such as Michael Lau and Cao Fei, design studios including Zaha Hadid Design, and galleries like Pearl Lam Galleries and de Sarthe Gallery. All proceeds from the sale, which raised more than HK$1 million, went to the Design Trust, a grant-funding platform that supports creative projects in Hong Kong and around the Greater Bay Area. “The past few months have been a challenging time for all, and our efforts will hopefully stand as a testament to the vibrancy and resilience of the region’s design community and reinforce the positive value of design during difficult times,” says Marisa Yiu, co-founder of Design Trust, which since 2014 has supported more than 125 grantees, among them architects, urban planners and graphic designers. Among the guests who attended the preview on July 4 were Design Trust chairman Kamsen Lau, former chairman Alan Lo, Yenn Wong, Geoffrey Chuang, Joyce Tam, Janice Chan-choy, Vinay Melwani, Lumen Kinoshita and Honus Tandijono. At the event, which was hosted by Yiu and Phillips Asia chairman Jonathan Crockett at The Upper House, Yiu shared some of her favourite past achievements and works by grantees, setting the tone for a celebration of the region’s creative talent. So unmissable was the event that art connoisseurs Aric Chen, Ivan Pun and Nathan Clementsgillespie tuned in via Zoom to fête the initiative. Allrightsreserved, the Hong Kong-based creative studio, ended the evening with the donation of a surprise lot: a David Shrigley piece, Double Cheeseburger End Of The World Giveaway, which was auctioned off for HK$30,000 to Inna Rodchenko-highfield, CEO of Dream Maker Collective. The bigger surprise? The lot was then matched with an equivalent donation by Alan Lo. Cheers to that.