WORLD WIDE FUND TAKES ACTION ON THE CLIMATE CRISIS

The 60th anniversary programme of the WWF is seeing it join forces with Artwise to launch Art For Your World, a new initiative designed to engage the art world in the raising of funds and public awareness needed to combat the climate crisis. It will culminate in November 2021 to coincide with the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) taking place in the city of Glasgow, Scotland.

Art For Your World is a call to artists, collectors, galleries, institutions and art lovers to make an important connection between art and the environment, to support the ground-breaking fieldwork being carried out by the WWF. The WWF is one of the world’s largest conservation organisations dedicated to environmental issues. This new campaign includes a charitable auction at Sotheby’s of several outstanding works of art, and the sale of exclusive new prints by at least three well-known artists.

The funds raised by Art For Your World will be used to support key areas of WWF’s work which fights dangerous climate change, such as: slowing deforestation, helping indigenous communities, recovering trees and forests, replanting seagrass meadows, supporting endangered species and promoting sustainable lifestyles.

Top artists Tracey Emin, Jadé Fadojutimi, Vera Lutter, Jessica Rankin, Anish Kapoor and Gavin Turk are pledging their support to the Art For Your World movement by selling their works at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Day Auction in October 2021, and donating the proceeds to WWF. Sculptor Gavin Turk of GuIldford, for example, has created an ingenious painting for this initiative that never dries, which certainly makes a point!

Other well-known artists, including Chila Kumari Singh Burman, Heather Phillipson, Bob and Roberta Smith - (Patrick Brill OBE RA, also known by his pseudonym Bob and Roberta Smith, is a British contemporary artist, writer, author and musician. He is known for his "slogan" art, and is an associate professor at Sir John Cass Department of Art at London Metropolitan University), are producing new prints exclusively for the movement, which will available for sale via the Art For Your World website from this September.

The movement will move into higher gear in November, to coincide with COP26, when the #ArtForYourWorld hashtag spreads across social media as galleries, institutions and other partners in the art world take up this exceptionally worthy cause.

Art galleries involved will promote artists and works championing environmental issues. The growing list of galleries supporting Art for Your World Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, Thaddaeus Ropac, Edel Assanti, Gagosian, Ikon, Ingleby Gallery, Jupiter Artland, Kate MacGarry, The Lightbox, Marianne Boesky, Maureen Paley, Thomas Dane Gallery, Royal Society of Sculptors, White Cube and Worton Hall Studios. Museums and cultural institutions will also share environment-related material and contribute to the debate around sustainability and climate change using #ArtForYourWorld on Instagram.

In continued support for Art For Your World, organisations including Artist Support Pledge, Contemporary Visual Art Network, Gallery Climate Coalition, Rise Art and W1 Curates will spread the word and increase widespread participation in the movement.

Today’s launch of Art for Your World follows the publication of a new report, Feeling the Heat, which outlines how endangered species – from bluebells and bumblebees here in the UK, to snow leopards and sea turtles further afield – are at risk if we don't try and limit the warming of our planet to 1.5°C.

Internationally known Artist Tracey Emin - (Tracey Emin, CBE, RA is an English artist known for her autobiographical and confessional artwork. Emin produces work in a variety of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, photography, neon text and sewn appliqué. Once the "enfant terrible" of the Young British Artists in the 1980s, she is now a Royal Academician.) says:

“I passionately care about wildlife and anything that makes people aware of the damage we are doing to this planet, and what we can do to save it is worthwhile.”

To Join the #ArtForYourWorld movement. Visit www.artforyourworld.com and follow @artforyourworld on Instagram.

The head office of the WWF is based in Gland, Switzerland.