The anonymous Walker Morris-sponsored heART project has raised an exceptional £45,000 for national charity Heart Research UK.
The heART project launched in 2018 as an online art auction featuring one-off A5 pieces from a host of international artists and celebrities.
All original pieces are sold anonymously, with the artist of each piece being kept a secret—only revealed once the auction is complete.
For the past four years, the campaign has been a rip-roaring success with every piece of art being sold and combined with this year’s total, the project has now raised more than £245,000.
This year, the charity collaborated with Walker Morris to offer an exclusive opportunity to the students of Leeds Art University.
The students were asked to submit a concept for an A5 postcard, with an open brief that could use textile, illustration, photography, music or creative writing—with the winning design being commissioned and auctioned as part of the anonymous heART auction.
To celebrate the fifth anonymous heART project, Walker Morris hosted an exhibition at its offices in Leeds to launch the auction with live bidding, and raised more than £2,000 on the night through the sale of five art pieces.
On the exhibition night, Louise Allen (pictured) from Leeds Art University was named bursary winner for her impressive contribution and received £1,000 in prize money.
Following the launch, all the original A5 artworks were sold on eBay between 4 and 13 November. This year’s auction saw up to 500 A5 creations auctioned, including pieces from Ashley Jackson, Sarah Graham, Ralph Steadman, Andrew J Millar, Naomi Vona, Otto Shade and Bambi.
David Smedley, chairman of the LLP at Walker Morris, said: “We are delighted to support and be part of such a brilliant campaign with Heart Research UK. We always look forward to the anonymous heART auction and the creativity and talent that comes with it.”
Smedley added: “For me personally, I took the opportunity to bid on my favourite piece on our auction launch night, I managed to out-bid our managing partner and now have a wonderful Clare Haley painting to display on the wall at home.”
Kate Bratt-Farrar, chief executive at Heart Research UK, said: “Everyone at Heart Research UK has been overwhelmed with the generosity of both the artists and bidders on this year’s auction. A lot of the submissions had a strong sense of bringing people together, which is something that we try to support at Heart Research UK through our work within local communities.
“At Heart Research UK we like to use exciting, unique ways to raise funds, and the best thing about the ‘anonymous heART project’ is that it allows people to support ground-breaking medical research, while obtaining a beautiful piece of art in return.”
For more information about the anonymous heart project, please visit the Heart Research UK website or follow @he.art_project on Instagram for more updates.