LONDON, Mar 28, 2011/ — Thursday night in London, the Whiechapel Gallery in London was the scene of the star-studded evening of TOD’S Art Plus Drama Party 2011. An exceptional one-off event, TOD’S Art Plus Drama Party 2011 featured stage and screen stars.
Whitechapel Gallery Director, Iwona Blazwick OBE, TOD’S President and Owner, Diego Della Valle, Art Plus Chairs, Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst and Jude Law, and Harper’s Bazaar Editor-in-Chief Lucy Yeomans welcomed high-profile guests to enjoy a unique evening of dramatic performances.
The TOD’S Art Plus Drama Party 2011 raised £225,000 to provide vital funds for the Whitechapel Gallery’s Education and Community programme that works with over 3,000 children and 30 diverse community groups each year.
World-renowned actors performed the scripts written by leading contemporary artists: Maxine Peake, Juliet Oldfield and Jake Maskell performed the script of artist Lynda Benglis; Claire Foy read Lawrence Weiner’s monologue; Jonathan Pryce read Ryan Gander’s text; Hywel Morgan and Helen Bradbury read the script by Vitto Acconci, Benedick Blythe performed Ilya and Emilia Kabakov script; Tom Hiddleston and Ashley Walters performed Barbara Kruger’s dualogue. Each of the artists wrote five minute scripts that were performed live by the actors exclusively on the night. Esteemed theatre director Rupert Goold directed all six performances.
The evening also celebrated Teatro alla Scala’s ongoing collaboration with TOD’S with the screening of An Italian Dream and a solo performance by Marta Romagna, prima ballerina at Teatro alla Scala, Milan, created especially for the Whitechapel Gallery by Gianluca Schiavoni, lead choreographer of Teatro alla Scala.
Fashion designer Erdem created a dramatic mask invitation specially for the event and attended the party alongside other guests including: Tom Aikens, Charles Avery, Fiona Banner, Fatima Bhutto, Lara Bohinc, Johnny Borrell, Iwona Blazwick, Stephen Campbell Moore, Dinos Chapman, Matt Collishaw, Diego Della Valle, Andrea Della Valle, Jeremy Deller, Amanda Eliasch, Erdem, Mariella Frostrup, Angela Harnett, Kim Hersov, Allegra Hicks, Natasha Khan (Bat for Lashes), George Lamb, Michael Landy, Jude Law, Tiphanie De Lussy, Polly Morgan, Astrid Munoz, Princess Nikolaos of Greece, Valeria Napoleone, Tim Noble, Cornelia Parker, Jack Peñate, Camilla Rutherford, Yinka Shonibare, Julie Verhoeven, Gillian Wearing and Sue Webster.
Celebrity DJs including David Dorrell, Dan Lywood and artist David Shrigley played alongside retro specialists The Lady Luck Club. Guests were given the opportunity to bid on a one-off TOD’S D-bag specially customised by artist Ian Davenport with his trademark lines of multicoloured paint, as well as commissioned artworks during an auction led by Sotheby’s Oliver Barker.
Artists included Sir Anthony Caro, Angela De La Cruz, Nan Goldin, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Alice Neel, Julian Opie, Dame Paula Rego and Jamie Shovlin.
