The Charleston Trust celebrated ‘A Bloomsbury Evening’, in aid of the Charleston Centenary Project, at the National Portrait Gallery in London last night.
Guests, including Sir Christopher Ondaatje, Burberry Chief Creative and Chief Executive Officer Christopher Bailey, Virginia Nicholson, granddaughter of Vanessa Bell, and Nigel Newton, Founder and CEO of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, were invited to a reception in the Ondaatje Wing of the National Portrait Gallery for a private viewing of the Virginia Woolf: Art, Life and Vision exhibition by the Curator, Professor Frances Spalding, CBE, followed by an intimate dinner in the 17th and 18th Century Galleries and a silent auction and readings by British author and playwright Alan Bennett.
The event raised over £170,000 including proceeds from the auction of some uniquely Charleston collectors’ items – a first edition of ‘The Waves’ by Virginia Woolf, an original watercolour Dorset painting by Duncan Grant and three beautiful original drawings by Quentin Bell, among many other generously donated gifts.
Speaking about the event, Alistair Burtenshaw, Director at the Charleston Trust, said: “This event perfectly brought together many friends that passionately support Charleston from the worlds of literature, fashion, television and the visual arts. We are delighted that the event raised such a significant amount towards the Charleston Centenary Project”.
Charleston, the home and country meeting place for the writers, painters and intellectuals known as the Bloomsbury group, including Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, Lytton Strachey and John Maynard Keynes, is situated in East Sussex. The house and gardens are open to the public every year from the end of March to the beginning of November.
The Charleston Centenary Project aims to protect and restore its buildings, construct new spaces and protect its peaceful rural setting by 2016, marking the centenary of Vanessa Bell’s and Duncan Grant’s arrival at Charleston.
Charles Saumarez Smith, trustee of the Charleston Trust and Chief Executive of the Royal Academy, said: “I would like to urge you to make a donation to help us build Charleston’s future. I am convinced that, in order for Charleston to be sustainable in the long term, it needs to develop the adjacent Barns to provide all the facilities that are not currently available – an auditorium, space for archives and storage, adequate offices, a better shop and, not least, decent lavatories – in order that visitors can enjoy their visit without having to endure the conditions of semi-dereliction which Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant experienced when they first visited in 1916. What could be a better way of celebrating its Centenary?”
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