Versace launches Art Unites

Donatella Versace has collaborated with the Whitney Museum's Education Department to create Art Unites, a global initiative aimed at providing needy children in the United States and China with the incomparable spirit, creativity, inspiration and solace that visual arts bestow. The program, which officially launched in July, will benefit Starlight Children’s Foundation, an organization dedicated to brightening the lives of seriously ill children and their families in the US, and the One Foundation in China, an organization committed to the long-term recovery of the areas devastated by last year’s earthquakes in the Sichuan province, funding and operating two Versace One Foundation children’s centers with schooling, psychological therapy, and post trauma counseling for over 1200, through creative visual arts, an essential form of relief.

As part of the Art Unites program Versace has provided canvas and art supplies to 500 children from Starlight and 900 children from the One Foundation to create original drawings using the theme of “friendship”. Each child’s work of art will be fashioned into a one-of-a-kind Versace canvas tote bag which will be sold worldwide at Versace boutiques and the Gilt Groupe, a member’s only ecommerce site this October. The bags are expected to retail for between $200 and $250, and 100% percent of the proceeds from the sale of the bags will be donated equally to Starlight and to One Foundation. “I have been blessed with incredible success in my life,” says Donatella. “And part of that success means being able to give back to people in need. As a mother, children’s causes are especially close to my heart, and I am honored to be able to work with The Whitney on the creation of a program that inspires children through the arts. Both Starlight and the One Foundation provide critical support for children and their families, and I look forward to our ongoing partnership.”

Image: Donatella Versace