The Academicians' Room Members: A Tale of Two Collectors
Salon Series
Monday 23 May 2016 6.30 - 8pm
The Academicians’ Room, The Keeper’s House, Royal Academy of Arts
£15, booking required. The Academicians' Room members only.
We welcome two stellar art collectors to discuss collecting trends in the world today and what collectors can do for artists and the arts.
The role of the collector will be explored through a conversation with two of the most consummate collectors operating today. Valeria Napoleone is an art collector, patron, and advocate of female artists, and Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, who founded the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation in 1995 out of her personal commitment to the promotion of young artists. Led by The Art Newspaper’s Louisa Buck, we will gain insight into the work of these two women, providing pivotal support to some of the most critically acclaimed artists working today.
Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo started collecting contemporary art in the early 1990s after graduating in Business Studies and Economics. Since then, she has been personally active in her position as collector and patron in the promotion of young artists, and soon saw the value in creating an arts foundation to fully formalise her passion. For this reason, in 1995, she set up the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin, an organisation capable of collaborating effectively with both Italian and foreign institutions. Mrs Sandretto Re Rebaudengo is an extremely active patron of the arts. Among the many positions she holds, she is a member of the International Councils for both the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Tate Gallery, a member of the Leadership Council for the New Museum in New York, and part of the Advisory Committee for Modern and Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She has received numerous awards and honours for her constant support of the arts, including the Mont Blanc Arts Patronage Award in 2003 and, in 2009, was made a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. Mrs Sandretto Re Rebaudengo also lectures for the Art, Markets and Cultural Heritage course at the International University of Languages and Media in Milan.
Valeria Napoleone is both a prestigious art collector and a patron to a some of the top international arts organisations. She is Head of the Development Committee at Studio Voltaire, a Trustee of the Contemporary Art Society, sits on the Board of the Fashion Arts Foundation of the British Fashion Council, sits on the Board of Trustees of NYU Institute of Fine Arts in NYC, and is a member of the President's Global Council at New York University. She is an alumna of both New York University's Journalism School and the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York. Mrs Napoleone’s collection focuses on works by female contemporary artists, and she forms exceptionally close bonds with the artists she collects from. As a result, she has supported many of today’s most acclaimed artists at pivotal moments in their careers. In June 2015 Valeria launched Valeria Napoleone XX a new umbrella platform for projects and initiatives that work towards increasing the representation of female artists in major public museums. She is also the author of Valeria Napoleone’s Catalogue of Exquisite Recipes, where she combines her two main passions by pairing works of art with recipes from her native Italy.
Louisa Buck is a leading British art critic, writer and broadcaster on contemporary art. She has been London Contemporary Art Columnist for The Art Newspaper since 1997 and is a regular reviewer on BBC radio and TV, including Front Row, Nightwaves and BBC World Service. Louisa was a judge for the 2005 Turner Prize. She writes a weekly visual arts column for The Telegraph Luxury, has written for Vogue, Art Quarterly, and The Guardian, and she is the author of a number of catalogue essays for institutions including Tate, Whitechapel Gallery, ICA London and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Her books include Relative Values or What’s Art Worth? (co-authored with Philip Dodd) (BBC Books 1991); Moving Targets 2: A User’s Guide to British Art Now (Tate 2000); Market Matters: The Dynamics of the Contemporary Art Market (Arts Council England 2004) and Owning Art: The Contemporary Art Collector’s Handbook (co-authored with Judith Greer) (Cultureshock Media 2006). Her latest book, Commissioning Contemporary Art: A Handbook for Curators, Collectors and Artists was published in October 2012.
This event is part of the The Academicians’ Room Salon Series.
Find us on Instagram for more news and insights: @academiciansroom
Become an Academicians’ Room Member
The Academicians’ Room is the Royal Academy of Arts’ private members club for artists and art lovers. It’s a place to feel at home; a place to come together in a club setting designed exclusively for our members.