How the Art World Is Helping to Fight the Effects of Coronavirus

There’s power in creative thinking.

Featured on harpersbazaar.com

As the coronavirus continues to deplete medical supplies and overextend hospitals and healthcare professionals, creative communities are banding together in efforts to provide much-needed relief. Fashion and beauty companies are heeding the call, with Prada and Versace financing new ICUs and Ralph Lauren pledging $10 million to various efforts, while the art world is taking its own measures to mitigate the global pandemic’s effects. From fundraising raffles and the sale of limited-edition works to uplifting artist-designed posters that are available for free download, see how photographers and artists are getting crafty and fighting Covid-19 below.

PICTURES FOR ELMHURST

Bazaar contributors Pari Dukovic and Sebastian Kim have joined forces with 94 other New York-based photographers including Tyler Mitchell, Josh Olins, Dan Martenson, and Ethan James Green on a photo print sale fundraiser for Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens. Through April 20, you can shop magazine-worthy images, priced at $150 each, with 100% of profits going to purchase live-saving equipment for the hard hit medical facility at the center of the pandemic in the United States.

WE ALL RISE COLORING BOOK

Initially released as a limited-edition product, Detroit contemporary art gallery Library Street Collective’s buzzy We All Rise coloring book has been made available to the wider public in an effort to ensure that Motor City children don’t go hungry during the pandemic. Featuring outline drawings by 29 artists including Virgil Abloh, Nina Chanel Abney, Shepard Fairey, Nick Cave, and Austyn Weiner, 100% of proceeds from the book, which retails for $12, will benefit the Detroit Public Schools food distribution program through the support of local non-profit Forgotten Harvest.

KAWS

Artist Brian Donnelly AKA KAWS, whose signature cartoon-inspired Companions sculptures are a favorite of celebrities including Drake and Pharrell, is releasing small batches of limited-edition prints to benefit the Covid-19 relief efforts of a variety of NYC non-profits. Announced via Instagram, each print is signed and numbered, from an edition of 25 plus 5 artist proofs, and priced at $1,200. So far, Snoopy prints benefitting Free Arts NYC, which is providing virtual mentorship and activity kits to underserved youth; Astro Boy prints benefitting Henry Street Settlement, which is providing thousands of meals a week to homebound seniors, homeless adults and children in shelters; and dolphin prints benefitting Food Bank For New York City, which provide emergency food to vulnerable New Yorkers, have been posted for sale.

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