Vogue editor Dame Anna Wintour has told the BBC that she is raising money for arts in the UK as a result of funding cuts.
Alongside British editor Edward Enninful, she has curated an event called Vogue World, with proceeds going towards organisations in need.
“We wanted to make sure that donations were broadly distributed to very small organisations,” she told BBC News. Vogue has selected mostly London-based institutions to receive funding.
Dame Anna, 73, said this was “absolutely” a response to the decision last year to move arts funding outside of London over a three-year period. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) announced in early 2022 that it would redistribute new Arts Council England (ACE) funding to more than 100 locations outside the capital.
Nadine Dorries, who was culture secretary at the time, said the funding shifted new cultural investment “into places previously at the back of the queue”, adding: “Everyone should have access to it no matter where they live or what their background.” Dame Anna said: “I understand the importance of regional theatres and other organisations.
“[But] the London art scene is so important economically to the city. So many people come to London as tourists to appreciate the art scenes.”
The London Met Gala
Proceeds from ticket sales for the event, which will “celebrate a mix of opera, dance, theatre and fashion”, and donations from philanthropists total more than £1m, according to Vogue.
The full list of recipients is yet to be announced, but will be divided into three categories, including larger organisations, small arts companies and independent artists and freelancers. Those set to receive funding include the National Theatre, the Royal Ballet and Southbank Sinfonia and smaller organisations such as the National Youth Orchestra, Stanley Arts and choral ensemble The Sixteen.
For more than 20 years, Dame Anna has been the organiser of the Met Gala, a yearly fundraising ball for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's costume institute in New York.
From choosing the theme to inviting the guests, Dame Anna is no stranger to hosting a major event and hopes Vogue World will be just as successful as the gala. She explained she decided to put on a Vogue World event in the capital, which will mark the start of London Fashion Week in September, after holding a successful Vogue fundraiser in New York.
“Our idea had always been that this would be an event that would travel and because London is our second biggest market, the idea had always been that it would go for its second incarnation,” she said.
Vogue is ‘diverse and inclusive'
The Met Gala is known for its exclusivity, but Dame Anna insists this London event will be accessible to all, with “prices that students can hopefully afford”. She said Vogue, which has 10 imprints around the world, has done a lot to diversify its offering beyond unaffordable high fashion and says it's important to her that all price points are represented in the magazine.
“Our entry points are so diverse and inclusive today – wherever you are in the world,” Dame Anna said.
“For someone who really delves deep into fashion, we know how engaged they are with our Vogue runway content, with Vogue video.
“We feel that fashion is a global language and it's up to us to meet our audiences where they are and give them content of quality, authority, confidence and fun.”
Dame Anna on retirement
Dame Anna, who is also chief content officer for Vogue owner Conde Nast, has been working in fashion journalism for more than 50 years.
There is often speculation in the fashion world and in the press about how much longer she will stay in her current role as editor. She says she has no plans to retire and is “extremely lucky and thrilled to have the position [at Vogue]”.
“Right now I'm really loving what I do and I have no plans to think about anything else at present,” she added.
Edward and Anna
Edward Enninful, who will be stepping down as the editor of British Vogue next year to take on a new role, worked alongside Dame Anna in planning Vogue World.
She described his contribution as “amazing” but said this was “not in any way unusual” as the pair work together on a daily basis. Enninful told the BBC he had “partnered closely with Anna for almost 30 years” whilst working at Conde Nast and added the pair “work very intuitively”.
“We know how to bring our creative visions together to create something very different to anything we might do apart,” he added.
The 51-year-old said he was involved in bringing together some of the event's artists for the night including Stormzy, Sir Ian McKellen, Kate Moss, Sophie Okonedo, Naomi Campbell and Sienna Miller.
“You will see so many of them appearing together sometimes for the first time,” he said. “I think it's really going to blow our audience away.
“And there are definitely going to be a lot of surprises – we are pulling out all the stops and I can't wait to see how the audience reacts.”
Enninful, who helped decide who received funding, said it was important that any money given was for unrestricted use to “put power into the hands of organisations to make decisions they need to”. He also said as someone who works closely with independent artists and freelancers it was important they were considered too as “our creative industry is fuelled [by them].
“[They're] people who are often the best in their field, but who frequently go unrecognised. It was really important to me, as someone who freelanced heavily in the early days of my career, to include them within the donation recipient list,” he added.
— CutC by bbc.com
