An Art Auction to Preserve Nina Simone’s Childhood Home Kicks Off May 12, Venus Williams Steps Up To Co-Curate

Venus Williams is co-curating an art auction that hopes to raise enough funds to preserve the legendary and iconic Nina Simone’s home.

In 2017, after years of vacancy and decay, four Black artists, that include, conceptual artist Adam Pendleton, sculptor and painter Rashid Johnson, collagist and filmmaker Ellen Gallagher, and abstract artist Julie Mehretu, joined forces to purchase Simone’s childhood home for $95,000 to save it from demolition. It has since been declared a national treasure by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and is now the focus of a benefit auction led by Pace Gallery. The Nina Simone Childhood Home Benefit Auction will feature 11 contemporary artworks and benefit the Nina Simone Childhood Home preservation project spearheaded by the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. 

The auction will be co-curated by Pendleton and tennis champion, entrepreneur and arts patron Venus Williams. Sotheby’s will host the online bidding from May 12-22, and the artworks will be exhibited at Pace’s New York gallery from May 12–20, culminating in a gala at the gallery’s flagship on the 20th.

“I’m so excited to be a part of this expansive project centering on the life and legacy of Nina Simone, who has been a huge inspiration for so many,” Williams said in a statement. “Each of the artists Adam and I have selected for the auction has a unique, powerful voice, and we’ve been moved by their generosity and enthusiasm for this important cause.” The participating artists are Cecily Brown, Gallagher, Johnson, Robert Longo, Mehretu, Pendleton, Martin Puryear, Sarah Sze, Mary Weatherford, Stanley Whitney and Anicka Yi.

The gala will feature a live performance from Oscar and Grammy-award-winning musician H.E.R. (who will sing one of Simone’s songs), plus a ticketed dinner catered by James Beard Award-winning chef JJ Johnson, whose four-course menu will merge traditional Southern ingredients with French techniques.

Ticket sales for the Pace Gallery gala will cover the cost of the event, but sale proceeds from the art auction (less the percentage retained by the participating artists) will go to the action fund.