David Roberts Art Foundation

David Roberts Art Foundation (DRAF) is a non-profit centre for contemporary art in central London.

DRAF produces art works, exhibitions, performances and events open free to the public. Over the last seven years, DRAF has collaborated with over 680 emerging and established artists and curators, including Phyllida Barlow, Bruce McLean, Danh Vo, Benoit Maire, Nina Beier and Sarah Lucas.

Founded in 2007 by British collector David Roberts and directed by curator Vincent Honoré, DRAF originally occupied a gallery space on Great Titchfield Street in Fitzrovia. It moved in 2012 to its current headquarters in Mornington Crescent, a 19th-century converted furniture factory with 500 sq m exhibition space on the ground floor. In Autumn 2015, DRAF will expand to include a substantial new first floor space dedicated to live events.

DRAF focuses on performance, animating art works, spaces and situations through commissions from artists, choreographers, musicians and writers. They hold an annual evening of performances in October during the Frieze Art Fair. In 2014, Quinn Latimer & Megan Rooney, Joe Moran, Sarah Lucas, planningtorock and Eloise Hawser performed to 1,000 guests. In 2013, the evening featured Florence Peake, Michael Dean, Juliette Blightman, Rodney Graham and Kim Gordon.

Year-round talks and live events in collaboration with institutions and universities discuss emerging questions with artists, specialists and audiences.

The Curators’ Series invites an independent guest curator to produce a major exhibition at DRAF, and has previously hosted Cylena Simonds (UK), Raimundas Malasauskas (Lithuania), Mihnea Mircan (Romania), Mathieu Copeland (UK), Simone Menegoi and Chris Sharp (Italy and US), Pablo Leon de la Barra (Mexico), and Vivian Ziherl (Australia) & Natasha Ginwala (India). The eighth guest curator will be Christine Eyene (Cameroon) in summer 2015.

DRAF is responsible for the David Roberts Collection, a body of over 2,000 artworks by 600 artists. The Collection exists independently in parallel to DRAF’s public programme, offering a resource for research and presentation.

DRAF is a registered charity (no. 1119738) and is supported by Edinburgh House Estates Limited.

...
Wikipedia