The British Museum in London is launching a new fundraising initiative called the British Museum Ball to “celebrate London’s status as one of the world’s leading cultural capitals and establish a new highlight on the international social calendar,” according to a press release.
The theme for the first Ball, slated for October 18, is “pink” for the colors and light of India, as seen in the museum’s exhibition “Ancient India: Living Traditions.” Including objects more than 2,000 years old, that show of sacred art connected to Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist faith has been touted by the British Museum as “one of the first major exhibitions in the world to look at the early devotional art of India from a multi-faith, contemporary, and global perspective.”
As for the British Museum Ball, the event will be cochaired by Isha Ambani, a patron behind the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) in Mumbai. Expected attendees and/or committee members include Zadie Smith, Naomi Campbell, Idris Elba, Miuccia Prada, Courtney Love, Grayson Perry, Steve McQueen, Pamela Joyner, Bianca Jagger, Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, and many more.
The event will include a silent auction and music by Anoushka Shankar and conductor-composer Jules Buckley, as well as a stated focus on raising funds for international partnerships. In a statement, the institution said, “Over the past year alone, more than eight million people saw a British Museum object outside the capital. With the support of the Ball, the Museum can do even more to fulfill its ambition of making the collection the most accessible and widely shared in the world.”
Nicholas Cullinan, the museum’s director, added, “When the British Museum became the first public national museum in the world in 1753, it was because London had the most international audience. That is as true today as it was then.”