YANA PEEL

Smart About Art

YANA PEEL TAKES unconventional approaches to support contemporary arts and to create intellectual debates about global issues. But looking up at the tall, elegant, gracious Peel, it’s her beauty combined with her friendliness that’s a little unsettling. She has charm to spare, which is probably why she’s so successful at separating the financial community from its money, all in the cause of art. Her sharp wit and rapid-fire conversation about her involvement with the Outset Contemporary Art Fund and the debate organisation Intelligence Squared (IQ2) can make people feel more intelligent just talking to her. She’s the co-founder of Intelligence Squared Asia.

A Russian émigré to Canada, she graduated from McGill University with a double major in Russian and biology, did post-grad work at the London School of Economics and put in seven years at Goldman Sachs.  It was there she ended up as executive director of the equities division before realising that she was reading the arts and culture section of the Financial Times with more interest and emotion than she felt towards the financial world. She decided to follow her passion and, along with her partner Candida Gertler, founded Outset Contemporary Art Fund in June of 2003.

Gertler, another powerhouse with model-like beauty, studied law and journalism in Germany and Switzerland, as well as modern and contemporary art at the auction houses Christie’s and Sotheby’s. Both women are members of the Tate International Council, the institution that benefits directly from Outset activities. You can almost hear the discussion of the organisation’s name, “Let’s be different from the outset.”

“Our goal at Outset was different from most foundations,” says Peel. “We want to bring the opportunity to explore life outside the normal boundaries, to create experiences outside what the commercial world is doing by granting access to artists and be close to museum directors and curators for our donors and patrons.

“We initially asked 30 people to donate £5,000 each at a party given by Norman Foster,” Peel explains. “That money would be taken to the Frieze Art Fair to purchase art from emerging artists for the Tate Modern in London and, at the same time, allow our patrons access to the artists and curators.  Since 2003, supporters of the annual Outset Frieze fund to benefit the Tate have donated more than £900,000, enabling 78 works by 50 international artists to be acquired. A significant number of these works are currently on display.

“Candida and I had the personal contact networks established that allowed us to start Outset and hit the ground running,” she continues. It has been so successful that branches opened in Munich in 2006 and Israel in 2008.

Outset is supported by private patrons, trustees and corporate partners. The organisation buys art and gives it away to public institutions that cannot afford expensive acquisitions, providing a new paradigm for art philanthropy. According to the Outset website: “The fund uses its independent position to engage groups of cultural enthusiasts with the international creative community in new and renewed ways.”

Part of the programme is the private patron circle, where patrons experience first-hand involvement in the development and realisation of projects with leading artists and institutions, providing insights into the creative process of the artists, curators and the art spaces, widening the network and deepening public commitment to the arts. The programme also includes studio visits and artist-led tours, as well as visits to private collections in Europe and other locations.

Peel says, “We’ve moved on from purchase of art to funding production – commissioning art – and supporting art spaces. We’ve built an Outset flat at the South London Gallery that serves as space for artists’ residencies, and helped out with the garden at the Camden Art Centre. We encourage private support for public arts everywhere we operate.”

Coming to Hong Kong only two years ago, Peel has already made her mark by joining the board of the government-supported gallery Para/Site in Sheung Wan, sparking a “Friends of Para/Site” group that has increased the operating budget by 20 percent, and being a supporter of the acclaimed Asia Art Archive.

When she was asked by Magnus Renfrew, director of the ART HK Art Fairs, to be an adviser to the fair in 2009, Peel decided to bring an intellectual component to the event by organising and introducing the first Intelligence Squared Asia debate, entitled: “Finders, Not Keepers! Cultural Treasures Belong in their Country of Origin.” 

In just one example of the depth of her contact list, IQ2 Asia engaged Briton Simon Jenkins, chairman of The National Trust and former editor of The Times; Polish-British Professor Jack Lohmen, director of the Museum of London and chairman of the National Museum in Warsaw; and Hong Kong’s David Tang, founder of the China Clubs and Shanghai Tang, and well known for his art collection, who argued for the motion.

The team against the proposition comprised the archaeologist Lord Colin Renfrew of Kaimsthorn FBA; Don Cohn, senior editor of ArtAsiaPacific magazine; and Peter Watson, member of the London Sunday Times’ Insight team of investigative journalists and an art columnist for many years, who has written three exposés of wrongdoing in the art world.

The debate at ART HK 10 in May, “You Don’t Need Great Skill to be a Great Artist,” continued the tradition of using loaded questions or statements to kick off an intelligent debate among peers in front of ever-growing curious audiences.

The most recent event in Hong Kong, “The Internet is Making Us Stupid,” was presented last month at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, confronting questions such as: how do we define “quality of life” in the Internet age?  In what ways does the Internet impact concentration, happiness and real-life social networking? What does the web mean for real innovation and creativity? How does the omnipresence of the Web increase personal liberty in countries such as China, where there is official regulation?

Speakers for the motion included Jeremy O’Grady, editor of London’s The Week magazine, and Thomas Crampton, Asia Pacific director of Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence. Against were Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, and Kaiser Kuo, director of International Communication, Baidu. Joanne Ooi, CEO of Clean Air Network, moderated the debate.

Peel says that all the speakers commit to at least one other speaking engagement in the cities where the debates occur. Wearing her many hats as arts supporter, public-private interlocutor and mother of two, she clearly loves bringing the debates to Hong Kong, filling a need we didn’t know we had, expanding arts education and getting local communities more involved.

Peel has collected some contemporary art during her visits to artists’ studios, galleries and museums across Europe and the US. When asked how she looks at the Chinese art scene, she answers, “Longingly! Although I speak five languages, none of them do me any good in Asia.

“I’m interested in a few Hong Kong artists – Lee Kit, Warren Leung and Tsang Kin-wah – as well as mainland artists Ai Weiwei, Qiu Xiaofei and Zhang Wang,” she says. “More Asian artists need to be included in the international venues because there are some great Chinese artists who are asking big questions that are global. We want to help give them a voice outside the gallery system.

“The Para/Site Friends group raised the funding for the Acconci Studio + Ai Weiwei exhibition and public talks, which was very gratifying,” Peel continues. “Being an art patron gives you the opportunity to meet fascinating individuals and take an interest in doing something good for the community, getting a chance to experience something outside normal work and social circles. Arts patronage goes back to feudal times, so it’s nothing new. Corporations are beginning to align themselves with the art world, too, with Deutsche Bank now sponsoring the Art HK Fair, which brings the message that art is good for business. I can be that intermediary between art and business.”