EDITOR’S LETTER
Welcome to The Wick
Dear Culturally Curious,
The National Gallery has announced staff cuts amidst a £8.2 million deficit. A voluntary exit scheme will be initiated as the gallery tackles rising operational costs and reduced spending by visitors impacted by the cost-of-living crisis. Last year the gallery raised £375m in funding for a new £750m wing titled Project Domani. Kengo Kuma and Associates has been awarded the commission which includes a striking roof garden. The books have to balance somewhere.
Meanwhile, Dua Lipa is to curate this year’s London Literature Festival at Southbank Centre. The festival will run from 21 October to 1 November, with Lipa shaping a programme of events across the festival in collaboration with her Service95 book club. It’s a smart partnership. As a reading advocate, Lipa has helped spark global conversations around books and authors. Her platform spotlights established writers and emerging voices, including podcast interviews with Margaret Atwood, George Saunders and Olga Tokarczuk.
Jeff Koons has partnered with Evian for its 200th anniversary campaign 200 years young with a limited-edition glass bottle featuring his iconic balloon puppy in red, blue and pink. The 71-year-old could be the Benjamin Button of the art world.
It’s thirsty work walking the aisles as visitors to PAD Paris and Art Paris will be discovering now. The city of lights is welcoming collectors to the Tuileries ahead of the annual migration to Salone Mobile. In the dream world, how cool to arrive in a Keith Haring art car? A Buick and a Land Rover painted in the decade before his death are going on show at Free Parking, a new West Village gallery by CART Department.
The National Gallery has announced staff cuts amidst a £8.2 million deficit. A voluntary exit scheme will be initiated as the gallery tackles rising operational costs and reduced spending by visitors impacted by the cost-of-living crisis. Last year the gallery raised £375m in funding for a new £750m wing titled Project Domani. Kengo Kuma and Associates has been awarded the commission which includes a striking roof garden. The books have to balance somewhere.
Meanwhile, Dua Lipa is to curate this year’s London Literature Festival at Southbank Centre. The festival will run from 21 October to 1 November, with Lipa shaping a programme of events across the festival in collaboration with her Service95 book club. It’s a smart partnership. As a reading advocate, Lipa has helped spark global conversations around books and authors. Her platform spotlights established writers and emerging voices, including podcast interviews with Margaret Atwood, George Saunders and Olga Tokarczuk.
Jeff Koons has partnered with Evian for its 200th anniversary campaign 200 years young with a limited-edition glass bottle featuring his iconic balloon puppy in red, blue and pink. The 71-year-old could be the Benjamin Button of the art world.
It’s thirsty work walking the aisles as visitors to PAD Paris and Art Paris will be discovering now. The city of lights is welcoming collectors to the Tuileries ahead of the annual migration to Salone Mobile. In the dream world, how cool to arrive in a Keith Haring art car? A Buick and a Land Rover painted in the decade before his death are going on show at Free Parking, a new West Village gallery by CART Department.
Objects of Desire
Object Spring Summer 2026 Jacket (Wool, Beige, Brown & Black) by Chanel
This week we are thinking about what to wear to an art fair or Culturally Curious weekend breaks, and Matthieu Blazy’s first Chanel collection is a very compelling place to start. This jacket, from the Spring Summer 2026 collection, carries the ease and assurance needed for a day drifting between booths, private views and artful conversations. It draws on the enduring appeal of Chanel tweed,with Blazy adding a lighter, more fluid attitude that gives the piece a distinctly modern inflection.
Monday Muse
Interview Award-winning Poet Sophia Thakur on Poetry, Faith, Music and the Power of Language
Spotlight
Spotlight Araminta Blue
Video Interviews
Interview The Wick x The Long Now
Visual Arts
