Yes you’d think wouldn’t you. But there is no actual charity involved and so that’s probably just a moral and financial decision for him. Charity fundraising is strongly regulated with clear requirements on how charitably raised funds must be used. If he’d set up a trust or charity it would be very different, but this is just a private individual selling stuff.
And of course also selling these high value patronage packages as @marymck points out.
Doesn’t look as though he’ll reach the target, but then again he’s not been pushing this locally, he has some 50k international fans of his work to draw upon so who knows.
Hi all, I’m Henrik, the artist himself, here to hopefully iron out a few misperceptions. It was always my intention with my fundraiser to raise enough money to buy the tower so that I can literally give it away. In doing so, the tower would become a place of creativity for 100 artists for the next 100 years, which is approximately what remains of the lease. But as today is the last day of my campaign it is clear that I have failed in my attempts to secure the space for these artists. A few months ago, I was told that the tower was to undergo a a further stage of development and then sold as a luxury apartment. On hearing this news I made the split-second decision to try to secure it so it could become a home and workplace for these artists and their families for years to come. My belief is that this deconsecrated church may have lost its original function, but it does not change the fact that it is still our revered and structural centre and literally the pillar of our community. It should stand for something and be in a two-way conversation with the world and community around it. I truly believe that after living and working in the tower that it still has so much to give. Admittedly, due to insane time-constraints, I had to throw myself at the task of raising the money without understanding every aspect involved. Over the course of the campaign I have had to formulate and then re-formulate the task as I gained new knowledge. I quickly found out for example that my first attempt of selling the metaphorical stones of the building was not an appropriate route to take and was forced to change my approach. What has been very clear from the start though is that, this was always going to be a wild ride, with me working out the details on the fly. Unfortunately it is now clear the fundraiser is not going to work out in my favour, so my plan is to reimburse the better portion of the funds accrued along the way and what remains from my sales I will put to good use, once I’ve regained my breath. As an artist I want to find new ways to challenge the structures and systems that we find ourselves so hopelessly stuck in. The tower would have been a great place to do that, for me and for the generations of artists to come. In fact I believe the greatest piece of art would have been to raise all that money to buy it, to then just to give it away for a good cause. But it wasn’t to be - this time. Stay tuned.
PS! Any questions regarding any of your points of discussion, please just shoot me an email, or better still - come up to the tower for a chat and I’ll give you the grand tour. A film maker has been following me for the past month or so and would be interested to film me having a chat with anybody, especially those who are local and may have a view on my endeavours, negative or positive. I will be here for a couple of weeks still:) For contact details head over to my main site www.delehag.com, where you can also read more about the campaign./H
Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting. It’s certainly an interesting project \ idea and even if it hasn’t turned out how you would have hoped, thank you for trying something different.
I hope the tower manages to survive, whatever it’s next chapter may be, and good luck to you too.
Hi @Henrik_Delehag thanks for clarifying. Is the Church actually deconsecrated or just reordered? I thought Communion still happened in the Chapel? But maybe I’m wrong or maybe the Chapel doesn’t need to be consecrated for that?
The old Christ Church parish merged with St George’s when the old St George’s church was demolished and replaced by a new church. A new chapel was constructed using the upper part of the old Christ Church east end. Services of Holy Communion are (or were before Covid) regularly held in the chapel. So far as I know, there was no formal de- or reconsecration, though I expect the new chapel was blessed.