Project Perpetual, a new philanthropy established to raise money for humanitarian causes by collaborating with artists, has enlisted Jeff Koons to create the first in a series of new works that will be used to raise money for the United Nations Foundation.
Mr. Koons, who is the subject of a retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art that runs through Oct. 19, and who recently created a “virtual sculpture” for Garage magazine, will create one large sculpture and three to five smaller pieces.
A spokeswoman for the project said that Mr. Koons was currently at work on the sculptures, which will be made of materials from luxury handbags donated for the project by Sofia Coppola, Marc Jacobs, Diane von Furstenberg, Almine Ruiz-Picasso and others. The finished sculptures will be auctioned at a dinner at the Four Seasons restaurant in New York on Nov. 9.
The beneficiary of the sale will be the United Nations Foundation’s Shot@Life campaign, which is raising money to fight measles, pneumonia, polio and rotavirus among children. Project Perpetual plans to work with one artist every year to raise money for humanitarian programs around the world. Mr. Koons is the first to take part.
“Art and philanthropy are intertwined because they are both about a way of life,” Mr. Koons said in a statement. “It’s about an understanding of your internal world, your own position and needs and also the external world, the world that’s vaster than your own being. It’s about bringing those two things together. This is a way of really looking at the world and saying, with my means, with my perception and my understanding of joy and pleasure, how can I receive a sense of greater fulfillment in this life through a commitment to helping others?”