Since 2009, Ornellaia has donated all the proceeds from its Vendemmia d’Artista charity auctions, overseen by Sotheby’s, in favour of art foundations and museums all over the world. From 2019, the Ornellaia Vendemmia d’Artista project raises funds to support the innovative Mind’s Eye program of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. This program, created by the Guggenheim’s education department, helps individuals who are blind or have low vision experience art at the Guggenheim Museum through all their senses. When all senses are invoked, the possibilities are expanded for making imaginative impressions, emotional connections, and long-lasting memories. The appreciation of art and great wines involves all the senses, and it is this idea that has inspired Ornellaia to support the growth of this particular program.Over the first three years of the collaboration, the donations of Ornellaia have allowed the Guggenheim to increase the Mind’s Eye program’s activities, purchase necessary tools for the development of the program and to cope with the sudden need, due to the pandemic, to transform the program in presence into a virtual experience. The Digital Mind’s Eye programs have successfully reached a growing audience, including participants from all over the world. The program delivered enormous social value at a time of great difficulty by keeping the participant community in touch with art and with each other. Following the new digital trend, the Guggenheim also launched a sensory-focused verbal description guide to the building, titled Mind’s Eye: A Sensory Guide to the Guggenheim New York. Based on verbal description, the heart of the Mind’s Eye program, this audio guide aims to do something truly unique: to describe Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic building as a work of art itself through the voice of well-known New Yorkers.
The funds generated by the Ornellaia Vendemmia d’Artista project will allow the Guggenheim Museum to further develop the program, and ensure that its excellence continues to lead the way in museum programming for people who are blind or have low vision.
