Founded by Tom and Sue Stuart-Smith, the Serge Hill Project is principled on nature’s ability to transform health and wellbeing, and was set up to foster community inclusion through gardening and other forms of creativity. Since the project started a year ago, over 500 children have visited the site and saw the launch of their first Gardening for Health group for people recovering from cancer treatment.
To further support the work of the not-for-profit initiative with schools, community groups and mental health charities, three artists have donated artworks for a special Serge Hill Online Summer Auction. All profits raised from the online auction will go to developing Serge Hill programmes to reach more people, especially those who would otherwise not have access to nature.
Artist donations to the auction
- A green thought: A porcelain vessel with gilded porcelain shards on a gilded aluminium L-shelf by the contemporary artist, potter and author, Edmund de Waal CBE. De Waal is known for his large-scale installations of porcelain vessels often created in response to collections and archives or the history of a particular place. His artworks have been featured in worldwide including The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire; the Musée Nissim de Camondo, Paris; The British Museum, London; The Frick Collection, New York; Museo Ebraico, Venice; Schindler House, Los Angeles; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna and V&A Museum, London.
- Seafan with jewelled, 19th century bone handle in 18 carat gold, diamonds, pearls, sea urchin spine ends and oxidised silver snake chain by Romilly Saumarez Smith OBE. Saumarez Smith was a bookbinder, but began to experiment with metal, creating poetic, one-off pieces of jewellery, often using vintage stones, embedded in gold or silver, which might be granulated, twisted, woven, sewn, heat-treated or oxidised – techniques drawn as much from bookbinding as silversmithing. Ill-health intervened and, no longer able to use her hands, Saumarez Smith gave up making altogether. But in 2009 she met the jeweller Lucie Gledhill and together they found a new way to realise her ideas. She has collaborated with other jewellers since then.
- Factum Foundation Salt cellar: A pewter with blue glass bowl featuring small goats and an ornate lid, was modelled from a drawing by Giulio Romano (c 1545), one of the leading artist architects of the late Renaissance by Adam Lowe OBE. Lowe founded the Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Preservation with the aim of using Factum Arte’s innovative processes and technologies for preservation, education, and the dissemination of cultural heritage. Trained in Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Drawing in Oxford and the RCA London, Lowe worked as an artist throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s, co-founded Pomeroy Purdy Gallery (1987) and curated several exhibitions of contemporary art, before dedicating his life to merging new technologies and craft skills, both the creation of contemporary art (through Factum Arte’s workshops) and the preservation of culture (through Factum Foundation). He has written extensively on the subject of originality, authenticity and preservation.
Also included in the auction is an exclusive group garden tour of The Barn Garden and The Plant Library with Tom and Sue Stuart-Smith, followed by lunch or early evening champagne and canapés.
Bidding for the silent auction is now open and closes at 23:59 BST on Wednesday, the 16th July 2025.
