Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Jeff Koons & Waterkeeper Alliance Host ART FOR WATER, 3/5

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., President of Waterkeeper Alliance, and Jeff Koons, Artist Chair hosted Art for Water, an auction benefiting Waterkeeper Alliance, the foremost organization in protecting and preserving clean, drinkable, fishable, and swimmable waterways worldwide, and celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Clean Water Act on Monday, March 5th, 2012 at the Matthew Marks Gallery in New York.

For 30 years Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has been protecting the Hudson in addition to now 200 waterways globally from polluters. Kennedy spoke passionately about our collective need to protect the environment’s infrastructure and to preserve our right to clean water and clean air. And, that bringing art and the environment together is a natural combination, which ignited the benefit, Art for Water.

The artist community rallied around this event and collectively represented more than 80 pieces featuring works by notable artists including Marina Abramovic, Dan Colen, Gregory Crewdson, Willem de Kooning, Olafur Eliasson, Donald Judd, Alex Katz, Jeff Koons, Chuck Close, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Longo, Sarah Morris, Catherine Opie, Raymond Pettibon, Laurie Simmons, Josh Smith and more.

Art for Water also hosted a special performance from Deborah Harry of American rock band Blondie. Guests enjoyed sustainably grown hors d'oeuvres from caterer Mary Cleaver & Co. and Chardonnay wine from the event’s sponsor, The Dreaming Tree wines, as well as an exclusive live and silent auction lead by Courtney Booth of Sotheby’s Auction House.

The Waterkeeper Alliance is the world’s largest and fastest growing clean water advocacy group. The benefit raised $1.2 million to enable Waterkeeper Alliance to continue to fight in communities across the world for their right to clean water. Water is among today's most pressing issues—security and scarcity, energy and climate change, and the cause and spread of infectious disease.

Waterkeeper Alliance is on the front lines protecting that resource and unites Waterkeepers who patrol and protect rivers, bays, lakes and streams on six continents—more than 1.6 million square feet of waterways—in boats ranging in size from kayaks to research vessels. Waterkeeper Alliance is the leading voice for the world’s waters with roots dating back to 1966, when a concerned group of commercial and recreation fishermen mobilized to reclaim the Hudson River from polluters. Their tough, hands on, community oriented brand of environmental activism and miraculous recovery of the Hudson inspired 200 other individuals and organizations to launch Waterkeepers from the Mississippi to the Amazon to the Tigris to the Ganges and across the globe to fight in their communities for the right to have swimmable, drinkable and fishable water.

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