14 new Naked Heart play facilities in 2010!

We are building six full-scale play parks and nine playgrounds this summer, bringing our total number to date to 54 play facilities across Russia.

This year’s play parks are being built on public land in residential areas of: Nizhnaya Salda (Ekaterinburg region), Kemerovo (Kemerovo region), Novoshakhtinsk (Rostov region), Tikhvin (St Petersburg region), Ukhta (Komi republic) and in the Moscow region.

Our most eastern park this year is Kemerovo – not as far east as Ulan Ude last year, but we are nonetheless spanning a considerable chunk of the country again. The play park opening in Niznhaya Salda will mark the town’s 250th anniversary. Nizhnaya Salda was a strategic centre for Soviet space technology and therefore received huge subsidies pre-1991, but since then the town has received little investment. Kemerovo and Novoshakhtinsk are former industrial towns, built around mining; both towns now have high rates of unemployment and we hope that the new play parks we are building will brighten up the townscape and the hearts of the children who will use them. We have also decided to change the traditional ship of our municipal parks to a castle this year, to add a fairytale touch to these play areas.

We are building six playgrounds in orphanages in Kyshtym (Chelyabinsk region), Nizhny Novgorod (Nizhny Novgorod region), Bezhetsk (Tver region), and three in various orphanages of Ekaterinburg (Ekaterinburg region). We are also building one in a rehabilitation center in Arzamas (Nizhny Novgorod region), and behind a church in Saburovo (Moscow region). Although these play areas are smaller than our municipal parks, they provide important play opportunities for the children living in these establishments.

"Three new playgrounds for Ekaterinburg orphanages"

Inspired by the opening of their Ekaterinburg store in April 2009, Louis Vuitton very generously donated €80,000 to Naked Heart to build a play area in the region. We received a number of touching applications from local orphanages and decided to split the money between three locations: an orphanage for children up to four years of age with special needs, cerebral palsy and Down’s syndrome, an orphanage for HIV-positive children up to the age of four, and finally an orphanage for children with special needs from four years onwards. Our facilities in these orphanages have been designed especially to fit the needs and abilities of these children.

The openings of these three facilities will take place in September and are being organised in collaboration with Louis Vuitton.

The Naked Heart Foundation is truly grateful for Louis Vuitton’s on-going generosity to the children who use our play areas, and for the invaluable support they give to the Foundation on an ongoing basis.

"Naked Heart to fund three play parks in the UK"

A portion of funds raised at the London Love Ball is being used towards the construction of three play areas in the UK: in London, Liverpool and Glasgow.

We have joined forces with Groundwork, an ecological regeneration charity that works at a community level throughout Britain. Together we have picked two locations: in London, on the Barnfield Estate, in the borough of Greenwich, and in Liverpool's Southern Neighbourhood Council in Dingle. In London, our funding will go towards the re-development of the dilapidated play area, and in Liverpool our funds will help with construction of an entirely new play area behind the community centre, so that the local children of both projects have a safe and healthy place in which to spend their free time.

In Glasgow, thanks to the Play Practice (a company that designs and supplies imaginative open access play environments in Scotland) we have identified a project in Cambuslang Park in the South Lanarkshire district, where our funding will go towards integrated play equipment for children with additional needs. This project is well-supported by the Friends of Cambuslang Park, a local parent group of children with additional needs, and the local council.

Paris Semi-Marathon

On the 7th March 2010 a team of friends and supporters of the Naked Heart Foundation participated in the Paris semi-marathon, in another very successful effort in fundraising! The bright sunshine and crisp parisian air saw Natalia Vodianova, Dinos Chapman, and a group of nearly 20 runners, including friends and collaborators of the foundation, finish this exciting run through the streets of the capital with very honorable timings. Natalia finished alongside Dinos in a great 2h19min! Thanks to friends of our runners, sponsors, and supporters, this event raised over £40,000 for the Naked Heart Foundation, which is just wonderful news! Thank you to everyone who made this possible, and to everyone's generosity!

Вторник, 9 марта 2010, Полумарафон в Париже

7 марта 2010 команда друзей и единомышленников Фонда "Обнаженные сердца" участвовала в Парижском полумарафоне, и еще одном успешном фандрейзере!

Наталья Водянова еще 20 человек, решивших своим забегом поддержать фонд, успешно преодолели всю дистанцию. Благодаря участникам полумарафона, друзьям и спонсорам мы смогли собрать ￡40,000 ! Спасибо всем, кто сделал это возможным! Спасибо за Вашу поддержку и преданность

Love Ball 2010

Natalia Vodianova and Lucy Yeomans, Editor of Harper's Bazaar, hosted the Love Ball at the Roundhouse on Tuesday 23rd February, raising £1.2 million for The Naked Heart Foundation. We are hugely grateful to Dinos Chapman for his creative direction of the event, to our lead sponsor De Beers and to Louis Vuitton, Gagosian, Harper's Bazaar and Christie's, without whom this event would not have been possible.

It was a great honour to have Yusuf Islam open the evening with Where Do the Children Play? - a song very close to Natalia's heart and to the mission of the Naked Heart Foundation. His performance set the tone for the night - inspiring people to be very generous to the cause of the Naked Heart Foundation during the auction. There were some incredibly special performances by violinist Kristof Barati, Leona Lewis, Paloma Faith and Sharleen Spiteri. Ruby Wax was a highly entertaining compere, and an impromptu speech from Tracey Emin before the sale of her work "With You I Breathe" inspired some very generous bids. Thank you Tracey for your kind words!

Natalia's design collaboration with De Beers - the Magic Moment necklace - created a stir on the night, raising the highest amount at auction - a cool £180,000.

Our final thank you goes to the artists whose works generated the funds that will allow us to continue our work this year, both in Russia and in the UK. Peter Blake's "I Love You" was the star art piece of the night, fetching a staggering £160,000, while Jake and Dinos Chapman's sculpture raised £135,000 - a sum that Tracey Emin declared "an absolute bargain".

A huge thank you to all the artists who have supported us at this year's Love Ball - Jake and Dinos Chapman, Peter Blake, Tracey Emin, Jeff Koons, Francesco Vezzoli, Marc Quinn, Gosha Ostretsov, Pavel Pepperstein, Anselm Reyle and Keith Tyson.

Наталья Водянова и Люси Йоманс, главный редактор британского Harper's Bazaar, провели благотворительный Love Ball, состоявшийся в концертном зале Roundhouse 23 февраля. Событие собрало ￡1, 2 миллиона, которые будут перечислены в Фонд "Обнаженные сердца".

Мы очень благодарны Диносу Чапмэну за его креативное руководство, а также нашим спонсорам De Beers, Louis Vuitton, Gagosian, Harper's Bazzar и Christie's, без поддержки которых, это мероприятие не состоялось бы.

Для нас стало большой честью согласие на участие в мероприятии очень особенного для Фонда "Обнаженные сердца" музыканта - Юсуфа Ислама, который исполнил песню Where Do the Children Play? давно ставшую нашим гимном.

Выступление Юсуфа задало тон всему вечеру и сподвигло наших гостей на проявления благородства и щедрости, в поддержку того, чем вот уже 5 лет занимается Фонд "Обнаженные сердца".

Во время меропрятия также выступии, Леона Льюис, Кристоф Барати, Палома Фейт и Шарлин Спитери. Ведущая вечера Руби Вакс, а также импровизрованная речь Трейси Чапмен, предварившая торги ее работы, представленной на аукционе, помогли привлечь основные пожертвования.

Сотрудничество Натальи Водяновой с компанией De Beers привело к созданию колье "Чудное мгновнье", которое было изготовлено в единственном экземпляре специально для аукциона Love Ball. Этот лот был продан за ￡180,000.

Мы благодарны всем художникам, которые предоставили свои работы, средства от продажи которых, мы сможем направить на строительство игровых объектов в России и в Великобритании. Произведение Питера Блейка "I love you" стало самым успешным лотом и было продано за ￡160,000, в то время как скульпртура Джейка и Диноса Чамена была продана за ￡135,000.

Большое спасибо всем художникам, которые поддержали наш аукцион в этом году - Джейку и Диносу Чапмену, Трейси Эмин, Джефу Кунсу, Франческо Веццоли, Марку Куинну, Гоше Острецову, Павлу пепперштайну, Ансельму Рейлу и Китону Тайсону.

Lutz & Patmos raise $5000 for Naked Heart

Lutz & Patmos called on Natalia Vodianova to be their guest designer in 2009, to collaborate on the creation of a simple, yet luxury dress. The dress itself is very clever, as it is based on a “two-in-one principle” with a large collar that doubles as a strapless bodice when pulled down. Fifty dollars from the sale of each dress have gone to the Naked Heart Foundation. As Natalia says: “It’s a lot of money, even if we only sell 100.” We are very glad to say that the sale of a hundred dresses has raised $5000, which will go towards our 2010 building program.

Our last 2009 opening in Leningrad Region (01.12.09)

We opened our last play park of 2009 in the town of Kingisepp on 29th November. With a population of just over 50,000, Kingisepp is one of the smaller towns we have built it – but the turnout at the play park opening was no less impressive than usual. It was an autumnal day and the park was full of energy with hundreds of children and their parents present until late into the evening. The red ribbon was cut by the town's mayor Viktor Geshele and Asya Zalogina, our Russian Executive Director.