Dunhill Extends Its Frieze Masters Partnership

LONDON — A longtime supporter of British arts and culture events, Dunhill has revealed it will extend its partnership with Frieze Masters until 2026.

The sponsorship extends to Frieze Masters Talks, providing a platform for acclaimed aesthetes, artists, writers, museum curators and directors to discuss everything from rarefied masterpieces to the art world’s future.

More from WWD

This year’s Frieze Masters Talks will run from Oct. 9 to 13 in the Dunhill lounge, designed in collaboration with Studio Boum.

The London art fair, which takes place in Regent’s Park every October, revived the program last year for the first time since 2019 with the luxury English house’s support.

Speakers included multidisciplinary maven Sarah Lucas, the Met’s Chair Emerita Sheena Wastaff, contemporary artist Thomas J. Price and the inaugural director of V&A East Dr. Gus Casely-Hayford.

Dr. Gus Casely-Hayford and Thomas J. Price at last year's Frieze Masters Talks.
Dr. Gus Casely-Hayford and Thomas J. Price at last year’s Frieze Masters Talks.

Since his inaugural collection, Dunhill’s creative director Simon Holloway has riffed on British art to inspire his collections.

His first collection was staged in the National Portrait Gallery’s Duveen Wing, which the designer said had been addressing “the problematic history that exists in the country” without losing its historical or aesthetic value.

London counts itself as the second-largest art market in the world, bigger than the entire west of Europe combined.

“Culture is in the DNA of London. It’s the reason that four out of five people tell us they come here. One in every six jobs is a creative one, and it’s worth nearly 60 billion pounds to our economy,” Justine Simons, deputy mayor for culture and the creative industries, told WWD at last year’s Frieze London.

Best of WWD