Venus Williams Is Working to Preserve Nina Simone’s Childhood Home

In 2017, four artists—Adam Pendleton, Rashid Johnson, Julie Mehretu, and Ellen Gallagher—purchased the childhood home of Nina Simone in Tyron, North Carolina. Now, Pendleton is teaming up with tennis star Venus Williams to fundraise for the restoration of Simone's home, and help preserve the legacy of the singer-songwriter and civil rights activist.

Pendleton and Williams are set to co-curate a benefit auction for the Nina Simone Childhood Home preservation project. The auction will be conducted online by Sotheby's, ahead of a gala at Pace Gallery.

"I’m so excited to be a part of this expansive project centering on the life and legacy of Nina Simone, who has been a huge inspiration for so many," Williams said. "Each of the artists Adam and I have selected for the auction has a unique, powerful voice, and we’ve been moved by their generosity and enthusiasm for this important cause. It’s been a privilege to collaborate with Adam in curating the auction."

Pendleton added, "Nina Simone is one of the most important musical artists of the twentieth century. I’m inspired to be able to protect her legacy by preserving her childhood home. Her music, her vision, cannot be forgotten."

Simone, born Eunice Waymon in Tryon in 1933, spent the first 17 years of her life in the 650-square-foot house. Proceeds from the auction and the gala will support the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, an organization that works to preserve African American historic sites. They are working alongside the artists who purchased Simone's home, and the Nina Simone Project, World Monuments Fund, and North Carolina African American Heritage Commission, to fully restore her house.

"Nina Simone’s childhood home provides a lens into the contours of her life growing up in the Jim Crow South," Brent Leggs, the Executive Director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, said in a statement. "Our partnership with the artists, Venus Williams, and Pace Gallery is a powerful demonstration of how art and preservation practice can join forces to permanently preserve Simone’s remarkable legacy. Together, we will secure the home’s future and inspire a new generation of diverse leaders who will memorialize the places where Black history happened."

You Might Also Like

• 12 Weekend Getaway Spas For Every Type of Occasion

• 13 Beauty Tools to Up Your At-Home Facial Game