Girls club: charity auction to benefit Alphabet City Art School programme

Artists and celebrities have come out to support the first charity auction to benefit one year of operational costs at the Alphabet City Art School and its free arts and culture programme, aimed at girls and young women from ages 8 to 23 that come from low-income backgrounds. The Rock Paper Scissors Annual Art Auction, which opens for online bidding today with Paddle8, will take place at The Highline Loft in New York on 30 March, hosted by a line-up of celebrities: the musician Deborah Harry, the fashion designer Cynthia Rowley and the actors Rosario Dawson and Chloë Sevigny. It features works donated by 83 established and emerging artists. Works range from the die-cut print on cardboard Carnival (2006) by the artist collective assume vivid astro focus, estimated at $500, to the oil on linen painting FALSETTO (1997) by the American painter Louise Fishman, estimated at $25,000.