The New York Bra Art Auction

The 250 creations on exhibition, decorated and personalized, are on sale to finance the support initiative for women with mammary tumors, sponsored by the university.

There is one for one who feels like Wonder Woman and one for the always late, one for the dream of flying and one from a little mermaid, encrusted in shells and corals. There are nearly 250 and they are among other imaginative and artistic interpretations in the bra exhibition at Adelphi University in New York, ready to be sold at the auction sponsored by the university to finance the psychological support program for women with breast cancer.

The artists called to participate at the “Creative Cups” initiative at Adelphi University were asked to express the hope and fear tied to breast cancer, interpreting it in a work of art with the most seductive intimate clothing. When women have tumor operations on their breasts, it deprives them a part of their femininity and ends up building a difficult relationship between the women and their breasts. However, the creations at the exhibition express these feelings in an ironic and creative way.

All of the pieces arrived at Adelphi University supplied with a description of how much the piece inspired the artist or a dedication to a person that fought breast cancer: among the creations on exhibition, the model “Bronx Bomber,” dedicated to a huge fan of the New York Yankees who survived the disease, was completely covered with baseball cards of old players and of today’s popular team, or the “Armor Bra,” derived from an ancient framework to represent “a metaphor of the continuous battle against the cancer.” “It’s really a light way to celebrate the life of women who survive breast cancer and for those that seek a way to coexist with it, and at the same time to collect funds for our initiatives,” explains Hillary Rutter, the director of the Adelphi Breast Cancer Program.

Today, the program, started in 1980, represents the only psychological counseling service specially created by the university. At the heart of the initiative there are a hundred volunteers, many of whom are breast cancer survivors, who manage a continuously active hotline, with the objective to educate, to support, to strengthen and support patients, professionals and the whole community regarding the psychological challenges tied to breast cancer.