THE TEAM
Marie-Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre
Founder and Director
After completing a DEA in Economic and Business Law at the Pantheon Sorbonne, Marie-Laure joined Sciences Po Paris (IEP).
In 2007, she founded with her husband the ML and JF de Clermont-Tonnerre Foundation, aiming to make education accessible to underprivileged children and teenagers. Present in the art world for many years now, this foundation awards a yearly scholarship to a student of the Beaux-Arts de Paris (Prix Agnès B), as well as supporting the Zao Wou Ki foundation and the French Cinémathèque. The foundation also gave scholarships to help students at l’Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne ( EPFL ), built a school for the street Children in India ( Priscilla Children in Mumbai ), offered breakfast for the poorest children in a school in Madagascar (AZE Foundation), and support a thesis in the Physics of the Universe at the Astroparticule and cosmology laboratory in Paris. Since 2018, the foundation is supporting Research program in the Brain Center for a student of the Pr. Idan Segev, University of Jerusalem (BrainCircle).
In 2008, Marie-Laure was elected to the committee of the society of Friends of the Museum of Art and History in Geneva. In 2013 she was elected to the board of the Tokyo Art Club and the Friends of the Palais de Tokyo. The Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain in Paris invited her to become part of their “Vivre en Couleurs” exclusive circle. In September 2019, she was asked by The Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris to be part of their International Committee. That same year, Ralph Rugoff ( Director of the Hayward Gallery and the Venice Biennale 2019) invited her to join the Commissioning Committee of the Hayward Gallery in London.
Since 2015, she founded Spirit Now London, an international group of collectors and supporters of art and culture.Every year, Spirit Now London is supporting an exhibition in London (July 2019: Hicham Berrada’s exhibition in the Project Room at the Hayward Gallery) or pre-commissioned some artworks (Tomas Sáraceno’s exhibition in October 2018 at the Palais de Tokyo). The group is also supporting some institutions in the cultural world.
In another field, in 2012 she published La Médecine Personnalisée (éd.Odile Jacob), after in-depth studies with a team of general practitioners. Two more books followed and over 350,000 copies were sold in France and translated in Lithuania, Romania and Mexico.
Carolina Drago
Manager
Carolina is an Art Historian with experience in art galleries and the consulting business. She graduated from Sotheby's Institute of Art in London with an MA in Art Business publishing a dissertation on the digital transformation of the high-end Design market sector. During her studies she focused on the strategic management of creative enterprises and the digitalisation of the sector.
She is also a contributor for Made in Bed magazine. With a strong contemporary art and design expertise and thanks to her studies and her passion for art and culture, Carolina will be working closely with the founder Marie-Laure to develop exclusive events and foster Spirit Now's community.