Six summery ways to give it

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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Relive a legendary Lionel Messi header for Unicef

Out of more than 800 goals scored in Lionel Messi’s professional career, the header in the Champions League final against Manchester United is the footballer’s favourite. The 2009 goal, which secured Messi’s first of four Champions League titles while playing for FC Barcelona, is now being immortalised as an immersive artwork for a fundraising project for the Inter Miami CF Foundation, a not-for-profit aimed at youth empowerment. Turkish-American media artist Refik Anadol has used original Uefa footage, motion tracking and AI technology to create an energetic video installation that will be auctioned by Christie’s later this month. Proceeds will go to various charitable initiatives, including the Foundation’s partnership Unicef education programmes in Latin America and the Caribbean. Until then, the piece is on public view at Christie’s New York.

Watermelon prints support Palestinian health workers 

The watermelon has been a symbol for Palestine since the late 1960s, when it was illegal to fly the Palestinian flag in Gaza or the West Bank. The fruit, which bears the territory’s colours of green, red, white and black, is still used to show solidarity with the Palestinian people’s struggle, whether in emoji form or – in the case of artist Alex Booker – in handmade woodcut prints. Booker’s nine limited-edition Watermelon designs (£100 each) are available from They Made This, which will donate 50 per cent of profits to Health Workers 4 Palestine, a grassroots organisation campaigning for the protection of the Palestinian healthcare system.

Glenn Ligon, George Condo, Issy Wood and more unite for Aspen Art Museum

The Aspen Art Museum’s annual ArtCrush fundraiser returns this month with live and online auctions featuring a Cubist-style George Condo portrait, a painting of a suit of armour by artist and musician Issy Wood and a work from Glenn Ligon’s Stranger Study series, which is inspired by James Baldwin’s 1955 essay on being the first Black man to arrive in a Swiss mountain village. All proceeds will be split between the museum and the artists. The design offering of this year’s edition, meanwhile, spans an Anni Albers rug, Bouroullec glassware and Martino Gamper mirrors.

La DoubleJ capsule collection to fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria

Italian fashion label La DoubleJ is known for its exuberant prints and expansive range of colours, but its latest capsule collection focuses solely on red. The colour scheme is in honour of (RED), a fundraising organisation tackling the Aids, tuberculosis and malaria epidemics; all profits from the collection will support its initiatives worldwide. Highlights include a floral shirt (£590) and shorts (£390), as well as a summery square foulard scarf crafted from Lake Como silk twill (£90).

Thousands of flower sculptures fund wildlife conservation 

This summer, almost 5,000 flower sculptures have been installed in the grounds of Jersey Zoo. Artist Stuart Semple has crafted chrysanthemums, freesias and crocuses – all favourite varieties of the late British naturalist Gerald Durrell – from renewable materials and glow-in-the-dark paint to mark what would have been Durrell’s 100th birthday. Pre-orders are now open for flowers or bouquets (from £25) from the installation, which will be delivered after the project’s conclusion in September. All proceeds will go to the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, which manages the zoo as well as rewilding programmes around the world.

Hand-knotted carpets uplift Afghan artisans

Turquoise Mountain is an NGO helping artisans across the Middle East and Asia to preserve their craft practices and local heritage buildings. Its latest project is a collaboration between designer Maryam Omar and the women weavers of Afghanistan’s Bamiyan valley, who have created 14 hand-knotted carpets inspired by traditional weaving poems and their surrounding rocky landscape. The rugs will be installed in a selling exhibition at Sotheby’s Bond Street later this month, providing an international platform for their makers to profit from their skills. A follow-up exhibition at the Unesco Cultural Centre in Bamiyan is scheduled for September.