VANCOUVER, BC.- The Vancouver Art Gallery is pleased to announce a partnership with The Estée Lauder Companies’ and will welcome Elizabeth Hurley, Estée Lauder Spokesmodel, to kick off The Estée Lauder Companies’ Breast Cancer Awareness Global Illuminations Initiative, now in its eighth year. On Monday, October 1, 2007 at 6:45 p.m., Vancouver Art Gallery director Kathleen Bartels and Gary Balaski, general manager of Holt Renfrew, will join Elizabeth Hurley to flip the switch to “paint” the exterior of the Vancouver Art Gallery’s historic Georgia Street façade and its fountains in a wash of pink light. The Gallery will join a long list of prestigious international institutions, including the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia and the Empire State Building in New York City, in creating brilliant displays of pink light for the cause.

Since 2000, The Estée Lauder Companies’ Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign’s Global Landmark Illuminations Initiative has illuminated hundreds of world renowned buildings, monuments and landmarks in pink lights to focus attention and spread awareness about breast health and the message that early detection saves lives. The Estée Lauder Companies’ 15th Annual Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign, “Win the Fight Against Breast Cancer,” signifies the importance of bringing people together to fight breast cancer until there is a cure.

“We are extremely pleased to partner with Estée Lauder Companies’ and join signature institutions around the world in this important initiative to raise awareness of breast cancer. It is our great pleasure to fund the illumination of the Gallery and contribute to this significant cause,” said Vancouver Art Gallery director Kathleen Bartels.

Evelyn H. Lauder, Senior Corporate Vice President of The Estée Lauder Companies’, and Founder and Chairman of The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, states that, “A major part of our Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign is to light monuments all over the world during October. The purpose of the Awareness Campaign is to raise awareness and reduce fear in the minds of women. The more a woman knows about her body, the more she knows about her health and the more proactive she is. We want to be sure that no matter where a woman is she can’t get away from the importance of breast self-examinations on a regular basis. The Vancouver Art Gallery, with its colourful and illuminative history of presenting outstanding historical and contemporary art, is one of the most important landmarks in Vancouver. It is a wonderful and meaningful location to kick off our Global Landmark Illumination Initiative this year.”

“Evelyn first asked me to join her in 2000, when we launched the first-ever Global Landmarks Illumination Initiative. We didn’t realize at the time how powerful this program would become. Everywhere I travel, I meet people who are aware of breast cancer because of something someone at a Company counter said to them or because they saw an illumination and decided to get a mammogram. If we help even one person, it’s worth it”, stated Elizabeth Hurley, Estée Lauder Model and Spokesmodel for the Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign.

One of Canada’s leading cultural organizations, the Vancouver Art Gallery is a not-for-profit organization supported by its members; individual donors; corporate funding; foundations; the City of Vancouver the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and Gaming Revenues; the Government of Canada Council for the Arts and the department of Canadian Heritage.

The Estée Lauder Companies’ Inc. is one of the world’s leading manufacturers and marketers of quality skin care, makeup; fragrance and hair care products. Since 1992, the Company has been at the forefront of increasing global awareness of breast cancer. In October 1992, Mrs. Evelyn Lauder and Alexandra Penney, then editor of Self magazine, developed the pink ribbon, which has become the worldwide symbol of breast health. Mrs. Lauder has spearheaded the distribution of more 70 million pink ribbons and “Breast Self-Exam” instruction cards at Estée Lauder Companies’ beauty counters worldwide. The Company has encouraged governments to dedicate a day, a week or the month of October to Breast Cancer Awareness, enlisted support from the world’s First Ladies and facilitated global press coverage by lighting monuments all over the world to stress the importance of early detection and treatment. These combined actions reached over 1.6 billion people in 2006 alone. The Company donates a portion of the proceeds from special product sales to research supported by The Breast Cancer Research Foundation in the United States and abroad, as well as to other breast cancer charities internationally. For more information visit www.elcompanies.com.