The 35th annual Penticton Art Gallery fundraising auction will be more energetic and full of surprises, promises gallery curator Paul Crawford.
“It’s a new venue, we have a new auctioneer and we are trying to add some more fun to the event and change things up a little that way. It will be a night full of surprises,” said Crawford. “The event will be a little more faster paced and should be a lot more lively event than it has been for awhile. The venue itself is pretty intimate so it will have a greater sense of energy about it which is good because we are looking to add a lot more excitement to the night.”
This year’s fundraising event features 100 items in both the live and silent auctions including a collection of specially selected original artwork by regional, national and international artists, fine wines, exotic getaways, an original painting and a private house concert with renowned Canadian musician Mae Moore.
The recording artist was a major label success story, scoring nine top 40 hits, two Juno nominations and two SOCAN Awards for commercial radio play. As an indie artist, she garnered two Canadian Folk Music Award nominations for solo artist of the year and English songwriter of the year.
Moore is a musician, painter and long-time environmentalist who has lived all over Canada and now makes her home on an organic farm and heritage orchard in B.C.’s Gulf Islands. The artist is known for her mature and sophisticated mixture of pop, folk and jazz music.
Crawford said the evening will start off with a tapas dinner from Chef Roger Planiden and feature wines from the Naramata Bench. Then there will be live music and the silent and live auction.
Some of the expected highly-sough after auction items include a guitar that was autographed by John Mellencamp along with signed albums, art from some of the best local painters and a selection of original works by famous international artists such as Daphne Odjig and Sir Peter Blake who designed the Beatles cover for their Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album.
All of the items on the block are on display at the gallery until July 6 or can be found online at www.pentictonartgallery.com.
“This is our most important fundraiser of the year. It certainly is a large part of our annual budget that comes out of this. It seems to be getting harder and harder every year because there is a lot more demand on the community for fundraising from other organizations with government cutbacks and everything else,” said Crawford. “This will go towards all our programming including exhibits and educational programming. We certainly appreciate all the community support and it is incredibly heartening to see all the support we do even with all the demands in the community.”
Tickets for this year’s auction are priced at $75 for gallery members and $85 for non-members. They are available for the Penticton Art Gallery’s 35th annual fundraising auction on July 7 at the Centre of Excellence at Okanagan College or at the Penticton Art Gallery.
In the event you are unable to attend the fundraiser, an absentee bid can be left at the art gallery up to 5 p.m. on July 6.