Karen Whitney jumpstarted an artwork campaign to raise money for Ukraine when she called the Saskatchewan Network for Art Collecting to ask if she could use its auction platform. The project has now gone province-wide and hopes to raise at least $10,000.
“I got the idea that maybe we could gather donated art, and have an auction,” explained Karen Whitney, a member of the Moose Jaw Art Guild. She wanted to do something to help, and as an artist, an auction fundraiser made sense.
However, Whitney wasn’t sure how to do an auction.
She called Jennifer McRorie, the curator at the Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery (MJMAG). McRorie suggested contacting Robin Schlaht at the Saskatchewan Network for Art Collecting (SKNAC).
“Initially, when I talked to him, he was like, ‘OK, who is this person?’” Whitney said. That lasted about a minute – then Schlaht saw the possibilities.
Schlaht, owner and founder of SKNAC, had already been wondering if his platform could do something to contribute to humanitarian relief in Ukraine.
His concern was that a normal auction has about two months of preparation – the consignment call gets sent out six to eight weeks before bidding starts, so people can notice it and have time to transport their art to Regina.
“Our worry was maybe that we wouldn’t have enough time (because) we would want to turn this around quickly,” Schlaht said. “And then when Karen contacted us, we realized that maybe we should work with the guilds and the art clubs and the coops.”
Art groups around the province are numerous and many-themed. Some are for watercolour painters, some are woodcarving groups, some do ceramics, and many accept any art medium.
“When she contacted us, I could see a way for us to pull it together quickly, because we can reach out to those groups and that hadn’t really occurred to me before,” Schlaht said.
The art world of Saskatchewan has been coordinating since then to gather and transport donated art from both artists and collectors.
SKNAC has a large platform with thousands of regular bidders and social media channels with plenty of visibility. With the extra help from art guilds and other groups, everything came together rapidly.
The Moose Jaw Art Guild has already collected 20-30 pieces. Whitney and her husband will be driving 11 or 12 of the larger pieces to Regina on Wednesday.
Schlaht said the project has gone province-wide. Pieces have been donated from artists such as Kathleen Slavin, Marge Jessop, Gerald Jessop, Richard Thatcher, Eve Barbeau, Michael Bromley, Bonnie McBride, Hillary Ryder, Brandi Hofer, Clifford Dubois, and many others. Schlaht estimates that the auction will have around 100 pieces in total.
The goal is to raise at least $10,000.
The deadline to donate art is April 7. The auction will run on the SNAC auction platform from April 13 to May 8, and 100 per cent of the winning bid for each artwork will go to the Canadian Red Cross Ukraine Humanitarian Crisis Appeal.
To donate art before the April 7 deadline, send pictures and details to Robin Schlaht at [email protected]. He can also be contacted by phone at (306) 569-9102.
The SKNAC website at sknac.ca has details on how to participate. Their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts will be posting pictures of the available art as the auction approaches.
