SmART Gallery charity art sale organiser Jo Dalgleish
AS many as 140 artists will be taking part in the fundraising SmART Gallery art sale on Sunday, August 30 from 11am to 2.30pm in South Bank, York.
Pictures at this outdoor art gallery will be displayed on the York Racecourse fence that runs from Campleshon Road along Racecourse Road.
“It’s a totally inclusive art gallery, created by the community, for the community, all to raise money for two great charitable causes: our voluntary work in Sierra Leone and the Christmas Crisis appeal,” says SmART organiser Jo Dalgleish.
“The idea is that we produce homemade canvases, sell them blank for £10, then ask the artist to donate them back to SmART for the gallery. On the opening day we’ll have live music, stalls, a cafe and a grand sealed bid auction of all the paintings.
“All money raised on the day goes to charity. All the paintings that are not sold will remain on the fence for the year as an outdoor art gallery for the community to enjoy.”
Among the artists contributing artworks will be Yohanna, a ten-year-old refugee from Ethiopia; Tadcaster artist Beth Elsdon; Di Wood, Jo’s friend from her York schooldays, who now lives Inverness, from where she will post her canvas to Jo, and part-time artist Sally Ellen Barlow, who has exhibited for six years and has had a piece licensed and sold globally by IKEA.
Jo’s two-year-old grandson, Oskar Carlyle, has created his first canvas entitled Wisteria, after watching his Great Grandad’s creeper being pruned while on holiday in France. By way of contrast, probably the oldest participant is Tessa Bailey, who has just retired as an artist at the age of 80.
The Huntington Art Group of professional and amateur artists, Caroline, Julia, Kevin, Jackie, Maureen, Linda and Steve, will be exhibiting for the second year.
“On show too will be works by Leah, Aggie, Rose and Maddie, four girls at college wanting to be paramedics or midwives, who all want to join our group going to do voluntary work in Sierra Leone next Easter,” says Jo.
“Part-time artist Nick Clapham got involved because his sister has been going to Sierra Leone for years as she helped set up the Sierra Leone National Railway Museum! Nick gets many of his friends and families involved and drives over to York to deliver everybody’s canvases.”
Jo continues: “A number of young people and staff from Lord Gowthorpe’s Independent School for young people with autism, where I work, will be exhibiting too.
“Angela Atkin had never painted canvases before the beginning of the SmART Gallery, but, living on Knavesmire Crescent, she wanted to support the event during Covid, so she learnt how to paint and now exhibits every year, along with getting all her family involved.”
Contributing too will be Bob Anderton, a well respected and long-time York artist, who, among other credits, was instrumental in the restoration of the Holgate Windmill, in Windmill Rise, York.
Look out for a work by Tim Blake, Jo’s brother, who was born in York but now lives in London and works as an art director and production designer, latterly on the films Shelter and Hamnet.