The opening gala of OAG’s Give-to-Get Art Auction on Friday painted a very rosy picture of our city’s arts and culture scene as hundreds of art lovers and collectors turned out for a night of bidding, drinking and lively banter.
The signature fundraiser for the Ottawa Art Gallery has become our city’s art party of the year since its inception more than 20 years ago. The benefit event was held in person for the first time in three years and featured more than 95 donated artworks by local artists.
Nobody was more excited about this than the OAG director and CEO Alexandra Badzak. “It’s great to see everyone out here tonight,” she told OBJ.social earlier in the evening. “We’re going to have a full house, and that’s exactly what we were hoping for.”
There was positive energy and excitement in the air. “It feels like there’s a pent-up demand from people who really want to see and feel art,” said OAG’s CEO Markus SchaanDeputy Deputy Minister for Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.
“OAG is really about community in a lot of ways, and while you can do some of that online and the art still looks beautiful, it’s so different when you can actually be among your peers. Artists can meet patrons, patrons can meet artists. You can discuss the art, you can bring your friends.
“It’s really about making those connections, and that’s what the gallery is about.”
At the art auction, which continued with online bidding throughout the weekend, half of the auction proceeds will go back to the artists and the other half will go towards maintaining free public access to the gallery, exhibitions, workshops and artist talks, the ongoing public and educational program. and the care and preservation of the OAG’s collection and opportunities and support for artists and craftspeople from the Ottawa-Gatineau area. Give to Get Art achieved its goal by raising $110,000 from ticket sales and the art auction.
The OAG also hosted a weekend give-to-get art market that transformed the building into an art market.
When selecting pieces for Give to Get Art, organizers looked for artists at different stages of their careers, such as: B. emerging, mid-career and established. They also chose artworks that reflect the diversity of the community, Badzak said. “We’re definitely checking our blinders on who’s out there.”
Sasha SudaDirector and CEO of the National Gallery of Canada was in attendance, as was the outgoing Mayor of Ottawa Jim Watson, who has listed the Ottawa Art Gallery and Arts Court expansion, completed in 2018, as a project he is particularly proud of during his time as mayor. Also seen Andrew Pick, who is about six months into his new role as executive director of the Downtown Rideau BIA, which considers the OAG an important part of its neighborhood. “This is such an incredible hotspot for creativity,” he said.
Peter Tilly was there from The Ottawa Mission, a non-profit organization located in the kitty corner of the OAG. It feeds and shelters the homeless and provides programs and services. His social enterprise, Chef Ric’s, helped host the inaugural gala for OAG, known for offering art therapy classes to The Mission service users.
Don masterPresident and Creative Director of Mediaplus Advertising, and his wife, Lynn Buffonewere among the patrons who attended the annual art auction from the start and even took part in last year’s virtual option (they were winning bidders at a Christopher Griffin Painting).
“I like this event because it supports local art, and quite frankly we’ve decorated a lot of walls in our house with artwork from this event,” said Masters. “We’re running out of space.”
Familiar faces included Lindsay TaubWife of Shopify President Harley Finkelstein, Gallery Director of Studio Sixty Six Carrie Coltonformer television journalists Don Newman and Tom Clark (his wife, Jan Clarkis on the OAG board) and Engel & Völkers real estate agent Sarah Gross, who was among those without power on the seventh day due to the deadly and destructive storm. Urban landscape artist Eryn O’Neillwho had a piece on the show, will begin her masters in architecture at Carleton University’s Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism this fall.
Including artists DonKwan, recently recipient of the Ottawa Arts Council’s Peter Honeywell Mid-Career Artist Award. He was there with his brother EdKwanwho is a performing artist himself as China Doll.
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