By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON November 28, 2011 That Art in Action studio tour held the first weekend in November – they made some money and the turnout at the individual studios was very good. Total sales at the 8 studios totaled more than $12,000. Which is very good – because we saw a very nice, small painting being sold to a young lady for $40.00 – would have been priced at about $100.+ in Toronto.
The number of visitors to all the studios seemed a little low (they reported 480), based on our experience – we covered all eight locations and took in the Burlington Art Centre Wearable Art show as well.
The artists are happy and setting out to put out the Call for Submissions for the next show. The Call will be open from January to March 16th – forms will be available on the web site: at www.artinaction.ca
Don Graves, on the right, showing a canvas to a perspective buyer (she bought) will head up the Art Discussions program for the Art in Action crowd.
In June the artists will hold a Silent Auction and then as fall of 2012 rolls around they will announce their Pre-Tour and Gallery Show.
Also on the agenda for this group is an Art Scholarship offering to each High school graduating class in the community. The artisans hope to finalize this before the end of June. Darlene Throop is the point person on the art scholarship initiative. She can be reached at (darlene.throop@gmail.com)
Art in Action Discussion Sessions on subjects such as; the best way to photograph your art for promotion; How to entice a patron and the tax implications to both the artist and the patron, and how to best secure an on-line presence; applying for grants, and what is actually available, are parts of this program. This will be headed up by Don Graves (d.graves@cogeco.ca).
Also on the agenda for the Art in Action people is some jabber, jabber with people at city hall about the fees they were charged to hold the Studio Tours. Someone at city hall appears to have experienced a brain wave and charged the artists $65. Per day for each of the eight locations – which took a little more than $1000. out of their coffers.
The artists got lumped in with the people who go door-to-door selling aluminum siding and magazines. There are reported to be more than one council member, who wants to see this little bit of regulation done away with.
